CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

First, That it is only Gods property to foreknow things to come;¹ We matter not those wretched Socinians who deny any prescience in God, because they say this would induce an absolute necessity, and it would be as vain a thing to think to avoid what God doth foreknow as what he doth preordain; Therefore they take away one as well as the other, but this is impudently to contradict the Scripture which doth so often make prescience a property belonging solely to God, observe that place Isa. 41.21, 22, 23. show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know ye are gods, and indeed he only can know future things that only knoweth the hearts of men, and that the Scripture attributeth to God only; Indeed the Prophets who were but men, yet they did foretell many things to come, but they were only ministerial in this, It was God that revealed these things to them, so that it was not they so much as God, and thus the Scripture revealeth things to come because it's the word of him who knoweth all things, and it's the writing of such who were immediately inspired by the holy Ghost; Now one reason why God must needs foreknow what is to come, is because nothing can ever be without his decree predictive of it, and so because God knoweth what he will do, therefore he knoweth what shall be; Therefore we need not with the Jesuits run to a scientia media, whereby God knoweth all things they say from the infinity of his knowledge, comprehending the nature of things antecedently to his Decree, their actions absolutely future or conditionally only, for his knowledge is founded upon his decree.

First, That it is only Gods property to foreknow things to come;¹ We matter not those wretched Socinians who deny any prescience in God, because they say this would enduce an absolute necessity, and it would be as vain a thing to think to avoid what God doth foreknow as what he doth preordain; Therefore they take away one as well as the other, but this is impudently to contradict the Scripture which doth so often make prescience a property belonging solely to God, observe that place Isa. 41.21, 22, 23. shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know ye are gods, and indeed he only can know future things that only knoweth the hearts of men, and that the Scripture attributeth to God only; Indeed the Prophets who were but men, yet they did foretell many things to come, but they were only ministeriall in this, It was God that revealed these things to them, so that it was not they so much as God, and thus the Scripture revealeth things to come because it's the word of him who knoweth all things, and it's the writing of such who were immediatly inspired by the holy Ghost; Now one reason why God must needs foreknow what is to come, is because nothing can ever be without his decree predictive of it, and so because God knoweth what he will do, therefore he knoweth what shall be; Therefore we need not with the Jesuites run to a scientia media, whereby God knoweth all things they say from the infinity of his knowledge, comprehending the nature of things antecedently to his Decree, their actions absolutely future or conditionally only, for his knowledge is founded upon his decree.