Part 35
1. This would give check to much iniquity. Can a man's conscience easily and delightfully swallow that which he is sensible falls under the' cognizance of God, when it is hateful to the eye of his holiness, and renders
the actor odious to him ? * Doth he not see my ways, and count all my steps,' saith Job, chap. xxxi. 4. To what end doth he fix this considera tion ? To keep him from wanton glances. Temptations have no encour agement to come near him that is constantly armed with the thoughts that
his sin is booked in God's omniscience. If any impudent devil hath the face to tempt us, we should not have the impudence to join issue with him under the sense of an infinite understanding. HOWT fruitless would his wiles be against this consideration ! How easily would his snares be cracked by one sensible thought of this ! This doth Solomon prescribe to allay the heat of carnal imaginations, Prov. v. 20, 21. It were a useful question to ask at the appearance of every temptation, at the entrance upon every action, as the church did in temptations to idolatry, Ps. xliv. 21,
1 Shall not God search this out, for he knows the secrets of the heart ? ' His understanding comprehends us more than our consciences can our acts, or our understanding our thoughts. Who durst speak treason against a prince if he were sure he heard him, or that it would come to his know
ledge ? A sense of God's knowledge of wickedness in the first motion and inward contrivance would bar the accomplishment and execution. The con
sideration of God's infinite understanding would cry Stand to the first glances of the heart to sin.
2. It would make us watchful over our hearts and thoughts. Should we harbour any unworthy thoughts in our cabinet, if our heads and hearts were possessed with this useful truth, that God knows everything which comes into our minds, we should as much blush at the rising of impure thoughts before the understanding of God as at the discovery of unworthy actions to the knowledge of men. If we lived under a sense that not a thought of all those millions which flutter about our minds can be concealed from him, how watchful and careful should we be of our hearts and thoughts !
3. It would be a good preparation to every duty. This consideration should be the preface to every service, — The divine understanding knows how I now act. This would engage us to serious intention, and quell wan dering and distracting fancies. Who would come before God with a care less and ignorant soul, under a sense of his infinite understanding, and
prerogative of searching the heart ? * 0 thou that sittest in heaven ' was a consideration the psalmist had at the beginning of his prayer, Ps. cxxiii. 1, whereby he testifies not only an apprehension of the majesty and power of God, but of his omniscience, as one sitting above beholds all that is below. Would we offer to God such raw and undigested petitions; would there be so much flatness in our services; should our hearts so often give us the slip ; would any hang down their heads like a bulrush by an affected or
Ps. CXLVII. 5.] » GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. 5^5
counterfeit humility while the heart is filled with pride, if we did actuate faith in this attribute ? No ; our prayers would be more sound, our devo tions more vigorous, our^ hearts more close, our spirits like the chariots of Amminadab, more swift in their motions. Everything would be done by us with all our might, which would be very feeble and faint if we conceived God to be of a finite understanding like ourselves. Let us therefore before every duty, not draw, but open the curtains between God and our souls, and think that we are going before him that sees us, Gen. xvi. 13, before him that knows us. And the stronger impressions of the divine knowledge are upon our minds, the better would our preparation be for, and the more active our frames in every service. And certainly we may judge of the suit ableness of our preparations by the strength of such impressions upon us.
4. This would tend to make us sincere in our whole course. This pre scription David gave to Solomon, to maintain a soundness and health of
spirit in his walk before God : 1 Chron. xxviii. 9, ' And thou Solomon, my son, know the God of thy fathers, and serve him with a perfect heart; for
the Lord understands all the imaginations of the thoughts.' Josephus* gives this reason for Abel's holiness, that he believed God was ignorant of nothing. As the doctrine of omniscience is the foundation of all reli gion, so the impression of it would promote the practice of all religion. When all our ways are imagined by us to be before the Lord, we shall then keep his precepts, Ps. cxix. 168. And we can never be perfect or
sincere till we walk before God, Gen. xvii. 1, as under the eye of God's knowledge. What we speak, what we think, what we act, is in his sight. He knows every place where we are, everything that we do, as well as Christ knew Nathanael under the fig-tree. As he is too powerful to be vanquished, so he is too understanding to be deceived. The sense of this would make us walk with as much care as if the understanding of all men did compre hend us and our actions.
5. 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 did perfectly know 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 oppres sions, hidden lusts, omissions of necessary duties, violation of plain precepts, every foolish imagination, with all the circumstances of them, and that per fectly 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 consideration of this melt our hearts into humiliation before him, and make us earnest in begging pardon and forgiveness of him ?
Again, Do we not all find a worm in our best fruit, a flaw in our soundest duties ? Shall any of us vaunt, as if God beheld only the gold, and not any dross ; as if he knew one thing only, and not another. If we knew some
thing by ourselves to cheer us, do we not also know something, yea, many
* Antiquit., lib. i. cap. 3.
536 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. CXLVII. 5.
things, to condemn us, and therefore to humble us ? Let the sense of God's infinite knowledge, therefore, be an incentive and argument for more humi liation in us. If we know enough to render ourselves vile in our own eyes, how much more doth God know to render us vile in his !
6. The consideration of this excellent perfection should make us to acquiesce in God, and rely upon him in every strait. In public, in private, he knows all cases, and he knows all remedies* He knows the seasons of bringing them, and he knows the seasons of removing them, for his own glory. What is contingent in respect of us, and of our foreknowledge, and
in respect of second causes, it is riot so in regard of God's, who hath the knowledge of the futurition of all things. £e knows all causes in themselves, and therefore knows what every cause will produce, what will be the event of every counsel and of every action. How should we commit ourselves to this God of infinite understanding, who knows all things, and foreknows everything ; that cannot be forced through ignorance to take new counsel, or be surprised with anything that can happen to us. This use the psalmist makes of it : Ps. x. 14, •* Thou hast seen it, the poor committeth him
self unto thee.' Though « some trust in chariots and horses,' Ps. xx. 7, some in counsels and counsellors, some in their arms and courage, and some
in mere vanity and nothing, yet let us ' remember the name' and nature ' of the Lord our God,' his divine perfections, of which this of his infinite under standing and omniscience is none of the least, but so necessary, that without it he could not be God, and the whole world would be a mere chaos and confusion.
END OF VOL. I.
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