ill? Nay but, O
man, who art thou that repliest against God?... Hath not the potter
power,' etc.? And before him Isaiah, chapter 58, 2: 'Yet they seek Me
daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness,
and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the
ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God,' These
words, I take it, show abundantly that it is unlawful for men to
scrutinize the will of majesty." (E. 228; St. L. 1803.)

Instead of searching the Scriptures, as they are commanded to do, men
unlawfully crave to investigate the hidden judgments of God. We read:
"But we are nowhere more irreverent and rash than when we invade and
argue these very mysteries and judgments which are unsearchable.
Meanwhile we imagine that we are exercising incredible reverence in
searching the Holy Scriptures, which God has commanded us to search.
Here we do not search, but where He has forbidden us to search, there we
do nothing but search with perpetual temerity, not to say blasphemy. Or
is it not such a search when we rashly endeavor to make that wholly free
foreknowledge of God accord with our liberty, and are ready to detract
from the prescience of God, if it does not allow us liberty, or if it
induces necessity, to say with the murmurers and blasphemers, 'Why doth
He find fault? Who shall resist His will? What is become of the most
merciful God? What of Him who wills not the death of the sinner? Has He
made men that He might delight Himself with their torments?' and the
like, which will be howled out forever among the devils and the damned."
(E. 266, St. L. 1848.)

God's unknowable will is not and cannot be our guide. Luther: "The
_Diatribe_ beguiles herself through her ignorance, making no distinction
between the proclaimed and the hidden God, that is between the Word of
God and God Himself. God does many things which He has not shown us in
His Word. He also wills many things concerning which He has not shown us
in His Word that He wills them. For instance, He does not will the death
of a sinner namely, according to His Word, but He wills it according to
His inscrutable will. Now, our business is to look at His Word,
disregarding the inscrutable will; for we must be directed by the Word,
not by that inscrutable will (_nobis spectandum est Verbum
relinquendaque illa voluntas imperscrutabilis; Verbo enim nos dirigi,
non voluntate illa inscrutabili oportet_). Indeed, who could direc