phets have been held in the greatest veneration, and men have thought it a way to glory to divine and predict. Hence it was that the devils and pagan oracles gained so much credit; upon this foundation were they established, and the enemies of mankind owned for a true God; I say, from the prediction of future things, though their oracles were often ambiguous, many times false; yet those poor heathens framed many ingenious excuses, to free their adored gods from the charge of falsity and imposture; and shall we not adore the true God, the God of Israel, the God blessed for ever, for this incommunicable property, whereby he flies above the wings of the wind, the understandings of men and cherubims?

Consider how great it is to know the thoughts, and intentions, and works of one man, from the beginning to the end of his life; to fore-know all these before the being of this man, when he was lodged afar off in the loins of his ancestors, yea of Adam; how much greater is it to fore-know and know the thoughts and works of three or four men, of a whole village or neighbourhood? It is greater still to know the imaginations and actions of such a multitude of men as are contained in London, Paris, or Constantinople; how much greater still to know the intentions and practices, the clandestine contrivances of so many millions, that have, do, or shall swarm in all quarters of the world, every person of them having millions of thoughts, desires, designs, affections, and actions!

Let this attribute then make the blessed God honourable in our eyes, and adorable in all our affections; especially since it is an excellence which hath so lately discovered itself, in bringing to light the hidden things of darkness, in opening, and in part confounding the wicked devices of bloody men. Especially let us adore God for it, and admire it in God, since it is so necessary a perfection, that with

out it the goodness of God had been impotent, and could not have relieved us; for what help can a distressed person expect from a man of the sweetest disposition, and the strongest arm, if the eyes, which should discover the danger, and direct the defence and rescue, were closed up by blindness and darkness? Adore God for this wonderful perfection.

As the consideration of God's omniscience should render him honourable in our eyes, so it should render us vile in our own. God, because of his knowledge, is so far from disdaining his creatures, that his omniscience is a minister to his goodness; no knowledge that we are possessed of, should make us swell with too high a conceit of ourselves, and disdain of others. We have infinitely more of ignorance than knowledge. Let us therefore remember in all our thoughts of God, that he is God, and we are men; and therefore ought to be humble, as becomes men, and ignorant and foolish men; as weak creatures should lie low before an almighty God, and impure creatures before a holy God, false creatures before a faithful God, finite creatures before an infinite God: so should ignorant creatures before an all-knowing God. All God's attributes teach admiring thoughts of God, and low thoughts of ourselves.

THE GROUND OF FAITH IN GOD.

This perfection of God fits him to be a special object of trust. If he were forgetful, what comfort could we have in any promise? How could we depend upon him, if he were ignorant of our state? His compassion to pity us, his readiness to relieve us, his power to protect and assist us, would be insignificant, without his omniscience to inform his goodness, and direct the arm of his power.

And the rather, because God knows the persons of all his own. He hath in his infinite understanding, the exact number of all the individual persons that belong to him; The Lord knoweth them that are his. (2 Tim. ii. 19.) He knows all things, because he hath created them; and he knows his people because he hath not only made them, but also chosen them. He could no more choose he knew not what, than he could create he knew not what; he knows them under a double title; of creation as creatures, in the common mass of creation; as new creatures, by a particular act of separation. He cannot be ignorant of them in time, whom he foreknew from eternity; his knowledge in time is the same he had from eternity; he foreknew them to whom he intended to give the grace of faith, and he knows them after they believe, because he knows his own act, in bestowing grace upon them, and his own mark and seal wherewith he hath stamped them; no doubt but he that calls the stars of heaven by their names, knows the number of those living stars that sparkle in the firmament of his church. He cannot be ignorant of their persons, when he numbers the hairs of their heads, and hath registered their names in the book of life. As he only had an infinite mercy to make the choice; so he only hath an infinite understanding to comprehend their persons. We only know the elect of God by a moral assurance in the judgment of charity, when the conversation of men is according to the doctrine of God; we have not an infallible knowledge of them, we may be often mistaken; Judas, a devil, may be judged by man for a saint, till he be stripped of his disguise. God only hath an infallible knowledge of them, he knows his own records, and the counterparts in the hearts of his people; none can counterfeit his seal, nor can any raze it out.

COMFORT IN SECRET PRAYER.

A sigh cannot escape an infinite understanding, though crowded among a mighty multitude of cries from others, or covered with many unwelcome distractions in ourselves, no more than a believing touch from the woman that had the bloody issue, could be concealed from Christ, and be undiscerned from the press of the thronging multitudes: our groans are as audible and intelligible to him as our words, and he knows what is the mind of his own spirit, though expressed in no plainer language than sobs and heavings. Thus David cheers up himself under the neglects of his friends, Lord, my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee. (Psalm xxxviii. 9.) Not a groan of a panting spirit shall be lost, till God hath lost his knowledge; not a petition forgotten while God hath a record, nor a tear dried while God hath a bottle to reserve it in. (Psalm lvi. 8.)

COMFORT IN INFIRMITIES.

It is a comfort in all our infirmities. As he knows our sins to charge them; so he knows the weakness of our nature to pity us. As his infinite understanding may scare us, because he knows our transgressions, so it may relieve us, because he knows our natural mutability in our first creation: He knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. (Psalm ciii. 14.)

How miserable should we be for want of this perfection in the divine nature, whereby God remembers and reflects upon his past act in our first frame, and the mindfulness of our condition excites his compassion to us? Had he lost the knowledge how he first framed us, did he not still remember the mutability

of our nature, as we were formed and stamped in his mint, how much more wretched would our condition be than it is? If his remembrance of our original be one ground of his pity, the sense of his omniscience should be a ground of our comfort, in the stirring of our infirmities; he remembers we were but dust, when he made us; and yet remembers we are but dust, while he preserves and forbears us.

MAKES US HUMBLE.

The consideration of this attribute would make us humble. How dejected would a person be, if he were sure all the angels in heaven and men upon earth, perfectly knew his crimes, with all their aggravations? But what is created knowledge to an infinite and just censuring understanding? When we consider that he knows our actions, whereof there are multitudes, and our thoughts, whereof there are millions; that he views all the blessings bestowed upon us; all the injuries we have returned to him; that he exactly knows his own bounty, and our ingratitude; all the idolatry, blasphemy, and secret enmity in every man's heart against him; all tyrannical oppressions, hidden lusts, omissions of necessary duties, violation of plain precepts, every foolish imagination, with all the circumstances of them, and that perfectly in their full anatomy, every mite of unworthiness and wickedness in every circumstance; and add to this his knowledge, the wonders of his patience, which are miraculous upon the score of his omniscience, that he is not as quick in his revenge, as he is in his understanding; but is so far from inflicting punishment, that he continues his former benefits, arms not his justice against us, but solicits our repentance, and waits to be gracious with all this knowledge of our crimes; should not the con