separates between the most united parts of metals; and some tell us, he is called a roe, from the perspicacity of his sight, as well as from the swiftness of his motion.

He has a perfect knowledge of the Father; he knows the Father, and none else knows the Father; angels know God, men know God, but Christ in a peculiar manner knows the Father: "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son," Matt. xi. 27. He knows so, as that he learns not from any other; he does perfectly comprehend him, which is beyond the reach of any creature with the addition of all the Divine virtue; not because of any incapacity in God to reveal, but the incapacity of the creature to receive: finite is incapable of being made infinite, and therefore incapable of comprehending infinite; so that Christ cannot be "Deus factus," made of a creature a God, to comprehend God; for then of finite he would become infinite, which is a contradiction. As the Spirit is God, because he searches the deep things of God, 1 Cor. ii. 10, that is, comprehends them, as the spirit of a man does the things of a man; (now the spirit of man understands what it thinks, and what it wills;) so the Spirit of God understands what is in the understanding of God, and what is in the will of God. Christ has an absolute knowledge ascribed to him, and such as could not be ascribed to any thing but a Divinity. Now if the Spirit knows the deep things of God, and takes from Christ what he shows to us of him, John xvi. 15, he cannot be ignorant of those things himself; he must know the depths of God that affords us that Spirit, that is not ignorant of any of the counsels of the Father's will. Since he comprehends the Father, and the Father him, he is in himself infinite; for God, whose essence is infinite, is infinitely knowable; but no created understanding can infinitely know God. The infiniteness of the object hinders it from being understood by any thing that is not infinite. Though a creature should understand all the works of God, yet it cannot be therefore said to understand God himself: as, though I may understand all the volitions and motions of my soul, yet it does not follow that therefore I understand the whole nature and substance of my soul; or, if a man understood all the effects of the sun, that therefore he understands fully the nature of the sun. But Christ knows the Father, he lay in the bosom of the Father, was in the greatest intimacy with him, John i. 18; and from this intimacy with him he saw him and knew him: so he knows God as much as he is knowable; and therefore knows him perfectly, as the Father knows himself by a comprehensive vision: this is the knowledge of God wherein properly the infiniteness of his. understanding appears. And our Saviour uses such expressions which manifest his knowledge to be above all created knowledge, and such a manner of knowledge of the Father, as the Father has of him.

Christ knows all creatures. That knowledge which comprehends God, comprehends all created things as they are in God; it is a knowledge that sinks to the depths of his will, and therefore extends to all the acts of his will in creation and providence: by knowing the Father he knows all things that are contained in the virtue, power, and will of God; whatsoever the Father does, that the Son does, John v. 19. As the Father therefore knows all things he is the cause of, so does the Son know all things he is the worker of; as the perfect making of all things belongs to both, so does the perfect knowledge of all things belong to both; where the action is the same, the knowledge is the same. Now the Father did not create one thing, and Christ another; "but all things were created by him, and for him: all things both in heaven and earth," Col. i. 16. As he knows himself the cause of all things, and the end of all things, he cannot be ignorant of all things that were effected by him, and are referred to him; he knows all creatures in God, as he knows the essence of God, and knows all creatures in themselves, as he knows his own acts and the fruits of his power. Those things must be in his knowledge that were in his power; all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God are hid in him, Col. ii. 3. Now it is not the wisdom of God to know in part, and be in part ignorant. He cannot be ignorant of any thing, since there is nothing but what was made by him, John i. 3, and since it is less to know than create; for we know many things which we cannot make. If he be the Creator, he cannot but be the discerner of what he made; this is a part of wisdom belonging to an artificer, to know the nature and quality of what he makes. Since he cannot be ignorant of what he furnished with being, and with various endowments, he must know them not only universally, but particularly.

1

Christ knows the hearts and affections of men. Peter scruples not to ascribe to him this knowledge, among the knowledge of all other things; "Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee," John xxi. 17. From Christ's knowledge of all things, he concludes his knowledge of the inward frames and dispositions of men. To search the heart, is the sole prerogative of God: "For thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men," 1 Kings viii. 39. Shall we take (only) here with a limitation, as some that are no friends to the Deity of Christ would, and say, God only knows

the hearts of men from himself, and by his own infinite virtue? Why may we not take (only) in other places with a limitation, and make nonsense of it? as Psal. lxxxvi. 10. "Thou art God alone." Is it to be understood, that God is God alone from himself, but other Gods may be made by him, and so there may be numberless infinites? As God is God alone, so that none can be God but himself; so he alone knows all the hearts of all the children of men, and none but he can know them; this knowledge is from his nature. The reason why God knows the hearts of men, is rendered in the Scripture double, because he created them, and because he is present every where, Psal. xxxiii. 13. 15.1 These two are by the confession of Christians and pagans universally received as the proper characters of Divinity, whereby the Deity is distinguished from all creatures. Now when Christ ascribes this to himself, and that with such an emphasis, that nothing greater than that could be urged, as he does, Rev. ii. 23; we must conclude that he is of the same essence with God, one with him in his nature, as well as one with him in his attributes. God only knows the hearts of the children of men; there is the unity of God: Christ searches the hearts and reins; there is a distinction of persons in a oneness of essence. He knows the hearts of all men, not only of those that were with him in the time of the flesh, that have been and shall be since his ascension; but of those that lived and died before his coming, because he is to be the Judge of all that lived before his humiliation on earth, as well as after his exaltation in heaven. It pertains to him as a Judge, to know distinctly the merits of the cause of which he is to judge; and this excellency of searching the hearts is mentioned by himself with relation to his judicial proceeding, "I will give unto every one of you according to your works." And though a creature may know what is in a man's heart, if it be revealed to him, yet such a knowledge is a knowledge only by report, not by inspection; yet this latter is ascribed to Christ, "He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man; for he knew what was in man," John ii. 24, 25; he looked into their hearts. The evangelist, to allay the amazement of men at his relation of our Saviour's knowledge of the inward falsity of those that made a splendid profession of him, does not say, the Father revealed it to him, but intimates it to be an inseparable property of his nature. No covering was so thick as to bound his eye; no pretence so glittering as to impose upon his understanding. Those that made a profession of him, and could not be discerned by the eye of man from his faithfullest attendants, were in their inside known to him plainer than their outside was to

Placeus de Deitate Christi.

others; and therefore he committed not himself to them, though they seemed to be persuaded to a real belief in his name because of the power of his miracles, and were touched with an admiration of him, as some great prophet, and perhaps declared him to be the Messiah, ver. 23.

He had a foreknowledge of the particular inclinations of men, before those distinct inclinations were in actual being in them. This is plainly asserted, John vi. 64: "But there are some of you that believe not; for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him." When Christ assured them, from the knowledge of the hearts of his followers, that some of them were void of that faith they professed; the evangelist, to stop their amazement, that Christ should have such a power and virtue, adds, that he knew from the beginning, that he had not only a present knowledge, but a foreknowledge of every one's inclination; he knew not only now and then what was in the hearts of his disciples, but from the beginning of any one's giving up his name to him, he knew whether it were a pretence or sincere; he knew who should betray him, and there was no man's inward affection but was foreseen by him. "From the beginning," whether we under stand it from the beginning of the world, as when Christ saith concerning divorces, "from the beginning it was not so;" that is, from the beginning of the world, from the beginning of the law of nature, or from the beginning of their attending him, (as it is taken, Luke i. 2,) he had a certain prescience of the inward dispositions of men's hearts, and their succeeding sentiments: he foreknew the treacherous heart of Judas in the midst of his splendid profession; and discerned his resolution in the root, and his thought in the confused chaos of his natural corruption; he knew how it would spring up, before it did spring up, before Judas had any distinct and formal conception of it himself, or before there was any actual preparation to a resolve. Peter's denial was not unknown to him, when Peter had a present resolution, and, no question, spake it in the present sincerity of his soul, "never to forsake him;" he foreknew what would be the result of that poison which lurked in Peter's nature, before Peter himself imagined any thing of it; he discerned Peter's apostatizing heart, when Peter resolved the contrary: our Saviour's prediction was accomplished, and Peter's valiant resolution languished into cowardice.

Shall we then conclude our blessed Saviour a creature, who perfectly and only knew the Father, who knew all creatures, who had all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, who knew the inward motions of men's hearts by his own virtue, and had not only a present knowledge, but a prescience of them.

1 Ἐξ ἀρχῆς.

[2.] The second instruction from this position-That God

has an infinite knowledge and understanding, is-Then there is a providence exercised by God in the world, and that about every thing. As providence infers omniscence as the guide of it; so omniscence infers providence as the end of it. What exercise would there be of this attribute, but in the government of the world? To this infinite perfection Jeremiah refers, xvii. 10; "I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." He searches the heart to reward, he rewards every man according to the rewardableness of his actions; his government therefore extends to every man in the world; there is no heart but he searches, therefore no heart but he governs. To what purpose else would be this knowledge of all his creatures? For a mere contemplation of them? No, what pleasure can that be to God, who knows himself, who is infinitely more excellent than all his creatures? Does he know them, to neglect all care of them? This must be either out of sloth, (but how incompatible is laziness to a pure and infinite activity!) or out of majesty; but it is no less for the glory of his majesty to conduct them, than it was for the glory of his power to erect them into being: he that counts nothing unworthy of his arms to make, nothing unworthy of his understanding to know, why should he count any thing unworthy of his wisdom to govern? If he knows them, to neglect them, it must be because he has no will to it, or no goodness for it; either of these would be a stain upon God; to want goodness is to be evil, and to want will is to be negligent and scornful, which are inconsistent with an infinite, active goodness. Does a father neglect providing for the wants of the family which he knows; or a physician the cure of that disease he understands? God is omniscient, he therefore sees all things; he is good, he does not therefore neglect any thing, but conducts it to the end he appointed it. There is nothing so little that can escape his knowledge, and therefore nothing so little but falls under his providence; nothing so sublime as to be above his understanding, and therefore nothing can be without the compass of his conduct: nothing can escape his eye, and therefore nothing can escape his care; nothing is known by him in vain, as nothing was made by him in vain; there must be acknowledged therefore some end of this knowledge of all his creatures.

[3.] Hence then will follow the certainty of a day of judgment. To what purpose can we imagine this attribute of omniscience so often declared and urged in Scripture to our consideration, but in order to a government of our practice, and a future trial? Every perfection of the Divine nature has sent out brighter rays in the world than this of his infinite knowledge: