Serm.L.XXXT. T'.hé,Knówledge of God. 607' determinate Knowledge of, any thing, 'but what; is ';certainly and,dererminately true ; but future Everitu, ,which.may or may not be, have no certain and deter-, minate Truth, that is,-ìit is not certain either that they will or will not be, be-. caufe they have no certain Caufe, therefore there can be no infallible Knowledge concerning them. Anfw. This I confefs is the grand Difficulty ; I shallnot be fo folicitous to take it away, as to give fatisfaáion to it. I. I might fay with a very fair Probability, that the certainty of Knowledge doth not depend upon the certainty of the Caufe, but of the Objeli, which may be certain, rho' the Caufe be contingent. Which I prove thus, whatever Event bath adually happened, as becaufe now it is paff, it is certainly true that it was, fo becaufe it once was, it was certainly truebefore it was, that it would be ; as irr Peter's denying of Chrift. If it be now true that he bath denied him, it was true before, that he would deny him ; and it being determinately true, God law it as it was ; fo that here is an Objetl of a certain Knowledge. a. Tho' we could not explain the poulbility of God's knowing future Contin- gencies, much Iefs the manner how ; yet we are fufficiently allured that Goddoth know them. I will give but one inífance for the Proof of this. Nothing more evident than the Sin of Adam ; yet God foreknew this ; how elfe was Chrift de- creed before the Foundation of the World? Chrift was a remedy upon the occasion of fin, now the remedy could not be defigned before the fin was forefeen and this being certain, cum conflat de re, fruflra inguir,itur de modo, when we are certain of the thing, 'tis not nece¡%ary to know the manner. We are fatisfied ofmany things the manner whereof we do not know ; we believe the union of the Soul and.Bo- dy, tho' no Man can explain how a Spirit canbe united to Matter ; we believe the continuity of matter, that is, that the parts of it hang together, of which whosoever faithhecan give an account, doth but betray his own ignorance. And fo in many other things ; that Man doth not know himfelf, nor the meafure of his own underfianding, nor the nature and obfcurity of things, that will not con- fess himfelf posed inmany things, that doth not acknowledgethat there aremany 2¢vla5-,e, many things the manner whereof is unimaginable, and of which our heft Reafon and ílnderftanding can give no account. 3. 'Tis very unreafonable to expeEt we Ihould know all the ways which infi- nite Knowledge hathof knowing things. We have but finite Faculties and Mea- lures, which bear no proportion to infinite Powers and Gbjeéfs. Could we ex- plain the manner how infinite Knowledge knows things, we should be like God in Knowledge, our underflandings would be infinite like his ; and in this cafe efpeci- al!y it becomes us to put on the modefly of Creatures, and to remember that we are finite and limited. Some arrogant Spirits take it for an affront to their un- dcrftandings, that any one should expel they should believe anything, tho'they . have the highest affurance of it, if they cannot explain the particular manner of it ; they make nothing to deny God's Knowledgeof future Events, unlefs they may be fatisfied of the particular way how he knows them. I know there are thofe who undertake to explain the particular manner. Some fay that God fees future Events in fpeculo voluntatis ; others fay that the Eternity of God is adually commenfurate to all Duration, as his Immenfity to all Space, and fo God doth not fo properly forefee and fore -know, as fee and know future things bythe prefentiality and co-exiffence of all things in Eternity ; for theyfay that future things are adually present and exifling to God, tho' not in menfurâ propria, yet in menfurâ aliena ; the School-men have much more of this Jargon and canting Language ; and I envy no Man the underffandingthefe Phrafes, but to me they feem to lignifie nothing, but to have been words invented by idle and conceited Men, which a great many ever since, leff'they Ihould seem to be ig- norant, would feem to underfland ; but I wonder moll, that Men, when they have amufed and puzled themfelves and others with hard Words, should call this explaining things. The Slit of the Anfwer is this; that when we have done all we can, God's fore-knowledge of future Events may Item contradilious and impolfible to us, mush it
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