[2.] When the legal conscience condemneth us, we must seek our peace in the evangelical conscience. Now the evangelical conscience reflecteth on what Christ hath done for us, and wrought in us. Christ hath shed his blood for sinners : Heb. ix. 14, ' How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works, to serve the living God ? ' and Heb. xii. 24, ' And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel' But that is not all, there is something also wrought in us, and is ' the answer of a good conscience towards God/ 1 Peter iii. 21.
SERMON XXVI.
And knoiueth all things. — 1 John iii. 20.
DocT. That God exactly and perfectly knoweth all things that are in the world, and is more especially privy to the hearts and ways of men.
Of this the context speaketh. God hath a greater and more certain knowledge of what we do than our own consciences.
Let me inquire here into — (1.) The properties of God's knowledge ; (2.) The reasons ; (3.) How this doctrine is entertained by men ; (4.) What use we should make of it ourselves.
First, What God's knowledge is. Exactly to state it is above the reach of man ; this knowledge is too wonderful for us, Ps. cxxxix. 6, far above our capacity to understand the nature of it. But for our }>ro{it, somewhat of it is revealed to us in the scripture ; therefore I shall give you the properties of it.
1. For the object to which it is extended, it is universal ; the text saith ' all things ' are known by him. But especially it relateth to man, all things in man.
Let us a little consider the modifications of this object.
[1.] Things good and evil : Prov. xv. 3, ' The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.' For good things there is no doubt, for he is the author of them ; for evil things, God is not the author of them, but the judge and punisher, and therefore knoweth them also. Take another distinction of the object ; things great and small. It was the corrupt theology of the gentiles, JDii magna curant, parva negligunt. One of the wisest heathens comparcth him to the
VeU. 20.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 175
Pertiian monarchs, wlio minded the great affairs of the provinces, but left other things to the satraps or vicegerents. But we are taught better divinity in the scriptures, that small things are put under the providence of God as well as great ; that a sparrow (though two of them are sold for a farthing) falleth not to the ground without our heavenly Father, Mat. x. 30. It was no dishonour to God to make them, nor is it so to preserve them and look after them. Again, God knoweth not only things necessary, but contingent ; things necessary, or sucli as depend upon the stated courses of nature, as the succession of winter and summer, day and night, the revolutions of the heavens ; he hath appointed to them a law and a decree beyond which they cannot pass, Ps. cxlviii. 7. But also things contingent, as depend upon the will of man, or the casual fortuitous motion of the creature. Christ could foretell they should meet a man in the city, and bids them to follow him, and keep the passover in his house, Luke xxii. 10. And he told Nathanael what he said, and where, John i. 48. And often told the Jews and his disciples what they thought : Mat. ix. 4, ' Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why think ye evil in your hearts?' He knew what Paul did in such a city, such a street, such a house, at such a time, Acts ix. 11. In short, nothing more casual than a lot : Prov. xvi. 33, ' The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing of it is of the Lord;' he knows how the lot will fall. Once more, he knows things past, present, and to come. Past ; no oblivion can fall upon God ; a thousand years are to him as one day, Ps. xc. 4. We forget many of our actions, but God forgets them not. All things present are known to him, for he sus- taineth and guideth them in their motions, and they subsist no longer than he pleaseth : 2 Chron. xvi. 9, ' The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth.' The sun is an emblem and representation of his knowledge : Ps. xix. 6, * There is nothing hid from the heat thereof.' If the sun were an eye, it would see all things it shineth upon ; only the sun cannot pierce through dark and thick bodies. But God is over all, and through all, and in all, the great eye of the world. Man's knowledge is limited and confined to a few things, that fall within the cognisance of the time and place wherein he liveth ; but God seeth and knoweth all things. Things to come, which are wholly out of the reach of man's discovery : Jer. i, 5, ' Before thou wert framed in the womb, I knew thee.' God's foresight is more clear than our sight, and the substance of things does not give us a better know- ledge of them than God's prescience doth to him : Isa. xli. 23, 'Show the things to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods.' He challengeth all the world to be able to foretell future contingencies. Once more, God knoweth all things that shall be, and might have been. All things that shall be: Acts xv. 18, 'AH his works are Icnown to God from the beginning of the world.' Past, present, ;irid to come, make no difference in the understanding of God; idi- from the mount of eternity he hath a prospect of all things, as if they were now in being. That place is brought to prove that (iod did not begin then to take to himself a people from among the gentiles, but had from all eternity determined to do so. God, that doth all things in time, knew all these things before all time, otherwise l>is knowledge were neither eternal nor infinite. Things are because