tal Truth is established upon Undeniable Principles, Reafon requires that we should ftedfaftly adhere to that Truth, though fome Difficulties do arise, in relation to it, which we cannot perfectly account. for.

God's Foreknowledge is exprefly taught in Holy Scripture, and is likewife the Neceffary and Unavoidable Confequence of the Natural notions we have of God, confider'd as the Governour of the World. And when we are convinced of fo great a Truth, by fo Full an Evidence; if we fhould either Reject, or Doubt of it, because we find it attended with Difficulties, which we cannot explain, or account for, we should Therefore Act Unreasonably, because we should give up fomething which we Do understand, for the fake of fomething else, which we do Not. The Difficulty of fome points, relating to a Truth so Firmly Established, ought not to break in upon our Certain Knowledge of the Thing, but be charg❜d to the account of our own Ignorance.

And the fame Rule of Reason and of Duty is to be observed in relation to the Congruity and Confiftency of one Truth with another. Thus, when the Certainty both of Foreknowledge in God, and of Free Will in Man, is evident both from Scripture and Reason, the fame Reason requires us to Depend upon it, that thefe Truths, Each of which we are Plainly Affured of, are Confiftent with one another, whether we can clear up the Difficulties of that Confiftency, or

not.

Moreover, 'tis obfervable that the leaft Surmife of Infringement upon the Freedom of Man, by the Foreknowledge of God, is on This account alfo to be Abandon'd and Despised, because it would be manifeftly Inconfiftent with the Divine Goodness and Justice. And every Difficulty or Objection may well be thought Vain and Groundless, which plainly Interferes with the Natural Notions of a God.

So Distinct and Exact, fo Full and Complete is God's Knowledge of the whole Creation. But ftill, his Know

ledge

ledge does not Stop Here; The Extent of it is not Determin'd by the Numbers and Varieties of Created Beings, Great and Marvellous as they are, but is Truly and Properly Unbounded and Infinite. And This also appears from our Natural Notions of him, as well as from the Teftimony given of it, by his Holy Spirit, in the * Scriptures. It is evident from Both, that he is Perfect in Knowledge, and that he knoweth all Things, and therefore His Knowledge muft be of equal extent with his own Being; And confequently His Knowledge must be Exclufive of all Bounds, because his Being it felf is exclufive of them. For as a Finite Understanding cannot comprehend an Infinite Object; fo it must be granted, that an Understanding, which does comprehend an Infinite Object, cannot It Self, for that very Reason, be Finite.

God's Knowledge of his own Power must be Infinite, because his Power is Confeffedly fo. Whatsoever the Differences, or Extravagancies of Mens o

* Job. xxxvi. 4. 1 John iii. 20. Pfal. cxlvii. 5.

pinions may be, about an Actual Plurality of Worlds; 'tis univerfally agreed that he Can create Many worlds, if he pleaseth, and that, if he should create ever so great a number, his Capacity of Adding to that number would still be the Same, as now it is; His Power would ftill be as far from being Exhaufted, as Before. And we cannot Doubt, that his Knowledge of fuch Power in himself is Infinite, or, Imagine that it is Different from the Knowledge, which he Eternally had of his Power to create This world, in any other respect than This, that his Will had Determin'd to exert his Power, in the Actual production of This World; Which Confideration does not relate to the Pure Knowledge of Power, as an Effential Attribute of the Divine Nature.

And, that we may carry on this Sacred and Sublime Subject a little further, let us look up to God's Knowledge of Another Attribute, which he hath Determin'd to demonftrate in an Infinite Variety of Effects; and Thofe fuch as may Justly challenge the First place in

our

our Thoughts and Contemplations, because They are of the Nearest ConcernFor as the Goodness of God

ment to us.

is in it self Inexhaustible, fo will the Actual Effects of it, in the Supply of our Happiness, be unlimited and Infinite. And must not that Knowledge be Boundlefs, which at once comprehends the Infinite Effects of God's Goodness? And the fame Obfervation might be applied to the Acts or Exercife of Divine Power alfo; without which, the Acts of Goodness would not be Infinite, as they will moft Undoubtedly be.

Since therefore a Finite Understanding cannot comprehend an Infinite Object; fince the Nature and Attributes of God are Infinite, and fince he does Perfectly understand his own Nature and Attributes; 'tis Hence, as well as from the express Testimony of his Holy Word, Evident and Clear, that his Knowledge is Infinite.

When fuch Truths as this are fpoken of, as Evident and Clear, 'tis not to be Imagin'd, that fuch Clearnefs is to be understood of the Mode, or Manner of R 3 the