The Divine Will Considered in its Eternal Decrees and Holy Execution, Chapter 1 – Chapter 2
Chap I. That God is.
THat God is, is a Primordial Verity, from whence all other Verities derive their Original. If God were not, (which is the highest Contradiction) there could be Nothing but perfect Nullity; because Nullity can never pass that infinite vast Gulf, which lies between it self and Being, without an infinite God. If God were not, he could not be; a mere possible God is utterly impossible: for a God he cannot be, unless he be supreme Perfection, a pure Act, immoveable Eternity, and eternal Necessity, in suprema essendi vehemontia. This glorious Truth, that God is, can no where be doubted of; not in Heaven, where his glorious face is opened to the blessed Spirits; not in Hell, where his righteous Breath, as a River of Brimstone, doth kindle the fire unquenchable; nor on Earth, whilest any glimpses of Heaven irradiate the godly, or any sparks of Hell flame out in the guilty Consciences of the wicked; whilest the Candle of the Lord shines within men, or the Heavens and the Earth (those Natural Preachers) declare a Deity without, and wonderfully render the invisible Power and Godhead as it were visible unto them. Every Particle of being in heaven and earth leads us to the infinite Being of Beings; every Motion within the Sphear of Nature and Grace draws us to adore a first immoveable Mover; every breath of life in the old and new Creature tells us of the great Fountain of Life; every beam of Light in the natural and spiritual World owns the high Father of lights; every drop of Rain, natural on the earth, and spiritual on the heart, witnesses a Deity. This truth is so indubitable, that none but a fool in his greatest folly can deny it. Cur dixit stultus, non est Deus? cur, nisi quia stultus est?
CHAP. II. That God hath a Will.
GOd's Being being laid down as a sure foundation, I proceed to prove that God hath a Will. Which may be evinced by these Reasons.
1. God is an immense Sea of infinite Perfections, or rather one infinite transcendent Perfection; and a Will (the fountain of Liberty) cannot be wanting in him, but there will be a Maim in his perfection. Liberum Arbitrium (saith Luther) est nomen planè divinum; solùm competit divinae Majestati: si hominibus tribuitur, nihilo rectiùs tribuitur quàm si Divinitas ipsa eis tribueretur, quo sacrilegio nullum esse majus possit. Sovereign and Supreme Liberty is a perfection too high for any Creature; for that, by natural and intrinsecal Justice, owes subjection to its Maker. This is one of God's Crown-jewels, who sitteth King for ever and ever, dwelling in that light, which no Creature can approach unto, and in that Liberty, which no Creature can attain unto.
2. God is blessed for evermore, blessed in all perfection, and perfect in all blessedness in the fruition of himself: he is infinite Light, to see his own infinite Perfection; he is infinite Love, to embrace his own infinite Loveliness: As he cannot comprehensively know his own infinite Perfection, unless he have an infinite Understanding; so neither can he adequately embrace his own infinite Loveliness, unless he have an infinite Will. God hath but one simple Nature, and therefore but one simple Pleasure, which is no other than the intellectual and amatorious reflexion of the divine Understanding and Will, on the divine Goodness for ever.
3. If there be no divine Will at all in God, then the divine Arm must needs be shortned, so that it can produce no creature at all; for if it produce any thing, it must do it either freely, or necessarily: not freely, for want of a divine Will; nor yet necessarily; for then it must produce things ad extremum virium, and so must produce all the possible Worlds and Creatures lying in the bosom of Omnipotence (which would be infinite actual Beings) and produce them all as early as Eternity it self; and all those infinite actual Beings, so produced, should be necessary Beings, as well as God himself. In all which many great Contradictions are involved.
4. If there be no divine Will in God, then the Glass of the divine Prescience must needs be broken; because, as God knows all Essences in his own glorious Essence, all Possibles in his own wonderful Omnipotence, and all congruities and tendencies to his own Glory, in his own unsearchable Wisdom; so he knows all Futures in his own Will. For all things future were in their own nature but mere possibles, and could never of mere possibles become futures without the Divine Will; and unless they become futures, they could never be known as such, no, not by the Divine Intellect it self: For, as infinite Omnipotence cannot effect that which is not possible, and potenter non potest; so infinite Omniscience cannot know that which is not knowable; for this were to erre, and not to know, and consequently a blemish in the clarity of the Divine Intellect.
5. The Glory of God (which passes before the faith of his Children) is his Grace and Mercy; and the Glory of his Grace and Mercy is the Freeness and Self-movingness of it; and this Freeness and Self-movingness can no where be found but in the Divine Will alone, into which all grace and mercy is resolved by God himself, who saith, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy, Exod. 33. 19.
6. God is a living God, and lives the most perfect life, because he is the most perfect Being; and this Divine Life doth not merely consist in the comprehension of his infinite Understanding, nor only in the exertion of his infinite power; but also in the volition of his Divine Will. With thee, (O Divine Will!) is the pure Fountain of Life, the precious Well-head of Grace and Glory, all the Saints and Angels must stand still and adore thee, in the embraces of free Election, and Crown of Eternal Glory, in every Drop of Christ's Redeeming Blood, and Gale of his gracious Spirit.