The proposure of a question to succeed in the room of that remov- ed, with a scriptural resolution thereof, in order to a discovery of what God himself hath revealed concerning his knowledge of all things, is the next part of our employment. Thus, then, it may be framed : —
Ques. Doth not God know all things, whether past, pi^esent, or to
• Horn. Iliad. Rhapsod. n. ver. 431, etc. : —
T«u; Si ihuv iXinri Kpovou -ra?; dyxuXo/u.^^ria. "Hj>-/iv Se 'Tpoirlii-ri .... il fioi lyuy, on fioi ^apTTnoivit, iplXTCCTOv olvbfuv, t/loip iiTTo lIxTpoKXoia MivoiTiaoai) da.f/.riva,i\
» Horn. Iliad. Rhapsod. E. ver. 859, etc. : —
0 S' iQpapi^i ^aXxtos "Apn;,
Ocnrov t iwia^iXm I'n'ia^ov, h oixci^iXoi
AvlpiS £V •TtoXifyl.M .... xa.6iZ,iT0, ^vf/,ov dx,ivuif
AiT^iv a a//.SpiiTov oLtfi-a, xarappiov l^ UTiiXTts, Ka/ p oXo(pvfofAivos, X. T. /C. ' Horn. Iliad. Rhapsod. A. in princip.
OF god's prescience oh FOREKNOWL'EDGE. 125
come, all the ways and actions of men, even before their accomplish- ment, or is any thing hid from him 1 What says the Scripture properly and directly hereunto ?
Ans. " God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things/'
1 John iii. 20. " Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do," Heb. iv. 18. "The Lord is a God of know- ledge," 1 Sam. ii. 3. " Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up- rising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether," Ps. cxxxix. 2-4. "Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite," Ps. cxlvii. 5. " Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him ? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding?" Isa. xl. 13, 14. " There is no search- ing of his understanding," verse 28. Rom. xi. 36, " Of him are all things;" and, " Known unto God are all his works from the begin- ning of the world," Acts xv. 18, etc.
Of the undenial)le evidence and conviction of God's prescience or foreknowledge of future contingents, from his prediction of their coming to pass, with other demonstrations of the truth under con- sideration, attended with their several testimonies from Scripture, the close of this discourse will give a farther account.
It remains only that, according to the way and method formerly insisted on, I give some farther account of the perfection of God pleaded for, with the arguments wherewith it is farther evidenced to us, and so to proceed to what followeth : —
1. That knowledge is proper to God, the testimony of the Scrip- ture unto the excellency and perfection of the thing itself doth suf- ficiently evince.^ " I cannot tell," says the apostle : "God knoweth,"
2 Cor. xii. 2, 3. It is the general voice of nature, upon relation of
any thing that to us is hid and unknown, that the apostle there
makes mention of : " God knoweth." That he knoweth the things
that are past, Mr B. doth not question. That at least also some
things that are present, yea some thoughts of our hearts, are known
to him, he doth not deny. It is not my intendment to engage in
any curious scholastical discourse about the understanding, science,
1 " IntcUcctio secundum se ejus est, quod secundum se optimum est." — Julius Petro- nellus, lib. iii. cap. iv. ex Arist. Metaph. lib. xii. cap. vii. "Sed etintellectum duplicem video ; alter enim intelligcre potest, quamvis uon intelligat, alter etiam intelligit qui tamen nondum est pcrfectus, nisi ct semper intelligat, et omnia; et ille demum absolutissimus futurus sit, qui et semper, et omnia, et simul intelligat." — Maxim. TyriuR, dissert. 1.
" Uno mentis cemit in ictu Qua3 sint, qute fuerint, veniantque." — ^Boeth.
126 VINDICI^ EVANGELIC^.
knowledge, or wisdom of God, nor of the way of God's knowing things in and by his own essence, through simple intuition. That which directly is opposed is his knowledge of our free actions, which, in respect of their second and mediate causes, may or may not be. This, therefore, I shall briefly explain, and confirm the truth of it by Scripture testimonies and arguments from right reason, not to be evaded without making head against all God's infinite perfections, having already demonstrated that all that which is insisted on by Mr B. to oppose it is spoken metaphorically and improperly of God.
That God doth foresee all future things was amongst mere Pagans so acknowledged as to be looked on as a common notion of mankind.^ So Xenophon tells us, " That both Grecians and barbarians consented in this, that the gods knew all things, present and to come.'' ^ And it may be worth our observation, that whereas Crellius, one of the most learned of this gentleman's masters, distinguisheth between i(s6[Mivoi. and (itXkmra, affirming that God knows ra l6(>{ii)ia, which, tiiough future, are necessarily so, yet he knows not ra [liXkovra, which are only, says he, likely so to be.^ Xenophon plainly affirms that all nations consent that he knows za [isKkovra. "And this know- ledge of his," saith that great philosopher, " is the foundation of the prayers and supplications of men for the obtaining of good or the avoiding of evil." Now, that one calling himself a " mere Christian" should oppose a perfection of God that a mere Pagan affirms all the world to acknowledge to be in him would seem somewhat strange, but that we know all things do not answer or make good the names whereby they are called.