OF THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD.

HAVING considered such attributes of God, which belong to him as an active and operative Spirit; as the Life of God, and his Power, or Omnipotence; I proceed to consider such perfections, which may be ascribed to him as an intelligent Spirit; to which, rational spirits, endowed with understanding, will, and affections, bear some similarity. God is said to have a mind and understanding, Rom. xi. 34. Isai. xl. 28. to which may be referred, the attributes of knowledge and wisdom, which go together, Rom. xi. 33. I shall begin with the first of these. And prove,

I. That knowledge belongs to God. This is objected to, and called in question, by impious and atheistical persons, Psal. lxxiii. 11. particularly with respect to human affairs; the grounds of which doubts about it, and objections to it, seem to arise, partly from the supposed distance of God in heaven, from men on earth, and partly from the thick and dark clouds which intervene between them, Job xxii. 12-14. and which are easily answered by observing the omnipresence of God, or his presence in all places; and that the darkness hides not any thing from his all-piercing, all-penetrating eye, the darkness and the light being alike to him, Psal. cxxxix. 7—12. Jer. xxiii. 23, 24. Let it be further observed, that in all rational creatures there is knowledge; there is much in angels, and so there was in man, before the fall, both of natural, divine, and civil things; and since the fall there is a remainder of it, notwithstanding the loss sustained by it; and there is more, especially divine and spiritual knowledge, in regenerate men, who are renewed in knowledge. Now if there is knowledge in any of the creatures of God, then much more in God himself. Besides, all that knowledge that is in angels or men, comes from God; he is a God of knowledge, or knowledges, of all knowledge, 1 Sam. ii. 3. the source and fountain of it, and therefore it must be in him in its perfection: knowledge of all things, natural, civil, and spiritual, is from him, is taught and given by him; wherefore strong is the reasoning of the Psalmist, He that teaches man knowledge, shall he not know? Psal. xciv. 10. His knowledge may be inferred from his will, and the actings of it; that he has a will is most certain, and works all things after the counsel of his will, which cannot be resisted, Eph. i. 11. Rom. ix. 19. and this can never be supposed to be without knowledge; it is generally said and believed of the will of man, that it is determined by the last act of the understanding; and it cannot be imagined that God wills any thing ignorantly and rashly; he must know what he wills, and nills, and to whom he wills any thing, or refuses, Rom. ix. 15, 18. and it appears from all his works, from the works of creation, the heavens, earth, and sea, and all in them; which are ascribed to his wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, and could never be made without them, Prov. iii. 19, 20. the government of the world, and the

judgment of the last day, suppose and require the same, Rom. xi. 33. 1 Cor. iv. 5 Without knowledge God would not be perfectly happy; the blessed one, and blessed for ever, as he is. It is knowledge that gives men the preference to the brute creation, and makes them happier than they, Job xxxv. 11. and the spiri tual knowledge which good men have, gives them a superior excellency and feFicity to bad men; and their happiness in a future state will lie, as in perfect holiness, so in perfect knowledge, or to know, as they are known, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. In short, without knowledge, God would be no other than the idols of the Gentiles, who have eyes, but see not; are the work of errors, and are falshood and vanity; but the portion of Jacob is not like them, Jer. x. 14-16. I go

on,

II. To shew the extent of the knowledge of God: it reaches to all things, John xxi. 17. 1 John iii. 20. and is therefore with great propriety called omniscience, and which the very heathens ascribe to God; and extend it to thoughts. Thales being asked, Whether a man doing ill, could lie hid to, or be concealed from God? answered, No, nor thinking neither. And Pindar says, If any man hopes that any thing will be concealed from God, he is deceived.

1. God knows himself, his nature and perfections: somewhat of this is known by creatures themselves, even by the very heathens, through the light of nature, and in the glass of the creatures, wherein God has shewed it to them; even his invisible things, his eternal power and Godhead, Rom, i. 19, 20. and which are more clearly displayed in Christ, and redemption by him; and more evidently seen by those who are favoured with a divine revelation: and if creatures know something of God, though imperfectly, then he must know himself, in the most perfect manner: and rational creatures are endowed with knowledge of themselves, of their nature, and what belongs to them, as angels may reasonably be supposed to be; since even men, in their fallen and imperfect state, know something of themselves, of the constitution, temperament, and texture of their bodies, and of the powers and faculties of their souls; what is in them, in the inmost recesses of their minds, their thoughts, purposes, and intentions, 1 Cor. ii. 11. Nosce te ipsum, Know thyself, has been reckoned a wise maxim with philosophers, and the first step to wisdom and knowledge; and good men, illuminated by the Spirit of God, attain to the highest degree of it; and if creatures know themselves in any degree, infinitely much more must the Creator of all know himself. God knows himself in all his persons, and each person fully knows one another; the Father knows the Son, begotten by him, and brought up with him; the Son knows the Father, in whose bosom he lay; and the Spirit knows the Father and Son, whose Spirit he is, and from whom he proceeds; and the Father and Son know the Spirit, who is sent by them as the

í zavra iduv dios opladμos xai navta vonoas, Hesiod. Opera & Dies, l. 1. v. 263. Apud Laert. Vita ejus, Val. Maxim. 1. 7. c. 2. extern. 8. * Olymp. Ode 1. so Epicharmus apud Clement. Stromat. 1. 5. P. 597.

Comforter; see Matt. xi. 27. 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11. God knows the mode of each person's subsistence in the Deity, the paternity of the Father, the generation of the Son, and the spiration of the Holy Ghost; that these three are one, and one in three; three persons, but one God; which is a mystery incomprehensible by us; but inasmuch as God, who knows his own nature best, has so declared it to be, it becomes us to yield the obedience of faith unto it; he knows his own thoughts, which are the deep things of God, and as much above us as the heavens are above the earth, and as much out of our reach; but he knows them, Jer. xxix. 11. that is, his decrees, purposes and designs, as he needs must, since they are purposed in himself; he knows the things he has purposed, and the exact time of the accomplishment of them, which he has reserved in his own power, Eph. i. 11. Eccles. iii. 1. Acts i. 6.

1. God knows all his creatures, there is not any creature, not one excepted, that is not manifest in his sight, Heb. iv. 13. Known unto him are all his works; all that his hand has wrought, Acts xv. 18. when he had finished his works of creation, he saw every thing that he had made, looked over it and considered it, and pronounced it good, Gen. i. 31. and his eyes see all things in their present state and condition; he knows all things inanimate, all that is upon the earth, herbs, grass, trees, &c, and all in the bowels of it, metals and minerals; all that are in the heavens, not only the two great luminaries, the sun and moon, their nature, motion, rising and setting, with every thing belonging to them, but the stars innumerable; he bringeth out their host by number, or them as a mighty army, and numerous; and yet, as numerous as they are, he calleth them all by names; such a distinct and particular knowledge has he of them, and that because he hath created them; and he upholds them in being, by the greatness of his might, so that not one faileth, Isai. xl. 26. he knows all the irrational creatures, the beasts of the field, "the cattle on a thousand hills;" I know, says he, all the fowls of the mountains, Psal, l. 10, 11. as worthless a bird as the sparrow is, not one of them falls on the ground, without the knowledge and will of God, Matt. x. 30. he knows all the fishes of the sea, and provided one to swallow Jonah, when thrown into it; and which, at his order, cast him on dry land again, Jonah i. 17. and ii. 10. And if Adam had such knowledge of all creatures, as to give them proper and suitable names, Gen. ii. 19, 20. and Solomon, a fallen son of his, could speak of trees, from the cedar in Lebanon, to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; and of beasts, fowl, creeping things, and fishes, 1 Kings iv. 33. even of their nature, properties, use, and end; can it be thought incredible that God, the Creator of them, should have a distinct and perfect knowledge of all these? he knows all rational beings, as angels and men; the angels, though innumerable, being his creatures, standing before him, beholding his face, and sent forth by him as ministring spirits; the elect angels, whom he must know, since he has chosen them and put them under Christ, the head of all principality and power; and confirmed them, by his grace, in their happy state; and who stand on his right hand and left, hearkening to his voice, and ready to obey

his will; and are employed by him in providential affairs, and in things respect. ing the heirs of salvation. Yea, the apostate angels, devils, are known by him, and are laid up in chains of darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day, and are under the continual eye of God, and the restraints of his providence: the questions put to these by God, Job i. 7. and by Christ, Mark v. 9. do not imply any kind of ignorance of them; the one is put to lead on to a discourse concerning Job, and the other to shew the greatness of the miracle wrought in casting them out. God knows all men, good and bad, all the sons of men, the inhabitants of the earth, wherever they are, in all places and in all ages, Psal. xxxiii. 13, 14. Prov. xv. 2. he knows their hearts, for he has fashioned them alike, and is often said to be the searcher of them; he knows the thoughts of the heart; as his word, so is he a discerner of them, Heb. iv. 12. see Psal. cxxxix. 2. which is peculiar to God, and a strong proof of the Deity of Christ, the essential Word, Matt. ix. 4. John ii. 24, 25. Heb. iv. 12, 13. the evil thoughts of men, which are many and vain, Psal. xciv. 11. and the good thoughts of men, as he must, since they are of him, and not of themselves; and he takes such notice of them, as to write a book of remembrance of them, 2 Cor. iii. 5. Mal. iii. 16. he knows the imaginations of the thoughts of the heart, the first motions to thought, whether good or bad, Gen. vi. 5. 1 Chron. xxviii. 9. he knows all the words of men, there is not one upon their tongues, or uttered by them, but he knows it altogether, Psal. cxxxix. 4. the words of wicked men, even every idle word, which must be accounted for in the day of judgment; and much more their blasphemies, oaths, and curses; and all their hard speeches spoken against Christ and his people, Matt. xii. 36. Jude 15. And the words of good men, expressed in prayer and thanksgiving, and spiritual conversation with one another, Mal. iii. 16. And all the works and ways of men, Job xxxiv. 21 their civil ones, their down-sitting and uprising, going forth and coming in, Psal. cxxxix. 2, 3. and cxxi. 3, 8. and all their sinful ways and works, which will all be brought into judgment, and for which an account must be given at the bar of God, Eccles. xii. 14. 2 Cor. v. 10. as well as all the good works of God's people, who knows from what principles they spring, in what manner they are done, and with what views, and for what ends, Rev. ii. 2, 19.

III. God knows all things whatever, as well as himself and the creatures: he knows all things possible to be done, though they are not, nor never will be done; such as have been observed under the preceding attribute; and this knowledge is what is called by the schoolmen, "Knowledge of simple intelligence" of things that are not actually done. He knows what might be, and in course, would be, should he not prevent them by the interposition of his power and providence, and which he determines to do: so he knew the wickedness and treachery of the men of Keilah to David, and that if he stayed there, they would deliver him up into the hands of Saul, and therefore gave him notice of it, that he might make his escape from them, and so prevent their giving him up, according to his

determinate will, 1 Sam. xxiii. 11, 12. God knows the wickedness of some men's hearts, that they would be guilty of the most shocking crimes, and that without number, if suffered to live, and therefore he takes them away by death; and that such is the temper of some, that if they had a large share of riches, they would be so haughty and overbearing, there would be no living by them; and that even some good men, if they had them, would be tempted to abuse them, to their own hurt, and therefore he gives them poverty. Moreover, God knows all things that have been, are, or shall be; and which the schools call, "knowledge of vision;" an intuitive view of all actual things; things past, present, and to come; so called, not with respect to God, with whom nothing is past nor future, but all present; but with respect to us, and our measures of time. He knows all former things, from the beginning of the world; and which is a proof of Deity, and such a proof that the idols of the Gentiles cannot give, nor any for them, Isai. xli. 22. and xliii. 9. all past transactions at the creation, the fall of Adam, and what followed on that; the original of nations and their settlements in the world; with various other occurrences to be met with only in the Bible, inspired 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 every where; 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 certainly know what he wills shall be: and this is another proof of Deity wanting in heathen idols, Isai. xli. 22, 23. and xliv. 7. and xlvi. 10. And this is what is called Prescience or Fore-knowledge; and of which Tertullian', 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 prohecies; for all prohecy is founded on God's fore-knowledge and predetermination of things; and of this 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 suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, and session at God's right

VOL. I.

Adv. Marcion. 1. 2. c. 5.