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

Therefore fifthly, It is not to be thought impossible, that even all things that are to come should be thus present to Christ, though it be to us. For our knowledge is measured by time, and there is not only a successive order in the objects we know, but also in the acts of knowing: But the measure of Gods knowledge is by eternity, wherein all things do exist together: So that though in themselves one object be after another, yet in respect of God, they are beheld with one intuitive act: As a man with one cast of an eye from some high Tower doth behold many passengers going by, one after another. It's true, we can no more comprehend how these things are all at once open and naked to God, then a Dwarf can reach the Pyramids, yet for all that we are to believe, what by reason we cannot comprehend. Quid enim magis contra rationem, quam ratione supra rationem transcendere, said Bernard. It's enough for our comfort, that every believer, though yet unborn was in Christs purpose and intention, when he laid down his life, as if they had been existent in the land of the living.

Therefore fifthly, It is not to be thought impossible, that even all things that are to come should be thus present to Christ, though it be to us. For our knowledge is measured by time, and there is not only a successive order in the objects we know, but also in the acts of knowing: But the measure of Gods knowledge is by eternity, wherein all things do exist together: So that though in themselves one object be after another, yet in respect of God, they are beheld with one intuitive act: As a man with one cast of an eye from some high Tower doth behold many passengers going by, one after another. It's true, we can no more comprehend how these things are all at once open and naked to God, then a Dwarf can reach the Pyramides, yet for all that we are to believe, what by reason we cannot comprehend. Quid enim magis contra rationem, quam ratione supra rationem transcendere, said Bernard. It's enough for our comfort, that every believer, though yet unborn was in Christs purpose and intention, when he laid down his life, as if they had been existent in the land of the living.