comprehends all created things as they are in God; it is a knowledge
that sinks to the depths of his will, and therefore extends {a467} 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 doth, that the Son doth” (John
v. 19). As the Father therefore knows all things he is the cause of,
so doth the Son know all things he is the worker of; as the perfect
making of all things belongs to both, so doth 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 as 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 anything, 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.[741]
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.
3. Christ knows the heart and affections of men. Peter scruples not
to ascribe to him this knowledge, among the knowledge of all other
things (John xxi. 17). “Lord thou knowest all things, thou knowest
that I love thee.” 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 (1 Kings viii. 39), for thou,
even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men: 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 Ps.
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 everywhere (Ps. xxxiii. 13, 15),[742] 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
doth (Rev. ii. 23), we must conclude that he is of the same essence
with {a468} 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 to 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 (John ii. 24, 25): “he knew all men, and needed
not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man:” 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, doth not say the
Father revealed it to him, but intimates it to be an unseparable
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 faithfulest attendants, were in their inside known
to him plainer than their outside was to 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).
4. 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 their names 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.[743]
“From the beginning,” whether we understand 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 {a469} 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 anything 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?
_Instruct. 2._ The second instruction from this position, That
God hath an infinite knowledge and understanding. Then there is a
providence exercised by God in the world, and that about everything.
As providence infers omniscience as the guide of it, so omniscience
infers providence as the end of it. What exercise would there be of
this attribute, but in the government of the world? To this, this
infinite perfection refers (Jer. xvii. 10), “I the Lord search the
heart, I try the reins, 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? Doth 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 anything unworthy of his wisdom to govern? If he knows them to
neglect them, it must be because he hath 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. Doth 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 doth not therefore
neglect anything, 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
{a470} 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 to 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.
_Instruct. 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 hath sent out brighter rays in the
world than this of his infinite knowledge. His power hath been seen in
the being of the world, and his wisdom in the order and harmony of the
creatures; his grace and mercy hath been plentifully poured out in his
mission of a Redeemer, and his justice hath been elevated by the dying
groans of the Son of God upon the cross. But hath his omniscience yet
met with a glory proportionable to that of his other perfections? All
the attributes of God that have appeared in some beautiful glimmerings
in the world, wait for a more full manifestation in glory, as
the creatures do for the “manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom.
viii. 19); but especially this, since it hath been less evidenced than
others, and as much, or more, abused than any; it expects, therefore,
a public righting in the eye of the world. There have been, indeed,
some few sparks of this perfection sensibly struck out now and then
in the world in some horrors of conscience, which have made men
become their own accusers of unknown crimes, in bringing out hidden
wickedness to a public view by various providences. This hath also
been the design of sprinklings of judgments upon several generations,
as (Ps. xc. 8), “We are consumed by thy anger, and by thy wrath we are
troubled; thou hast set our iniquities before thee, and our secret
sins in the light of thy countenance.” The word עלומנו signifies youth,
as well as secret, _i. e._, sins committed long ago, and that with
secrecy. By this he hath manifested that secret sins are not hid from
his eye. Though inward terrors and outward judgments have been let
loose to worry men into a belief of this, yet the corruptions of men
would still keep a contrary notion in their minds, that “God hath
forgotten, that he hides his face from transgression, and will not
regard their impiety” (Ps. x. 11). There must, therefore, be a time
of trial for the public demonstration of this excellency, that it may
receive its due honor, by a full testimony that no secrecy can be a
shelter from it. As his justice, which consists in giving every one
his due, could not be glorified, unless men were called to an account
for their actions, so neither would his omniscience appear in its
illustrious colors, without such a manifestation of the secret motions
of men’s hearts, and of villanies done under lock and key, when none
were conscious to them, but the committers of them. Now the last
judgment is the time appointed for the “opening of the books” (Dan.
vii. 10). The book of God’s records, and conscience the counterpart,
were never fully opened and read before, only now and then some pages
turned to, in particular judgments; and out of those “books shall men
be judged according to their works” {a471} (Rev. xx. 12). Then shall
the defaced sins be brought, with all their circumstances, to every
man’s memory; the counsels of men’s hearts fled far from their present
remembrance, all the habitual knowledge they had of their own actions,
shall, by God’s knowledge of them, be excited to an actual review;
and their works not only made manifest to themselves, but notorious
to the world: all the words, thoughts, deeds of men, shall be brought
forth into the light of their own minds by the infinite light of
God’s understanding reflecting on them. His knowledge renders him an
unerring witness, as well as his justice “a swift witness” (Mal. iii.
5); a swift witness, because he shall, without any circuit, or length
of speech, convince their consciences, by an inward illumination of
them, to take notice of the blackness and deformity of their hearts
and works. In all judgments God is somewhat known to be the searcher
of hearts; the time of judgment is the time of his remembrance (Hos.
viii. 13): “Now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their
sins;” but the great instant, or now, of the full glorifying it, is
the grand day of account. This attribute must have a time for its
full discovery; and no time can be fit for it but a time of a general
reckoning. Justice cannot be exercised without omniscience; for as
justice is a giving to every one his due, so there must be knowledge
to discern what is due to every man; the searching the heart is in
order to the rewarding the works.
_Instruct. 4._ This perfection in God gives us ground to believe a
resurrection. Who can think this too hard for his power, since not
the least atom of the dust of our bodies can escape his knowledge? An
infinite understanding comprehends every mite of a departed carcase;
this will not appear impossible, nor irrational, to any, upon a
serious consideration, of this excellency in God. The body is perished,
the matter of it hath been since clothed with different forms and
figures; part of it hath been made the body of a worm, part of it
returned to the dust that hath been blown away by the wind; part of it
hath been concocted in the bodies of canibals, fish, ravenous beasts;
the spirits have evaporated into air, part of the blood melted into
water; what, then, is the matter of the body annihilated? is that
wholly perished? no; the foundation remains, though it hath put on
a variety of forms; the body of Abel, the first man that died, nor
the body of Adam, are not, to this day, reduced to nothing; indeed,
the quantity and the quality of those bodies have been lost by various
changes they have past through since their dissolution; but the
matter, or substance of them, remains entire, and is not capable
to be destroyed by all those transforming alterations, in so long
a revolution of time. The body of a man in his infancy and his old
age, if it were Methuselah’s, is the same in the foundation in those
multitude of years; though the quantity of it be altered, the quality
different; though the color and other things be changed in it, the
matter of this body remains the same among all the alterations after
death. And can it be so mixed with other natures and creatures, as
that it is past finding out by an infinite understanding? Can any
particle of this matter escape the eye of Him that makes and beholds
all those various {a472} alterations, and where every mite of the
substance of those bodies is particularly lodged, so as that he
cannot compact it together again for a habitation of that soul, that
many a year before fled from it?[744] Since the knowledge of God is
infinite, and his providence extensive over the least as well as the
greatest parts of the world, he must needs know the least as well
as the greatest of his creatures in their beginning, progress, and
dissolution; all the forms through which the bodies of all creatures
roll, the particular instants of time, and the particular place when
and where those changes are made, they are all present with him; and,
therefore, when the revolution of time allotted by him for the reunion
of souls and deceased bodies is come, it cannot be doubted but, out
of the treasures of his knowledge, he can call forth every part of
the matter of the bodies of men, from the first to the last man that
expired, and strip it of all those forms and figures which it shall
then have, to compact it to be a lodging for that soul which before
it entertained; and though the bodies of men have been devoured by
wild beasts in the earth, and fish in the sea, and been lodged in the
stomachs of barbarous men‑eaters, the matter is not lost. There is but
little of the food we take that is turned into the substance of our
own bodies; that which is not proper for nourishment, which is the
greatest part, is separated, and concocted, and rejected; whatsoever
objections are made, are answered by this attribute. Nothing hinders a
God of infinite knowledge from discerning every particle of the matter,
wheresoever it is disposed; and since he hath an eye to discern, and
a hand to recollect and unite, what difficulty is there in believing
this article of the christian faith? he that questions this revealed
truth of the resurrection of the body, must question God’s omniscience
as well as his omnipotence and power.
_Instruct. 5._ What semblance of reason is there to expect a
justification in the sight of God by anything in ourselves? Is there
any action done by any of us, but upon a scrutiny we may find flaws
and deficiency in it? What then? shall not this perfection of God
discern them? the motes that escape our eyes cannot escape his (1 John
iii. 20): “God is greater than our hearts, and knows all things;” so
that it is in vain for any man to flatter himself with the rectitude
of any work, or enter into any debate with him who can bring a
thousand articles against us, out of his own infinite records, unknown
to us, and unanswerable by us. If conscience, a representative or
counterpart of God’s omniscience in our own bosoms, find nothing done
by us, but in a copy short of the original, and beholds, if not blurs,
yet imperfections in the best actions, God must much more discern
them; we never knew a copy equally exact with the original. If our
own conscience be as a thousand witnesses, the knowledge of God is as
millions of witnesses against us; if our corruption be so great, and
our holiness so low, in our own eyes, how much greater must the one,
and how much meaner must the other, appear in the eyes of God? God
hath an unerring eye to see, as well as an unspotted holiness to hate,
and an unbribable justice to punish; he wants no more understanding
to know the shortness of our actions, {a473} than he doth holiness
to enact, and power to execute, his laws; nay, suppose we could
recollect many actions, wherein there were no spot visible to us, the
consideration of this attribute should scare us from resting upon any
or all of them, since it is the Lord that, by a piercing eye, sees and
judges according to the heart, and not according to appearance. The
least crookedness of a stick, not sensible to an acute eye, yet will
appear when laid to the line; and the impurity of a counterfeit metal
be manifest when applied to the touchstone; so will the best action
of any mere man in the world, when it comes to be measured in God’s
knowledge by the straight line of his law. Let every man, therefore,
as Paul, though he should know nothing by himself, think not himself
therefore justified; since it is the Lord, who is of an infinite
understanding, that judgeth (1 Cor. iv. 4). A man may be justified in
his own sight, “but not any living man can be justified in the sight
of God” (Ps. cxliii. 2); in his sight, whose eye pierceth into our
unknown secrets and frames: it was, therefore, well answered of a good
man upon his death bed, being asked “What he was afraid of?” “I have
labored,” saith he, “with all my strength to observe the commands
of God; but since I am a man, I am ignorant whether my works are
acceptable to God, since God judges in one manner, and I in another
manner.” Let the consideration therefore of this attribute, make us
join with Job in his resolution (Job ix. 21): “Though we were perfect,
yet would we not know our own souls.” I would not stand up to plead
any of my virtues before God. Let us, therefore, look after another
righteousness, wherein the exact eye of the Divine omniscience, we are
sure, can discern no stain or crookedness.
_Instruct. 6._ What honorable and adoring thoughts ought we to
have of God for this perfection! Do we not honor a man that is able
to predict? do we not think it a great part of wisdom? Have not all
nations regarded such a faculty as a character and a mark of divinity?
There is something more ravishing in the knowledge of future things,
both to the person that knows them, and the person that hears them,
than there is in any other kind of knowledge; whence the greatest
prophets have been accounted 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?[745] 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 foreknow 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 foreknow and know
the thoughts and {a474} works of three or four men, of a whole village
or neighborhood! 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 honorable
in our eyes, and adorable in all our affections; especially since it
is an excellency 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 without 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.