necessary knowledge to be allowed to God, because the object. of this knowledge is necessary. The possibility of more creatures than ever were or shall be, is a conclusion that has a necessary truth in it; as it is necessary that the power of God can produce more creatures, though it be not necessary that it should produce more creatures; so it is necessary that whatsoever the power of God can work, is possible to be. And as God knows this possibility, so he knows all the objects that are thus possible; and herein doth much consist the infiniteness of his knowledge, as shall be shown presently.

These two kinds of knowledge differ. That of vision, is of things which God hath decreed to be, though they are not yet. That of intelligence, is of things which never shall be; yet they may be, or are possible to be, if God please to will and order their being. One respects things that shall be; the other, things that may be, and are not repugnant to the nature of God to be. The knowledge of vision follows the act of God's will, and supposes an act of God's will before, decreeing things to be. If we could suppose any first or second in God's decree, we might say God knew them as possible before he decreed. them; he knew them as future because he decreed them. For without the will of God decreeing a thing to come to pass, God cannot know that it will infallibly come to pass. But the knowledge of intelligence stands without any act of his will, in order to the being of those things he knows: he knows possible things only in his power; he knows other things both in his power, as able to effect them, and in his will, as determining the being of them. Such knowledge we must grant to be in God, for there is such a kind of knowledge in man; for man does not only know and see what is before his eyes in this world, but he may have a conception of many more worlds, and many more creatures, which he knows are possible to the power of God.

(2.) Secondly, There is a speculative and practical knowledge in God.

A speculative knowledge is, when the truth of a thing is known without a respect to any working or practical operation. The knowledge of things possible is in God only speculative;' and some say God's knowledge of himself is only speculative, because there is nothing for God to work in himself. And though he knows himself, yet this knowledge of himself does not terminate there, but flows into a love of himself, and delight in himself; yet this love of himself, and delight in himself, are not enough to make it a practical knowledge, because it is natural, and naturally and necessarily flows from the knowledge of himself and his own goodness: he cannot but love

Suarez de Deo, lib. 3. cap. 4. p. 138.

himself, and delight in himself, upon the knowledge of himself. But that which is properly practice, is where there is a dominion over the action, and it is wrought not naturally and necessarily, but in a way of freedom and counsel. As when we see a beautiful flower or other thing, there arises a delight in the mind; this no man will call practice, because it is a natural affection of the will, arising from the virtue of the object, without any consideration of the understanding in a practical manner by counselling, commanding, &c.

A practical knowledge, which tends to operation and practice, and is the principle of working about things that are known; as the knowledge an artificer has in an art or mystery. This knowledge is in God. The knowledge he has of the things he has decreed, is such a kind of knowledge; for it terminates in the act of creation, which is not a natural and necessary act, as the loving himself and delighting in himself is, but wholly free; for it was at his liberty whether he would create them or not: this is called discretion, "He hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion," Jer. x. 12. Such also is his knowledge of the things he has created, and which are in being, for it terminates in the government of them for his own glorious ends. It is by this knowledge "the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew," Prov. iii. 20. This is a knowledge whereby he knows the essence, qualities, and properties of what he creates and governs in order to his own glory, and the common good of the world over which he presides. So that speculative knowledge is God's knowledge of himself and things possible, practical knowledge is his knowledge of his creatures and things governable; yet in some sort this practical knowledge is not only of things that are made, but of things which are possible, which God might make, though he will not; for as he knows that they can be created, so he knows how they are to be created, and how to be governed, though he never will create them. This is a practical knowledge; for it is not requisite to constitute a knowledge practically, actually to act, but that the knowledge in itself be referable to action.1

(3.) There is a knowledge of approbation, as well as apprehension. This the Scripture often mentions: words of understanding are used to signify the acts of affection. This knowledge adds to the simple act of the understanding, the complacency and pleasure of the will; and is improperly knowledge: because it belongs to the will and not to the understanding, only it is radically in the understanding, because affection implies knowledge; men cannot approve of that which they are ignorant of. Thus knowledge is taken, Amos iii. 2, "You only 1 Suarez de Deo, 1. 3. c. 4. p. 140.

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have I known of all the families of the earth." And 2 Tim. ii. 19, "The Lord knoweth them that are his;" that is, he loves them, he does not only know them, but acknowledges them for his own: it denotes not only an exact understanding, but a special care of them. And so is that to be understood, Gen. i. 31. "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good;" that is he saw it with an eye of approbation, as well as apprehension. This is grounded upon God's knowledge of vision, his sight of his creatures; for God does not love or delight in any thing but what is actually in being, or what he has decreed to bring into being. On the contrary, also when God does not approve, he is said not to know: "I know you not," Matt. xxv. 12; and, "I never knew you," Matt. vii. 23. He does not approve of their works: it is not an ignorance of understanding, but an ignorance of will: for while he says he never knew them, he testifies that he did know them in rendering the reason of his disapproving them-because he knows all their works. So he knows them and does not know them, in a different manner: he knows them so as to understand them, but he does not know them so as to love them.

We must then ascribe a universal knowledge to God. If we deny him a speculative knowledge, or knowledge of intelligence, we destroy his Deity, we make him ignorant of his own power: if we deny him practical knowledge, we deny ourselves to be his creatures; for as his creatures, we are the fruits of this his discretion discovered in creation: if we deny his knowledge of vision, we deny his governing dominion. How can he exercise a sovereign and uncontrollable dominion, that is ignorant of the nature and qualities of the things he is to govern? If he had not knowledge he could make no revelation; he that knows not, cannot dictate; we could then have no Scripture. To deny God knowledge, is to dash out the Scripture, and demolish the Deity.

God is described in Zech. iii. 9, with seven eyes, to show his perfect knowledge of all things, all occurrences in the world: and the cherubim, or whatsoever is meant by the wings, are described to be full of eyes, both before and behind, Ezek. i. 18, round about them; much more is God all eye, all ear, all understanding. The sun is a natural image of God: if the sun had an eye, it would see; if it had an understanding, it would know all visible things; it would see what it shines upon, and understand what it influences in the most obscure bowels of the earth. Does God excel his creature the sun in excellency and beauty, and not in light and understanding? Certainly, more than the sun excels an atom or grain of dust.

We may yet make some representation of this knowledge of God by a lower thing; a picture, which seems to look upon

every one, though there be never so great a multitude in the room where it hangs; no man can cast his eye upon it, but it seems to behold him in particular, and so exactly as if there were none but him upon whom the eye of it were fixed; and every man finds the same cast of it. Shall art frame a thing of that nature, and shall not the God of art and all knowledge be much more in reality than that is in imagination? Shall not God have a far greater capacity to behold every thing in the world, which is infinitely less to him than a wide room to a picture?

2. The second thing is, what God knows: how far his understanding reaches.

(1.) God knows himself, and he only knows himself. This is the first and original knowledge, wherein he excels all creatures. No man does exactly know himself; much less does he understand the full nature of a spirit; much less still the nature and perfections of God; for what proportion can there be between a finite faculty and an infinite object? Herein consists the infiniteness of God's knowledge, that he knows his own essence, that he knows that which is unknowable to any else. It does not so much consist in knowing the creature which he has made, as in knowing himself who was never made. It is not so much infinite, because he knows all things which are in the world, or that shall be; or things that he can make, because the number of them is finite; but because he has a perfect and comprehensive knowledge of his own infinite perfections.1 Though it be said that angels see his face, Matt. xviii. 10, that sight denotes rather their immediate attendance than their exact knowledge; they see some signs of his presence and majesty, more illustrious and express than ever appeared to man in this life; but the essence of God is invisible to them, hid from them in the secret place of eternity: none knows God but himself, "What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him; even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God," 1 Cor. ii. 11. The Spirit of God searches the deep things of God; searches, that is, exactly knows, thoroughly understands, as those who have their eyes in every chink and crevice, to see what lies hid there: the word search, notes not an inquiry, but an exact knowledge, such as men have of things upon a diligent scrutiny; as when God is said to search the heart and the reins, it does not signify a precedent ignorance, but an exact knowledge of the most intimate corners of the hearts of men. As the conceptions of men are unknown to any but themselves; so the depths of the Divine essence, perfections, and decrees, are unknown to any but to

1 Moulin.

God himself; he only knows what he is, and what he knows, what he can do, and what he has decreed to do.

If God did not know himself, he would not be perfect. It is the perfection of a creature to know itself, much more a perfection belonging to God. If God did not comprehend himself, he would want an infinite perfection, and so would cease to be God, in being defective in that which intellectual creatures in some measure possess. As God is the most perfect Being, so he must have the most perfect understanding: if he did not understand himself, he would be under the greatest ignorance, because he would be ignorant of the most excellent object. Ignorance is the imperfection of the understanding; and ignorance of oneself is a greater imperfection than ignorance of things without. If God should know all things without himself, and not know himself, he would not have the most perfect knowledge, because he would not have the knowledge of the best of objects.

Without the knowledge of himself, he could not be blessed. Nothing can have any complacency in itself, without the knowledge of itself. Nothing can in a rational manner enjoy itself, without understanding itself. The blessedness of God consists not in the knowledge of any thing without him, but in the knowledge of himself and his own excellency, as the principle of all things. If, therefore, he did not perfectly know himself and his own happiness, he could not enjoy happiness; for to be, and not to know to be, is as if a thing were not. He is "God blessed for ever," Rom. ix. 5, and therefore for ever had a knowledge of himself.

Without the knowledge of himself he could create nothing. For he would be ignorant of his own power, and his own ability; and he that does not know how far his power extends, could not act. If he did not know himself, he could know nothing; and he that knows nothing, can do nothing. He could not know an effect to be possible to him, unless he knew his own power as a cause.

Without the knowledge of himself, he could govern nothing. He could not without the knowledge of his own holiness and righteousness, prescribe laws to men; nor without a knowledge of his own nature, order himself a manner of worship suitable to it.

All worship must be congruous to the dignity and nature of the object worshipped; he must therefore know his own. authority whereby worship was to be enacted, his own excellency to which worship was to be suited, his own glory to which worship was to be directed. If he did not know himself, he did not know what to punish, because he would not know what was contrary to himself. Not knowing himself, he would