12 -X DISPLAY of mud needs foreknow theevent of that contingent affirm ; he mull needs know the man would fo Moot who had determined his arrow fhould be thedeath of a king : h; makes men poor and rich, Prov. xxii. ,. he lifreth up one, and pulleth down another, Pfal. 1xxv. how many contingencies did e;yfa ópua eh d ardla his piercing eye run through, to forefee the crowning of Hefter, for the deliverance of his people. In a word; known unto God are all hie works. now what can poffibly be imagined to be more contingent, than the killing ofa man by the fall of an axe from out of hishand, who intended no filch thing ; yet this God affumeth as his own work, Iircodus i. 13. eut. ix. 4. 5. and fo furely was byhim foreknown. [4.] Do but confider the prophefìes in Scripture ; efpecially thole concerning our Saviour, howmany freeand contingent a$ionsdid concur for the fulfilling ofthem, as Ifa. vii. 14. chap. ix. v. and chap. liii. Gen. iii. 15, 6-c. The like may be Did ofother predi£tions, as of thewafting of ter: falem by the Babylonians, which though in regard of God's prefcience, it was certainly to come to pat: yet they did it mod freely, not only followingthe the counfel of their own wills ; but alto f rg divination, or chanceable lots for their diretlion, Etch. xxi. xi. Ter he who made the eye fetch all theft things,. Pfal.. xciv. 9. Divers other reafons and tedimoaies might be produced to confirm our doctrine, of God's everlafing prefcience; which notwithdanding EF fcopius's blafphemy,that it 'ernes for nought but to cruciate poor mortals, we believe tobe agood part ofthe foundation ofall that confolation which God is pleated to afford us in this vale of fears ; amiddall our aftlihions, and temptations, under whofe preffure, we Mould elfe faint anddefpair ; it is no fmall comfort to be allured, that we do, nor can fuffer nothing, but what his hand and counfel guide unto us : what is open, and naked beforehis eyes, and whale end and Prue he knoweth long before ; which is a prong motive to patience, a fare anchorofhope, a firm ground ofconfolation. Now to preterit in oneview, how oppofrte the opinions of the worfhippers of the great gadde is contingency are to this facred truth, takethis Mort antithefis. S. S. Known unto God are all his works. from the beginning of theworld, A&s env. 18. Neither is there any creature that is not man fft in his fight t but all things arenaked, and opened unto the eyes of him, With whom tee have to do, Ifleb. ii. 13. He that formed the eye (hall he not fee ? Pfal. xciv. 9. when a mangoeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a flroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head flippethfrom thehelve, and lightethupon his neighbour that hedie,Deut.xix. 5. God delivers him into his hand, Eared. xxi. 13. rake no thought, faying what pall we eat or what _hall we drink, or wherewithal) flick we be cloathed, for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all theft things, Matth. vi. 3E, 32. Take away God's prefcience, and you overthrow hisdeity, Theron. Lib. Arbie. God fometimesfeareth and prudently conjeftureth, that this, or that evil may write,. Vol. God Both not always forelee the event of what he intendeth, Corvin. ad Mel. Future contingencies are not determin- ed unto either part, Armin. that is, God bath not determined, and fo confequently cloth not fore-kssorv, whether they lhafd come topals or no. God hopeth andexpefeth divers things, that Mall never come to palls, Rem. The doctrine of prefcience fems to be invented only to vex and cruciate poor mortal men, Epfcop. HAP.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=