44                                         OF THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD.                                                          Book I.

nations, and their settlement in the world; with various
other occurrences to be met with only in the Bible, in-
spired by God; which, as it is the most ancient, so the
truest and best history in the world: nothing that has
been can escape the knowledge of God, nor slip out of
his mind and memory; oblivion cannot be ascribed to
him; could he forget past facts, or they be lost to him,
how could every thing, open or secret, be brought into
account, at the day of judgment, as it will ? Eccles. xii.
14. Forgetting the sins of his people, and remembering
them no more, are attributed to him after the manner of
men; who,, when they forgive one another, do, or should,
forget offences. God sees and knows all things present;
all are naked and open to him, he sees all in one view; all
that is done everywhere; as he must, since he is present
in all places; and all live, and move, and have their being
in him. He knows all things future, all that. will be,
because he has. determined they shall be; it is his will
that gives futurition to them, and therefore he must cer-
tainly know what he wills shall be: and this is another
proof of Deity wanting in heathen idols, Isa. xh. 22,
and xliv. 7. and xlvi. 10. And this is what is called
Prescience or Forelcnowledge; and of which Tertul-
lian {4}, many hundreds of years ago, observed, that there
were as many witnesses of it as there are prophets; and
I may add, as there are prophecies; for all prophecy. is
founded on God's foreknowledge and predetermination
of things; and of tiffs there are numerous instances; as
of the Israelites being in a strange land four hundred
years, and then coming out with great substance, Gen.
xv. 13, 14. of their seventy years captivity in Babylon,
and deliverance from thence at the end of that time,
Jer. xxix. 10. with many other things relating to that
people, and other nations; the prophecies of Daniel,
concerning the four monarchies; the predictions of the
Old Testament, concerning the incarnation of Christ, his
sufferings, death, resurrection, ascension, and session at
God's right-hand. And what is the book of the Revela-
tion but a prophecy, and so a proof of God's foreknow-
ledge of future events, which should be in the church and
world, from the times of Christ to the end of the world?
and this prescience, or foreknowledge of God, is not only
of the effects of necessary causes, which necessarily will
be, unless prevented by something extraordinary; and of
which men themselves may have knowledge; as that
things ponderous will fall downwards, and light things
move upwards.; and that fire put to combustible matter
will burn; but of things contingent, which, as to their
nature, may or may not be, and which even depend upon
the wills of men; and which, with respect to second
causes, are hap and chance. Indeed, with respect to
God, there is nothing casual or contingents; nothing
comes to pass but what is decreed by him, what he has
determined either to do himself, or by others, or stiffer to
be done, Lam. iii. 37, 3S. that which is chance to others
is none to him; what more a chance matter than a lot
yet though that is cast into the lap, and it is casual to
men, how it will turn up, the whole disposing of it is oJ'
the Lord. Prov. xvi. 33. What more contingent than

4 Adv. Marcion. I. 2. c. 5.
i Mihi ne iu Deum quidera cadere videatur, ut sciat quid casu et for-

the imagh,ations, thoughts, and designs of men, what
they will be ? and yet these are foreknown before con-
ceived in the mind, Dent. xxxi. 21. Psalm cxxxix. 2. or
than the voluntary acti6us of men, yet these are fore-
known and foretold by the Lord, long betbre they are
done; as the names of persons given them, and what
should be done by them; as of Josiah, that he should
offer the priests, and burn the bones of men on the altar
at Bethel, see 1 Kings xfii. 2 and 2 Kings xxiii. 15, 16. and
of Cyrus, that he should give orders for the builtling of
the temple, and city of Jerusalem; and let the captive
Jews go free without price, Isa. xliv. 28. and' xlv. l& Ezra
i. 1, 2, & ,all which were predicted of these persons
name, some hundreds of years before they were born:
how all this is reconcileable with the liberty of man's
will, is a difficulty; and therefore objected to the certain
foreknowledge and decree of God; but whether this dif-
ficulty can be removed, or no, the thing is not less cer-
tain: let it be observed, that God's decrees do not at all
!nfr. inge the liberty of the will, nor do not put any thing
m it, nor lay any force upon it; they only imply a ne-
cessity of the event, but not of coaction, or force on the
will; nor do men feel any such force upon them; they
act as freely, and with the full consent of their will, whe-
ther good men or ban men, in what they do, as if there
were no foreknowledge and determination of them by
God; good men willingly do what they do, under the
influence of grace, though foreordained to it by the Lord,
Eph. ii. 10. Phil. ii. l& and so do wicked men; as Judas
in betraying Christ, and the Jews in crucifying him; though
both were "according to the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God," Luke xxii. 22. Acts ii. 23.
There is another sort of prescience, or foreknowledge,
the Scriptures speak of; on which the election of per-
sons to eternal life is founded, and according to which it
is, Rom. viii. 30. 1 Pet. i.2. which is not a foreknow-
ledge of faith, holiness, and good works,,and perseverance
therein, as causes of it; for these are effects and truits of
election, which flow from it; no bare foreknowledge of
pers9ns, but as joined with love and affection to the ob-
jLects of it; and which is not general, but special; The
ord knows them that are his, 2 Tim. n. 19. not in ge-
neral, as he knows all men; but distinctly, and parti-
cularly, he loves them, approves of them, and delights
in them, and takes a particular care of them; whilst of
others he says, I know you zwt, Matt. vii. 23. that is,
as his beloved and chosen ones. But as this belongs to
the doctrine of predestination, [ shall defer it to its pro-
per. place.
3. Though enough has been said to prove the om-
niscience of God, by the enumeration of the above things;
vet this may receive further proof from the several attri-
butes of God: as from his infinity; God is infinite; he
is unlimited and unbounded as to space, and so omni-
present; he is unbounded as to time, and so eternal; and
he is unbounded as to power, and so omnipotent; and he
is unbounded as to knowledge, and so omniscient; there
is no searching, no coming to the end of his traderstanding.
From his eternity; he is from everlasting to everlasting,

tulto futurum sit; si e~,itn scit eerie, illud evenlet; sin eerie eveniei,
nulla fortuna est, Cicero de Divh~atione~ i. e,