He  knew,  in  all  eternity,  the  sins  of  Ahab  and  his
people  and  the  prayer  of  Elijah,  upon  which  He  for
three  years  withheld  and  then  gave  the  rain ;  or  that
David  would  leave  in  His  hands  the  choice  of  the
seven  years  of  famine,  or  the  three  days  of  pestilence.
In  all  eternity  He  knew  the  sins  of  Pharaoh  and  his
evanescent  repentance,  upon  which  He  brought  the
locusts  with  the  East  wind,  and,  at  Moses'  prayer,
carried  them  away  with  the  West  wind.  In  all  eter-
nity He  knew  that  discriminating  dispensation,  by
which  He  ""^  caused  it  to  rain  upon  one  city  and  caused
it  not  to  rain  upon  another  city ;  one  piece  was  rained
upon  and  the  piece  which  was  not  rained  upon,  wi-
thered." In  that  eternity  He  knew  the  varying  obe-
dience or  disobedience  of  His  people,  to  which  He
annexed  the  gift  or  the  denial  of  fruitful  seasons.  The
continued  belief  of  His  people  during  all  those  cen-
turies attests  the  fulfilment  of  His  promises  or  threats.
"  In  that  eternity  He  knew,  whether  His  creatures
would  or  would  not  pray  to  Him  in  their  needs,  and,
if  He  fixed  the  laws  at  all,  appointed  them,  as  should

"'  Am.  iv.  7.
"  I  have  not  been  afraid  to  remove  the  difficulty  as  to  07ie  sub-
ject of  prayer,  (viz.  as  to  God's  natural  dispensations),  to  all-pTdjeT.
1)  because  it  is  true ;  2)  because  it  is  always  right  to  own  truth,
and  the  difficulty,  although  insoluble  to  reason,  which  has  not  the
data  here  below  whereby  to  solve  it,  is  none  in  the  face  of  God's
Word,  which  affirms  so  manifoldly  that  God  does  hear  prayer,  and
the  facts  which  bear  witness  to  ourselves,  that  He  does.
