Wesley Corpus

what God himself affirms of his own dispen sations, " What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." This declaration, though uttered by our blessed Lord upon a particular occasion to one of his disciples, may, if rightly understood and duly remembered, be of great benefit to all Christians. Should a perplexing thought arise in any of our hearts respecting any of the ways of God, or the reasons of them, should our minds be troubled because unable to com prehend them, we may immediately silence them with the reflection this is an unavoidable evil ; what God doeth, thou knowest not now ;" or rather it is no evil at all, for " thou shalt know hereafter." Man cannot understand, First, how the infinite God operates in num berless cases ; Secondly, why things are done by him which he is fully sensible are done. After illustrating a few instances of our ig norance, I intend, thirdly, to offer some reasons why we may suppose this ignorance to be our portion, and wherefore the Almighty has been pleased to ordain that, respecting most of his ways, we cannot know them till hereafter. First, we cannot know how it is that the Supreme Governor holds the world in its pre sent state ; " how he spreadeth the north over the empty space, and suspendeth the earth upon nothing ;" " how he teacheth the sun his cer tain seasons, and maketh the moon still to know her going down ;" how he sustaineth those other great lights which continually float in the firmament of heaven ; how he balanceth them, so that no force can shake them, and so arranges their innumerable armies that every one keeps his appointed station, and constantly runs the appointed race ; that though each of them has moved so many thousands of years, with such inconceivable swiftness, yet each preserves its due rank and equal dis tance from all others ; that amidst the variety of their motions there is the utmost regularity no injury, no confusion, but all is order, har mony, and peace. It is certain that those who are too wise to