aiunt, quia alias non essct omniscius : cum potius, ideo ilia determinate futura non coucipiat, quia est omniscius." — Crell. de Vera Relig. lib. i. cap. xxiv. p. 201.
* " Nam si omnia futura, qualiacunque sunt, Deo ab omni octernitate determinate cognita fuisse contendas ; nocesse est statuerc omnia necessario fieri, ac futui-a esse. Unde sequitur, nullam esse, aut fuisse unquam, humanse voluntatis libertatem, ac porro nee religionem." — Idem ibid, p. 202. Smalcius Eefut. Thes. Franz, disput. 1. de Triuitat. p. 3, disput. 12, de Caus. Pcccat. p. 428, 429, etc., 435.
118 VINDICI^ EVANGELICiE.
that he repenteth, altereth and changeth his mind to and fro ; but of his knowledge or foreknowledge of things, whether he have any such thing or not, there is not the least intimation, unless it be in this, that if he had any such foreknowledge, he need not put himself to so much trouble and vexation, nor so change and alter his mind, as he doth. And with such figments as these (through the infinite, wise, and good providence of God, punishing the wantonness of the minds and lives of men, by giving them up to strong delusions and vain imaginations, in the darkness of their foolish hearts, 2 Thess. ii. 10-12, so far as to change the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of a corruptible, weak, ignorant, sinful man, Rom. i. 23), are we now to deal.
But let the places themselves be considered. To these heads they may be referred: — 1. Such as ascribe unto God fear and being afraid. Deut. xxxii. 26, 27; Exod. xiii. 17; Gen. iii. 22, 23, are of this sort. 2. Repentance, 1 Sam. xv. 10, 11, ult. 8. Change, or alteration of mind, Num. xiv. 27, 30; 1 Sam. ii. 30. 4. Expectation whether a thing will answer his desire or no, Isa. v. 4. Conjecturing, Jer. xxxvi. ] -3 ; Ezek, xii. 1—3. 5. Trying of experiments. Judges iii. 1,4; Dan. xii. 10; 2 Chron. xxxii. 31. From all which and the like it may, by Mr B/s direction and help, be thus gathered : " If God be afraid of what is to come to pass, and repenteth him of what he hath done when he finds it not to answer his expectation ; if he sits divin- ing and conjecturing at events, being often deceived therein, and therefore tries and makes experiments that he may be informed of the true state of things : then certainly he knows not the free ac- tions of men, that are not yet come to pass." The antecedent Mr B. hath proved undeniably from ten texts of Scripture, and doubtless the consequent is easily to be gathered by any of his disciples. Doubt- less it is high time that the old, musty catechisms of prejudicate persons, who scarce so much as once consulted with the Scriptures in their composures, as being more engaged into factions, were re- moved out of the way and burned, that this " mere Christian'' may have liberty to bless the growing generation with such notions of God as the idolatrous Pagans of old would have scorned to have received.
But do not the Scriptures ascribe all the particulars mentioned unto God ? Can you blame Mr B. without reflection on them ? If only what the Scripture affirms in the letter, and not the sense wherein and the manner how it affirms it (which considerations are allowed to all the writings and speakings of the sons of men) is to be considered, the end seeming to be aimed at in such undertakings as this of Mr B., namely, to induce the atheistical spirits of the sons of men to a contempt and scorn of them and their authority, will pro- bably be sooner attained than by the efficacy of any one engine raised against them in the world besides.
OF god's PEESCIENCE OB FOREKNOWLEDGE. 119
As to the matter under consideration, I have some few things in general to propose to Mr B., and then I shall descend to the particu- lars insisted on: —
First, then, I desire to know whether the things mentioned, as fear, grief, repentance, trouble, conjecturings, making trials of men for his own information, are ascrihed properly to God as they are unto men, or tropically and figuratively, with a condescension to us, to ex- press the things spoken of, and not to describe the nature of God.^ If the first be said, namely, that these things are ascribed properly to God, and really signify of him the things in us intended in them, then to what hath been spoken in the consideration taken of the foregoing query, I shall freely add, for mine own part, I will not own nor wor- ship him for my God who is truly and properly afraid of what all the men in the world either will or can do; who doth, can do, or hath done any thing, or suffered any thing to be done, of which he doth or can truly and properly repent himself, with sorrow and grief for his mis- take; or that sits in heaven divining and conjecturing at what men will do here below : and do know that he whom I serve in my spirit will famish and starve all such gods out of the world. But of this before. If these things are ascribed to God figuratively and improperly, dis- covering the kind of his works and dispensations, not his own nature or property, I would fain know what inference can be made or con- clusion drawn from such expressions, directly calling for a figurative interpretation ? For instance, if God be said to repent that he had done such a thing, because such and such things are come to pass thereupon, if this repentance in God be not properly ascribed to him (as by Mr B.'s own rule it is not), but denotes only an alteration and change in the works that outwardly are of him, in an orderly subser- viency to the immutable purpose of his will, what can thence be gathered to prove that God foreseeth not the free actions of men ? And this is the issue of Mr B.'s confirmation of the thesis couched in his query insisted on from the Scriptures.