standing our bias to sin, through the innate corruption of our nature, we have power to "refuse the evil, and choose the good." That Peter believed himself possessed of this freedom of moral agency, the history makes evident. No sooner had he completed the prediction, than his eyes poured out the tears of repentance. He referred his apostacy to the determination of his own will, and humbled himself to the dust in anguish of spirit. The blame was his own, and his conscience told him so, with keen upbraiding. 2 Our Lord declared, in reference to Judas: "He, that dippeth his hand with Me in the dish, the same shall betray Me';" for "Jesus knew from the beginning, who they were, that believed not, and who should betray Him "." But Judas was not, of necessity, a traitor. He was not "tempted of God," but It was "drawn aside of his own lust, and enticed." his own express acknowledgment: "I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood 5;" and we read, that from the Apostleship Judas "by transgression fell," and that the thirty pieces of silver were" the reward of iniquity"." God signified in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, that His Beloved Son should take upon Him our nature, and by death offer a sacrifice of atonement, effective to the recovery of the corrupted human race. "Those things, which God before had showed by the mouth of all His Prophets, that Christ should suffer, He fulfilled 1." The Redeemer was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world 2." But the crucifiers of Jesus were not, on that account, the less guilty. They acted according to the dictates of their sinful passions, when they might have followed a different rule; and for this their evil choice they were obnoxious to punishment. Peter said to them: “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain 3." "Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you.Repent ye, and be converted, that blotted out +4." your sins St. may be But is not every action of man, past, present, and future, open to God's discernment? Unquestionably. "Known unto Him are all His works," and the works and ways of all His creatures, "from the beginning of the world 5." How, then, is human liberty to be reconciled with the Divine Prescience? We are incompetent to explain". "Such know Acts iii: 18. 2 Rev. xiii. 8. 3 Acts ii. 23. 5 Acts xv. 18. my understand "I own freely (says Locke,) the weakness of 2 ledge is too wonderful" for us: we "cannot attain unto it 1." We are certain, nevertheless, that man is free, and that God's Prescience extends through all time. Sacred Scripture instructs us, and the accomplishment of Prophecy affords proof, that God is omniscient, that He "declareth the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done 3;" yet every precept, and promise, and threatening in the Bible, implies man's liberty of choice, and is addressed to him, as a rational agent, placed in a state of probation *. These principles are not repugnant to each other; they are not inconsistent; each is established by completely satisfactory evidence; but how they harmonize is a mys ing, that, though it be unquestionable, that there is omnipotence and omniscience in God, our Maker, and I cannot have a clearer perception of any thing, than that I am free, yet I cannot make freedom in man consistent with omnipotence and omniscience in God, though I am as fully persuaded of both, as of any truths I most firmly assent to." Works, vol. iii. Bishop Sumner says: 'Every candid reasoner will confess a difficulty, which is not likely to be cleared up on this side the grave, in reconciling the Divine Prescience with the free agency of man. But what is impossible with man is possible with God. And those, who deny this possibility, by limiting the power of the Creator to the bounds of their own understanding, are the adversaries of His glory." Apostolical Preaching considered, chap. ii. 1 Psalm cxxxix. 6. 'The Prescience of God (says one of the Fathers,) hath as many witnesses as it hath made Prophets and Prophecies. 3 Isaiah xlvi. 10. * Tolle liberum arbitrium, quomodo Deus judicabit? Augustin. tery to us inexplicable'. This is one of "the secret things, which belong unto the Lord our God 2" Nor ought it to be a matter of surprise, that we are unable to "know the mind of the Lord "," and to "find out the Almighty unto perfection." It is a conclusion of natural reason, that His "judgments" must be" unsearchable 4" to creatures "seeing through a glass darkly," and knowing but "in part 5." He Himself has told us: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways "." 6 Sufficient it is for us to be assured, that the Prescience of God and the Freedom of human action co-exist. Submitting to this Truth with "the obedience of faith "," and sensible that the best efforts, of which we are capable, betray "the weakness of our mortal nature," it becomes us to labour with diligence, and pray fervently for aid, to "walk worthy" of our holy "vocation "," satisfied and thankful, that, though we cannot apprehend God, as indeed He is, we are blessed with all the knowledge of Him necessary to the salvation of our souls. We "know the love that He hath to us "," through which we hope to attain to the perfection of knowledge-to "know, even as also we are known "—in "the ever 10" 1 See Davison's Discourses on Prophecy. Disc. vii. lasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ 1." SECTION V. PREDICTION V. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest but, when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not." John xxi. 18. Our Saviour thus addressed Peter at one of His appearances after the resurrection. St. John says: "This is now the third time that Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after that He was risen from the dead 2." It was the third manifestation to a collected body of followers 3. The disciples had retired from Jerusalem, in obedience to their Lord's command, into the country of Galilee. Seven of them, among whom were Peter and John, had resumed their original occupation, and were fishing on the Galilean lake, when, early 1 2 Pet. i. 11. 2 John xxi. 14. 3 The present was the fourth personal manifestation of our Lord after the resurrection, in the order of St. John's Gospel, if we take into account the appearance to Mary Magdalene; and several appearances, not noticed by St. John, are recorded by the other Evangelists. |