A _motive_ pulls me this way, another pulls me
that; but in the end, my _will_ follows one or the other. I can, then,
do as I please. On the other hand, Infinite Knowledge must know, and
have known from all eternity, what I shall do now, and at every moment
of my future being: and for Omnipotence to know from all eternity what
will be, is, in our human sense, practically undistinguishable from the
thought that the Power has predestined the same; and man cannot of
course alter that. Here, then, by separate lines of thought, we are
brought to two opposite and irreconcilable conclusions. It is so always.
We cannot ourselves imagine how a fixed set of laws and rules can be
followed, and yet the best interests of each and every one of God's
creatures be served as truly as if God directly wielded the machinery of
nature only for the special benefit of the individual. The thing is
unthinkable to us: yet directly we reason on the necessarily _unlimited_
capability of a Divine Providence, we are led to the conclusion that it
must be possible. Here then is the province of _Faith_.[1]
[Footnote 1: The Scripture clearly recognizes the two opposing lines. In
one place we read, "Thou hast given them a law which _shall not be
broken_;" in another, "All things work together for good to them that
love God.
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