quae
erunt, quae fuerantque._--he is one that is all, before all, after all, and
in all. He beholds out of the exaled and supereminent tower of eternity,
all the successions and changes of the creatures; and there is no
succession, no mutation in his knowledge, as in ours. "Known to him are
all his works from the beginning." He can declare the end before the
beginning; for he knows the end of all things, before he gives them
beginning. Therefore he is never driven to any consultation upon any
emergence, or incident, as the wisest of men are, who could not foresee
all accidents and events; but "he is in one mind," saith Job; and that one
mind and one purpose is one for all, one concerning all. He had it from
everlasting, and who can turn him? For he will accomplish what his soul
desires.

Now, "canst thou by searching find out God?" Canst thou, a poor mortal
creature, either ascend up into the height of heaven, or descend down into
the depths of hell? Canst thou travel abroad, and compass all the sea and
dry land, by its longitude and latitude? Would any mortal creature
undertake such a voyage, to compass the universe? Nay, not only so, but to
search into every corner of it, above and below, on the right hand and on
the left? No certainly, unless we suppose a man whose head reaches unto
the height of heaven, and whose feet is down in the depths of hell, and
whose arms, stretched out, can fathom the length of the earth, and breadth
of the sea; unless, I say, we suppose such a creature, then it is in vain
to imagine, that either the height of the one, or the depth of the
other,--the length of the one, and the breadth of the other, can be found
out and measured. Now, if mortal creatures cannot attain the measure of
that which is finite, O then, what can a creature do? What can a creature
know of him that is infinite, and the maker of all these things? You
cannot compass the sea and land, how then can a soul comprehend him, "who
hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and comprehended the
dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and
the hills in a balance?" Isa. xl. 12. Thou canst not measure the
circumference of the heaven, how then canst thou find out him, "who metes
out heaven with the span," "and stretcheth them out as a curtain?" Isa.
xl. 12, 22. You cannot number the nations, or perceive the magnitude of
the earth, and the huge extent of the heavens, what then canst thou know
of