certain ground. God does not fore-know, but afterknow (i. e. he is never fure of a thing's coming to pafs,

I will do all my pleasure.Yea, I have fpoken: I will alfo bring it to pafs. I have purpofed: I will also do it. Ifaiah xlvi. 9, 10, 11. I admit, that this fublime paffage had immediate reference to the certainty of Babylon's capture by Cyrus. But not to that only. "The things which are not yet done," as well as that in particular, are all known to Jehovah; and many of them explicitly predicted likewife. And on what is God's abfolute and all-comprising koowledge grounded? On the "counfel," or decree; and on the "pleafure," or fovereign and almighty determination; of his will.-By the fame rule, that God had predeftinated, and did foreknow, the exploits of Cyrus; he must have predeftinated, and foreknown, the exploits of every other man. Since, if any one being, or any one fact, incident, or circumftance, be unknown to God; every being, fact, incident, and circumitance, may be equally unknown by him. But, putting matters upon the beft footing on which Arminianifm can put them; the divine knowledge can neither be eternal, nor infinite, nor infallible, if aught is exempted from it, or if aught can happen otherwife than as it is foreknown.

How great a ftrefs God lays, on this his attribute of complete and unmistaking prefcience; and how he claims the honour of it, as one of thofe effential and incommunicable perfections, by which he ftands diftinguifhed from falfe gods; may be feen, among other places, in Ifaiah xli. 21, 22, 23. and xlii. 8, 9. and xliii. 9, 12. and xlv. 21. -Well, therefore, might St. James declare, in the fynod of apoftles and elders held at Jerufalem, known unto God are all his works, araw, from eternity. Acts xv. 18.

The late excellent Mr. William Cooper, of Bolton, in New Erg. land, (1 fay, the late; becaufe I fuppofe that good man to be, cie this time, gathered into the affembly of faints made perfect) obferves, in the fecond of his Four Difcourfes on Predeftination unto Life, that it was the Scripture doctrine of God's omniscience, which profelyted our famous Dr. South to Calvinifm. "I have it," fays Mr. Cooper, "from very good authority" [appealing in the margin, to Dr. Calamy s Continuation, vol. i. p. 146.], "that, fome time after the Restoration, Dr. South being in company, at Oxford, with feveral perfons of note, and among the reft with Mr. Thomas Gilbert, who was afterwards one of the ejected minifters they fell into a converfation, about the Arminian points.-On Mr. Gilbert's afferting, that the predeftination of the Calvinifts did neceffarily follow upon the prefcience of the Arminians; the doctor prefently engaged, that, if he [Gilbert] could make that out, he i. e. Dr. South] would never be an Arminian, fo long as he lived, Mr. Gilbert immediately undertook it: and made good his affertion, to the fatisfaction of thofe prefent. And the doctor himself was fo convinced, as to continue, to the last, a yery zealous afferter of the

reformed

pass, until it does or has come to pass), if it be in the power of his creatures to determine themfelves to a contrary point of the compaís.

"Oh, but God fore-knows to what particular point of the compafs they certainly will determine thèmfelves.' Pray, leave out the word, certainly; and likewife the word, will: for they ftab poor felfdetermination to the heart. If you retain thefe words and their ideas, you give up the very effence of your caufe. For, what certainly will be, is no longer uncertain. And what is not uncertain is neceffary, or will furely come to pafs, and cannot but do fo: elfe, the certainty evaporates into nothing.

When Chrift fent his difciples for an afs's colt, which, he foreknew and foretold, they would find exactly at such a place; he added, that the owner of the animal, on their faying, the Lord wants it, would immediately permit them to lead it away. They went to the village, and made up to the very spot; where every thing fell out precifely, as their heavenly Mafter had predicted. Let me afk: Was the man's consent to part with his colt neceffary; or was it ⚫ uncertain? All circumftances confidered, had he power to refuse, and might he actually have refused to let go his property? If (which was certainly the cafe) he could not poffibly withhold his affent, Christ's före-knowledge was real; and the man himfelf, what the ingenious Mr. Wesley would term, "a fine piece of clock-work;" but what I should term, a neceffary free-agent. If, on the other hand, he might have denied complying with the difciples' request, and could have difmiffed them without fuccefs; it will neceffarily follow, that our Lord fhot his arrow at a venture, fent his meffengers on a blind errand, and that his own fore-knowledge was not fore-knowledge, but random conjecture and fur

reformed [i. e. of the Calviniftic] doctrine, against its various oppofers,"

E 3

mife.

mise. "Oh, but our Lord foreknew that the man certainly would do as requefted." Then the man Could not help doing it His volition was inevitable. It could not have been infallibly known, that he certainly would comply; if that compliance was antecedently uncertain, and if it could fo have hap pened that he might not have complied.

Thus does Scripture-prophecy (not one only, but every individual prophecy in God's book) demonftrate, 1. The abfolute fore-knowledge of the three divine perfons: and, 2. The unalterable neceffity, or indefeatable futurition, of things foreknown.

Either God is ignorant of future events, and his understanding, like that of men, receives gradual improvement from time and experience and obfervation (a fuppofition blacker, if poffible, than atheism itfelf!) or, the whole train of incidents, even to the rife and fall of a mote in the air, ever was, now is, ever will be, and ever muft be, exactly that, and no other, which he certainly knew it would be. Foreknowledge,

*

* Properly speaking, it cannot be affirmed of God, that he either did know, or that he will know; but, fimply, that he knows. For, in Deum non cadunt prius & poilerius: there is no paft, nor future, to him, All is prefent, and unfucceffive. The diftribution of things, into thofe that have been, thofe that are, and those that shall be; is, indeed, fuited to the flux condition, and to the limited faculties, of beings like ourfelves, whofe ettimates of duration are taken from the periodical journies of an opaque grain, round a lucid fpeck termed the fun but can have no place in him, of whom it is declared, that a thousand years are, with the Lord, as one day; and one day, as a thousand years. And even this declaration, magnificent as it is, falls infinitely fhort of the mark.

When, therefore, I fpeak of foreknowledge, as an attribute effential to Deity; I fpeak, as St, Paul fays, after the, manner of Inen. The fimple term, knowledge, would be more intrinsically proper; but then it would not fo readily aid the conceptions of ordinary perfons. Though, for my own part, I would, always, rather call the divine knowledge, cmnifcience, than give it any other

pame.

Let me juft hint, that, if all things, without exception, and without fucceffion, are eternally prefent, as an indivifible point, to the upcreated view; neceffity comes in, with a full tide. For that,

knowledge, undarkened by the leaft fhadow of ignorance, and fuperior to all poffibility of mistake, is a link, which draws invincible neceffity after it, whether the Scripture doctrine of predeftination be taken into the account or no.

Take a few more evidences of our Lord's neceffitarianifm.

When they deliver you up [to be tried as religious criminals at the Jewish and Heathen tribunals], take no thought how or what you thall speak. For it fhall be given you, in that fame hour, what you fhall fpeak. For it is not ye that fpeak, but the fpirit of your Father, who fpeaketh in you. Matt.

X. 19, 20.

Are not two fparrows fold for a farthing? and one of them fhall not fall on the ground, without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Matt. x. 29, 30.

O Father, thou haft hid these things from the wife and prudent, and haft revealed them unto babes. Matt. xi. 25.

It is given unto you, to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; but to them it is not given. Matt. xiii. 11.

Without a parable fpake he not unto them: that it might be fulfilled, which was fpoken by the prophet. Matt. xiii. 34, 35.

which is always a philofophical now, can be no other, nor otherwife, than it is.-Not to add: that the Deity, whofe view of all things is thus unchangeably fixed, and perpetual, and intranfitory; must have within himself a conftant and irremediable fource of itanding uneafinefs, if any thing can happen in contrariety to his will, and fo as to crofs or defeat the wifdom and goodness of his defigns. He must certainly intereft himself, and very deeply too, in the accomplishment of a will which is all-holy, and all-right, and all-wife. Confequently, could fuch a will (and his will is precifely fuch) be fruftrated, though but in one fingle inftance; that fruftration would neceffarily be a calamity on God himself, and inflict effential and never-ending pain on the divine mind. Another (I think, irrefragable) proof, that nothing is left to contingency.

Flesh and blood have not revealed unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven. Matt. xvi. 17.

Upon this rock will I build my Church, and the gates of hell fhall not prevail against it. Ver. 18.

The Son of man must go to Jerufalem, and fuffer many things, and be killed, and rife again the third day. Ver. 21.

It must needs be [Avans, there is a neceffity] that offences come. Matt. xviii. 7.-Or, as St. Luke has it, it is impoffible [averdantov, it is not expectable] but that offences will come: Luke xvii, I. Our Lord not only afferted the thing, which we mean by neceffity; but even made ufe of the word itfelf. And fo we find him doing, in three or four other parts of the gofpels. Nor is the fense, in which he ufed the term, left ambiguous; as appears from comparing the two above paffages together. Neceffity is that, by which, things cannot, without the utmoft folly and abfurdity, be expected to come to pass any otherwife than just as they do. But Arminianifm pays very flender regard to Chrift's authority.

Go thou to the fea, and caft an hook, and take the fish that firft cometh up: and when thou haft opened his mouth, thou fhalt find a piece of money. Matt. xvii. 27.

All men cannot receive this faying, fave they to whom it is given. He that can receive it, let him receive it. Matt. xix. 11, 12.

To fit on my right-hand and on my left, is not mine to give, except unto them for whom it is prepared of my Father, Matt. xx. 23.

Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward, forever. And, prefently, the fig-tree withered away. Matt. xxi. 19.

Whofoever fhall fall on this ftone, fhall be broken but on whomfoever it fball fall, it will grind him to powder. Matt. xxi. 44.

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