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发帖数: 10575 | 1 Sect. XII. — I OBSERVE further, not only how true these things are (
concerning which I shall speak more at large hereafter out of the Scriptures
) but also how religious, pious, and necessary it is to know them; for if
these things be not known there can be neither faith, nor any worship of God
ignorance salvation, it is well known, cannot consist. For if you doubt, or
disdain to know that God foreknows and wills all things, not contingently,
but necessarily and immutably, how can you believe confidently, trust to,
and depend upon His promises? For when He promises, it is necessary that you
should be certain that He knows, is able, and willing to perform what He
promises; otherwise, you will neither hold Him true nor faithful; which is
unbelief, the greatest of wickedness, and a denying of the Most High God!
And how can you be certain and secure, unless you are persuaded that He
knows and wills certainly, infallibly, immutably, and necessarily, and will
perform what He promises? Nor ought we to be certain only that God wills
necessarily and immutably, and will perform, but also to glory in the same;
as Paul, (Rom. iii. 4,) “Let God be true, but every man a liar.” And again
, “For the word of God is not without effect.” (Rom. ix. 6.) And in
another place, “The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the
Lord knoweth them that are His.” (2 Tim. ii. 19.) And, “Which God, that
cannot lie, promised before the world began.” (Titus i. 2.) And, “He that
cometh, must believe that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that
hope in Him.” (Heb. xi. 6.) .
If, therefore, we are taught, and if we believe, that we ought not to know
the necessary prescience of God, and the necessity of the things that are to
take place, Christian faith is utterly destroyed, and the promises of God
and the whole Gospel entirely fall to the ground; for the greatest and only
consolation of Christians in their adversities, is the knowing that God lies
not, but does all things immutably, and that His will cannot be resisted,
changed, or hindered. |
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