otion, Dr.
Hodge remarks, "But this is to suppose that God wills not to be God,
that the Infinite wills to be finite. Knowledge in God is not
founded on His will, except so far as the knowledge of vision is
concerned--_i.e._, His knowledge of His own purposes, or what He has
decreed shall come to pass. If not founded on His will it cannot be
limited by it. Infinite knowledge must know all things actual or
possible" (Vol. I., p. 546). Although the motive underlying Clarke's
argument is good, yet it is not wise to sacrifice the Divine
intelligence to the Divine goodness. God is the infinitely perfect
one, but to suppose that He is ignorant of what will happen tomorrow
is to limit His perfections, and make Him a dependent being. But
neither can we accept the Calvinistic doctrine, that God foreknows
because He has foreordained. This, properly speaking, is not
foreknowledge, but _after_ knowledge, since it comes after the
decree. It is, moreover, simply assertion. It is not a self-evident
proposition, and is neither backed by reason nor Scripture. The
great difficulty, however, with our Calvinistic friends is regarding
certainty. If God is certain that an event will happen, then, so it
is argued, it must happen. If we deny that there is an absolute
necessity for the event as an event happening, then it is replied
that God in that case was not certain. But this is sophistical
reasoning--slipshod philosophy. God was certain that the event would
happen, but He was also certain that it need not have happened. The
Divine knowledge is simply a state of the Divine intelligence, and
never causes any thing. It comprehends all that is past, all that
now is, and all that will ever be. But it comprises more than this,
and herein lies the key of the mystery. It takes in the possible, or
that which is never realised in the actual. Human knowledge does
this--and how much more the Divine! God knows that the thief will
steal; He is certain that he will do it, but He is also certain that
he need not do it. His being certain that the theft will take place
does not necessitate the theft. It (the certainty) exercises no
controlling agency upon the wrong-doer. Dr. W. Cooke remarks, "What
is involved in necessity? It is a resistless impulse exerted for a
given end. What is freedom? It involves a self-determining power to
will and to act. What is prescience? It is simply knowledge of an
event before it happens. Such being, we conceive, a correct
r