4. Equally the Greatest things, Psalm 147:4, and the Least things, Matthew 10:29, 30 (which words were omitted by the carelessness of the typesetters in the edition of the Compendii published at Amsterdam, 1727). God numbereth the stars, those vast bodies; He numbereth at the same time the hairs of the head, that is, He knows these things as distinctly as we know those things that we are able to enumerate. For, as all things, the Least as well as the Greatest, most absolutely depend upon God, so also God with ultimate clarity regards and penetrates all those. By knowing even the Least and most vile things, God does not acquire for Himself any more ignominy, than by making them; since, in the creation of even the Least things also, He has revealed His Omnipotence. Neither is God able to be ignorant of the Least things, unless at the same time He be said to be ignorant of the Greatest, the motions of which not rarely depend upon the least things.
5. Good things and Evil things, Proverbs 5:21, etc.; Psalm 69:5, in which the Messiah is able to speak with relation to the sins of believers, which He had taken upon Himself; or even concerning the crimes falsely thrust upon Him: O God! thou knowest my foolishness and my guilts: thou knowest my foolishness, of which I am falsely accused, and understandest how I am innocent of it. Certainly God does not permit evils except with understanding, and does not direct them except by wisdom, and brings it to pass that they are often occasions of the best things; and so He must not be ignorant of evils, who most certainly has thoroughly considered good things. Neither could God justly judge of evils, unless He had accurately known them, 2 Corinthians 5:10.
At the same time God permits Evil Actions for His own glory; see Chapter X, § 21, 23. He defers punishments out of His longsuffering; see Chapter IV, § 44, Chapter X, § 3: neither does He consider iniquities with delight and perpetual silence, Habakkuk 1:13; see Chapter IV, § 47.
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