"Known unto GOD," said the holy pastor of the firft Chriftian church, "are all his works, from the beginning of the world"." Every deed, every word, and every thought of his creatures were furveyed by Him, before they were formed. Such excellency of wisdom we do not prefume to explain or comprehend; nor, with the fcanty line of the human understanding, attempt to fathom the depths of Omniscience. It is enough for man to know, what the fcriptures manifeftly teach, that the divine foreknowledge is perfectly confiftent with human freedom.

"Whom he did foreknow," fays the apoftle, "he alfo did predeftinate." In the order, therefore, of these unfearchable ways of GOD, the decree does not precede, but follow, prefcience'. How then are they foreseen? in the abstract, as men? or as individuals, diftinguished from one another by their refpective characters ? As individuals, most affuredly, with all their good, and all their bad, qualities; with every circumftanee of their whole life. Because it is forefeen, therefore,

d. Acts xv. 18.

e Rom. viii. 29.

f Vide Chryfoft. T. V. p. 779. 1. 10. 32. It is not certain. that the oration is S. Chryfoftom's; but, whoever the author was, it well deferves an attentive perufal.

that

that they will believe in Christ, and obey the gofpel, it is the Father's good pleasure, that they shall be made like the Captain of their falvation, and reign with him in mansions of blifs and glory. But from this mysterious fubject, on which it is evident, that every term, which we use, must neceffarily be inadequate and figuratives; let us retire with reverence, and fet our feet on lefs perilous ground.

Of created beings, if we may judge from analogy, and the probability of the cafe, the most exalted must still be capable of improvement in knowledge; of receiving new ideas, or new combinations, as the counfels of providence are more and more unfolded to their view, and furnish fresh matter for celeftial fongs. This notion, which reafon might fuggeft, the fcriptures of truth feem to confirm beyond a doubt. We there read, that "the angels defire to look into "" the wonders of redemption; and that "now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, is known, by the church, the manifold wisdom of God." If these things are

h"

8 Ου γαρ φθανει προσαναβαινειν ὁ λόγος επι τον αψαυτον και αναφη παντη Θεον, αλ' ὑπονοσει και ὑπορρει, κυρίοις ονομασιν αδυνάτων επιCadęα xon Day x. T. A. Philo de Leg. ad Caium, p. 546.

h

I Pet. i. 12.

i

Eph. iii. 10.

fo,

fo, we may fafely fuppofe, that, fublime as is their knowledge, complete as is their bliss, they cannot however anticipate the events of remote futurity, when the Father of light has not, in heaven or on earth, expressly revealed them.*.

It is apparent from hence, that prophecy must be a very dangerous fubject for impofture to meddle with. The prospect is too obfcure for the prince of darkness to descry; the maze is too intricate for his minifters to

unravel. The rebellious fpirits, cut off, by their apoftacy, from the living fountain of beatitude and truth, can know nothing more, than what their own experience may teach, or fagacity dictate. The refponfes therefore, which at times they have given forth, or their fervants have forged for them, totally unconnected one with another, have usually been ambiguous, often erroneous, and sometimes, perhaps, true. In this latter case, if it was not merely a lucky chance, the subject has however either been a tranfaction carrying on at the fame time, but in a different place, which we may readily conceive obvious to

I

* Vide Chryfoft. in 1 Cor. ii. 7. T. III. p. 279. 1. 36. &c. et in Col. i. 26. T. IV. p. 113. Conf. S. Ambrof. de Fide, L. IV. c. I. and the author of 2 Efdras, įv. 52.

fpiritual,

fpiritual, though depraved, intelligences; or elfe fome event on the verge of accomplish

ment.

When Satan

If no inftance occurs, or none that may be deemed of unquestionable authority, we may be allowed to fuppofe one. had licence to tempt holy Job, to spoil him of his substance, and afflict him in his body; had he been fuffered to fpeak, by himself or his agents, he could, it may be imagined, have told, that thefe difafters fhould quickly befall. The restraint, which controuls the malignity of his nature, being for a moment fufpended; he was not ignorant, what purpofes of iniquity, or deeds of mischief, when left to himself, he would hasten to perpetrate.

Setting afide therefore fuch cases, if fuch there may poffibly be, in which`an event, not actually accomplished, may have been. disclosed, when the wicked one himself was to be the agent, or the proximate cause, whatever it might be, had begun to operate; we may fafely affirm, that no remote and fortuitous tranfaction ever was, or ever will be, foreshewn by the father of lies, or his fpirit, which worketh in the children of difobedience.

In

.

In fact, the mode of operation, in these attempts to deceive, when compared with the manner of the heavenly Spirit, has.commonly afforded no obfcure indication of a different origin'.

The Holy Spirit of GoD enlightens, exalts, and purifies the faculties; but does not destroy the freedom of action. The apostles and evangelists, men of flow apprehension, and of no acquired talents, furpass in an inftant, when infpired from above, the most confummate philofophers, in those very excellencies, which may feem within the reach of human ability, improved by inftruction, and corrected by habit; in the power of reafoning, in the order, the connection, and perfpicuity of their narrative; in reciting at large, or framing an abridgement of, their Lord's difcourfes; in felecting the main circumftances of a miracle or tranfaction to be recorded; and, with a matchlefs fimplicity,

This argument is difcuffed by S. Chryfoftom, Serm. XXIX. in 1 Cor. T. III. p. 429 and by Epiphanius against the Montanifts, Hær. XLVIII. c. ii. &c. In the fame controverfy, Miltiades wrote a treatife πεξι τε μη δειν προφήτην εν εκτάσει λαAs, Euf. H. E. L. V. c. xvii. fee alfo c. xvi. For the different meanings of the word sxsaois Philo may be confulted, Vol. I. p. 508.

which