2. God's knowledge is pure. It is not contaminated with the object. Divina na- tura non est immista rebus aut sordtbus inqui- nata, Auo. Though God knows sin, yet it is to hate and punish it. No evil can mix or incorporate with his knowledge, no more than the sun can be defiled with the vapours which arise from the earth.
3. God's knowledge is facile ; it is with- out any difficulty. We study and search for knowledge : Prov. ii. 4 , "If thou seek- est for her as for silver." But the lamp of God's knowledge is so infinitely bright, that all things are intelligible to him.
4. God's knowledge is infallible ; there is no mistake in his knowledge. Human knowledge is subject to error and misj)ri- sion. A physician may mistake the cause of a disease ; but God's knowledge is un- erring ; he can neither deceive, nor be de- ceived ; he cannot deceive, because he is truth ; nor be deceived, because he is wis- dom.
5. God's knowledge is instantaneous ;
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OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.
our knowledge is successive, one thing af- ter another. We argue from the effect to tlie cause ; God knows things past, present, and to come, uno intuito^ at once : they are all before hiui in one entire prospect.
(1.) God's knowledge is retentive; he never loseth any of his knowledge ; he hath reminiscentia, as well as intelligentla, — he remembers as well as understands. Many things elapse out of our minds, but God's knowledge is eternized. Things transact- ed a thousand years ago, are as fresh to him, as they were done but the last mi- nute. Thus he is perfect in knowledge.
On J. But is it not said. Gen. xviii. 21., ' / will go clown and see whe.ther they have done according to the cry which is come up unto me, and I will know T
A. It could not be a nesciency, or that Cjod was ignorant ; because there is men- tion made of a cry ; but the Lord speaks there after the manner of a judge, who will first examine the cause before he passeth the sentence. God, when he is upon a work of justice, is not in a riot, as if he did not care where he hits ; but he goes in a way of circuit against oifenders. He " lays judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet," Isa. xxviii. 17.
Ob J. Hos. xiii. 12. TAe iniquity of Eph- raim is bound up, their sin is hid ?
A. Not that his sin was hid from God, but his sin is hid, that is, it is recorded, it is laid up against a day of reckoning. That this is the meaning, is clear by the forego- ing words, his iniquity is bound up : as the clerk of the assizes binds up the indict- ments of malefactors in a bundle, and at the assizes, brings out the indictments and reads them in court, so God binds up men's sins in a bundle, and, at the day of judgment, this bundle shall be opened, and all their sins brought to light before men and angels.
That God is thus infinite in his know- ledge. 1. It cannot but be so ; for he, who is the original cause, and gives a being to things, must needs have a clear inspection into them, Ps. xciv. 9., " He that planted the car, shall he not hear ? He that formed the eye, shall he not sec ?" He who makes a watcli or engine, knows all the workman- ship iu it. God, that made the heart, knows
all the motions and fallacies of it : He is like Ezekiel's wheels, full of eyes, and, as Austin saith, " totus oculus," — ' All eye.' 2. It ought to be so ; for he is to be " Judge of all the world," Gen. xviii. 25. There are so many causes to be brought before him, and so many persons to be tried, that he must have a most exquisite perfect know- ledge, or he could not do justice. An or- dinary judge cannot proceed without a jury, — the jury must search the cause, and give in the verdict, — but God can judge without a jury. He knows all things in and of himself, and needs no witnesses to inform him. A judge judgeth only matters of fact, but God judgeth the heart. He not only judgeth wicked actions, but wicked designs. He sees the treason of the heart, and pu- nisheth it.