The Divine Will Considered in its Eternal Decrees and Holy Execution, Chapter 3
CHAP. III. Of the Decrees of God in general.
HAving proved that God hath a Will, I proceed to the Acts thereof. The Divine Will (although one pure Act) is considerable under a double Notion; either as it is Voluntas Complacentiae, or else as it is Voluntas Decreti. Voluntas Complacentiae is that whereby God doth love himself and his own Image. Himself, for himself, as infinite Love doth by an Amatorious Reflexion embrace himself as infinite Goodness: And his own Image; for where-ever that is found, whether shining out in holy Laws, or living in holy Creatures, there is his delight. Voluntas Decreti is that whereby God doth foreordain Events. Both these are Acts of his Will, and free Acts; because they spring out of his divine Knowledge. Even God himself, through the intuition of his own Beauty, loves himself, as well as he makes his Decrees out of the Treasury of his Wisdom: but herein they differ, that God's Act of loving himself is such as cannot be otherwise; but his Act of Decreeing (if he had been so pleased) might have been otherwise framed than it is. Pretermitting his Complacential Will, I shall direct my Discourse to his Decretive.
The Decrees of God may be thus described, viz. That they are the Wise, Eternal, Immutable, Immanent Acts of his Will, whereby for his own glory he decrees whatsoever comes to pass in time. Every Decree of God is an Act of his Will; hence 'tis called foreign, the Will of God, Acts 21. 14. 'tis an Immanent Act; hence 'tis called foreign, a purpose in himself, Eph. 1. 9. 'tis a wise Act; hence 'tis called foreign, the counsel of his Will, Eph. 1. 11. 'tis an eternal Act; hence 'tis called foreign and foreign, a foreknowing and foredetermining, Rom. 8. 29. 'tis an immutable Act; hence 'tis called foreign, the immutability of his Counsel, Heb. 6. 17. 'tis an Act definitive of Events; hence 'tis called foreign, the determinate counsel of God, Acts. 2. 23. and the end of all is his own glory, whereby the whole Will of his Decrees circulates into that Will of his complacence, whereby he loves himself; himself being the ultimate end, all meet there as in their true centre. Now in the Decrees of God there are four things to be chiefly considered.
1. That they are founded on infinite Wisdom.
2. That they are situate in Eternity.
3. That they are cemented with Immutability.
4. That they are crowned with Infallibility as to the Event.
1. The Decrees of God are founded on infinite Wisdom: God hath a Mass and Treasury of all Wisdom in himself, and from thence he draws out all those Orders and Series of things, which through his Decrees are poured forth into being. Extra Deum there is no Reason of his Decrees, but within there is Summa Ratio; God, even as decreeing, dwells in Light, though to us unapproachable: every Decree is irradiated with infinite Wisdom, though our eyes cannot enter into it. The Apostle calls the World the Wisdom of God, 1 Cor. 1. 21. and no wonder; for all the rare Artifices and Harmonies in the Sphear of Nature, are but the Shadows and Picture of his wise Decrees: all the excellent Shows in time, are but the Apocalypse or Revelation of the wise Co… trivances in Eternity. God possessed Wisdom in the beginning of his way, even in the framing of his Eternal Decrees; not only when he prepared the Heavens in Creation, but also when he prepared all things in his Ideal Counsel; not only when he set a compass on the face of the Depth, but also when he set the Compass of his Decrees upon the face of all Futuritions. Every one of his Decrees is most wise and rational; hence 'tis called his Counsel, and the Counsel of his Will. In the Eternal Rolls, Causes and Effects, Means and End, Modes and Methods of Being are all set down, but not a tittle without the advice of an infinite Understanding; there is no such thing as mere Will in God; no caecus impetus, but a foreign, a depth of Knowledge in every one of his Decrees.
2. The Decrees of God are situate in Eternity. Mutable Creatures and their Acts are measured by Time, which is a perpetual Flux; but God and his immanent Acts have no other Measure but Eternity, which is a perpetual Instant. Scripture and Reason will both assert this.
1. Scripture will do it. When that speaks of the Decree of Election, it saith that God hath chosen us foreign, before the foundation of the World, Eph. 1. 4. Heaven was made foreign, at the founding of the World, Matth. 25. 34. but God's chusing of us to it was long before, his mercies are from everlasting to everlasting, Psal. 103. 17. reaching (as I may say) from one end of Eternity to another. So also when it speaks of other pieces of Providence, it intimates an eternal Preordination of things before the great Hourglass of Time was set up. There were foreign, foreappointed times, Acts 17. 26. Not a Sand of Time but it runs out according to an Eternal Decree; not a member in the body, but it is written in the eternal Book, Psal. 139. 16. not a place of habitation, but it was eternally bounded, Acts 17. 26. not a Sparrow falls to the ground but by an eternal Will; not an hair but it was numbred in Eternity; not a Particle of Being among all the hosts of Creatures but it was registred in Eternity. All God's works are known to him foreign, eternally, Act. 15. 18. Known eternally as Essences they might be in the Divine Essence; known eternally as Possibles they might be in the Divine Power: but known eternally, as Works to be done by God, they could not be, but only in his Eternal Decree, which is Rerum omnium amantissima Genetrix, & suavissima Nutrix.
2. Reason also will make out the Eternity of his Decrees; for
1. The Act of God's Will is all one with God's Will, and his Will is all one with his Essence, and his Essence is one pure Simple Act; God is Love, essentially Love: Amat Deus, nec aliunde hoc habet, sed ipse est unde amat, & ideo vehementiùs, quia non amorem tam habet, quàm ipse est. All the Decrees of God are but Deus volens; and, as God being, and God knowing inhabit Eternity; so likewise doth God willing: the very Creatures willed, as they are in God in Esse Indeali, are Eternal. Notable is that of Anselm, Creaturae, prout sunt in Deo, sunt Essentia Creatrix. Sutable is that of S. Austin, who on those words (in ipso vita est) distinguishes between arca in arte & arca in opere; arca in opere non est vita, sed arca in arte est vita, quia vivit animâ Artificis: Sapientia Dei, per quam fact a sunt omnia, secundùm artem, continet omnia, antequam fabricet omnia; terram vides, est in arte terra; coelum vides, est in arte coelum; Solem & Lunam vides, sunt & ista in arte; sed foris corpora sunt, in arte vita sunt. Videte, si quo modo potestis; magna enim res dicta est. Oh the Comprehensions of the Divine Essence, Wisdom, Power and Will! Essences are Life and Eternity in the Divine Essence; Congruities are Life and Eternity in the Divine Wisdom; Possibles are Life and Eternity in the Divine Power; and Futuritions are Life and Eternity in the Divine Will.
2. The Eternity of Futures doth demonstrate the Eternity of the Divine Decrees: 'tis impossible that any thing should begin to be future. Si aliquid nunc non futurum (saith Bradwardine) incipiet esse futurum, ergo post aliquod instans futurum erit, ergo erit, ergo est futurum, ergo aliquid non futurum est futurum. Now if it be impossible that any thing should begin to be future, then all futures must needs be Eternal; and if so, whence are they? Not from themselves, for in their own nature they were but mere possibles; and if one possible might by a self-motion become future, all the infinite possibles lying in the bosom of Omnipotence might also become such; Nor from any Creature; for that which is but temporal, cannot be the Cause of that which is eternal. The Spring then of eternal futures cannot be found any where but in the Eternal God, and where in him? not in the Divine Essence, for that in it self, and abstractively from the Divine Will worketh no Change in any thing at all; not in the Divine Prescience, for that doth suppose and not make its objects. And how then without eternal Decrees can there be any foundation of Futures? I may conclude with that of Anselm, Nihil est futurum nisi in summa veritate. If then God should make any Decree in time, the thing decreed would begin to be future, which is impossible.
3. The Decrees of God are cemented with Immutability. Aristotle by the light of Nature saw the Simplicity of God's Nature, and from thence rationally concluded the Simplicity of God's pleasure. The Eternal and Immanent Acts of his Understanding and Will are ever immoveably the same, or else infinite Simplicity could not take pleasure in them. God saith of himself, Mal. 3. 6. I am the Lord, I change not. Should he change, he would lose his Name, I am that I am. I know (saith the wise Preacher) that whatsoever God doth, it shall be for ever, Eccl. 3. 14. His Decrees are Unchangeable. The Apostle speaking of the Decree of Election, saith, The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, 2 Tim. 2. 19. Every word hath its weight: Election is not a structure upon Faith, but a foundation; humane foundations may be destroyed, but this is the foundation of God, laid by him, nay in him in the bosom of the divine Will; there is no standing, much less sure standing, in the flux of Time and Matter; but this foundation, because of God, and in God, standeth sure; it standeth in God's Eternity, which is Nunc stans; it is sure in God's Immutability, which is ever the same; and the seal upon all this, is God's unerrable and infallible Knowledge, including within it unvariable and unchangeable Love to his people: God is the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning, James 1. 17. The visible corporeal Sun rides circuit round the World; but whilest he salutes one Hemisphear, in the turn he leaves a dark shadow on the other: but God is an immutable and supercelestial Sun, there can be no shadow in his eternal and unconvertible Light. Neither are the various changes among the Creatures, shadows cast by any turn in God or his Will, but events ordered and disposed by him. And because the Apostle speaks in this Verse of perfect gifts, and in the next of Regeneration by God's. Will, therefore there is a further sence in it, That if the Father of Lights purpose to make the Day-star arise in any poor Soul, his gracious purpose never turns away from that Soul, nor leaves it in the dark shadow of Death. The Names of the Elect are all indelibly written in God's Book; and if the Scripture cannot be dissolved, Joh. 10. 35. surely the Book of life must be irrasible. Saint Austin on those words, Deleantur de libro viventium, & cum justis non scribantur, Psal. 69. 28. raises an Objection, si homo dixit, Quod scripsi, scripsi, Deus quemquam scribit & delet? quomodo isti inde delentur, ubi nunquam scripti sunt? To which he answers, Hoc dictum est secundùm spem ipsorum, quia ibi se scriptos putabant. Quid est, deleantur de libro viventium? & ipsis constet non illos ibi esse. Deleantur ergo secundùm spem ipsorum, secundùm autem aequitatem tuam non scribantur. In a word; whatsoever God doth in his Decrees is immutably the same, his Decrees are as Mountains of Brass, Zach. 6. 1. unremoveable by any Creature, because situate in the Eternal Will. The strength or eternity of Israel will not lye or repent, 2 Sam. 15. 29. If God's Time cannot lye, but will infallibly shew forth the Verity of his Promises and Prophecies, surely God's Eternity cannot lye, wherein he decrees and knows all. The World is full of Vicissitudes, Matter is in a perpetual Flux, the Glass of Time is running out, and foreign, the Wheel of Nature is running round: but all the while, God's Will is immoveable; it doth not rowl about with the Heavens, rise or set with the Sun, or ebb and flow with the Sea; but sits King for ever and ever upon the Throne of its own Immobility. Apud te, Domine, rerum omnium instabilium stant causae, & rerum omnium St. Aust. Conf. Lib. 1. cap. 6.mutabilium immutabiles manent origines, & omnium irrationalium & temporalium sempiternae vivunt rationes. Now besides what hath been said out of Scripture, to prove the Immutability of his Decrees, these Reasons may be offered.
1. The Decrees of God are Immanent and Eternal Acts in God, therefore cannot but be Unchangeable. God in framing his Decrees non egreditur extra seipsum, goes not out from his own Eternity.
2. As the Eternity of Futures proves an Eternity in God's Decrees, so the Immutability of Futures proves an Immutability in his Decrees. If the Decrees (which are the Basis of Futurition) may be changed, then that, which was future by the Decree, may yet cease to be future, sine positione ejus in esse actuali, which is impossible. If a new Decree be made in succession after a former, then the thing decreed begins to be future, which is also impossible.
3. If the divine Decrees should change, Oh! what amazing Changes? what an horrible Tempest must needs ensue? Must not God's own dwelling-house, even his glorious Eternity, sink and fall to the ground? Non enim est vera Aeternitas, ubi oritur nova voluntas, nec est immortalis Voluntas, quae alia & alia est. Must not God's eternal Prescience fall a doubting and faltring about every Future? Seeing God cannot now know his own works, no, not a moment before their actual Existence; because even then their being may be prevented by a Change in his Will: May not eternal Grace and Truth lose their glorious light, and Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, drop out of the Gospel-orb, and all the Starry Promises in the Word, and lightsom Comforts in the Saints go out in a moment, leaving all in darkness and confusion? May not the Evangelical Banquet let down to poor Worms be called back again into Heaven, and the precious Blood of Christ return again into its Veins, and his Humane Nature be cast away into nothing, and every Saint, instead of Grace and Peace in his heart, may have a Lye in his right hand, and lie down in sorrow? Nay, in such a case, must there not fall a Change upon the very Being of God himself? And seeing every Change is a kind of Death, must not the Deity suffer, and as it were die in this Mutation? All which astonishing Catastrophes being to be for ever abhorred, I conclude that God's Decrees must needs be Immutable, as long as there is any Stability in his Eternity, Infallibility in his Prescience, Sureness in his Grace and Truth, or Immortality in his Life or Essence.
4. The Decrees of God are crowned with Infallibility as to the Event; the Event is so certain, that the Spirit of God in Scripture speaks of future things as if they were already done. Behold! (saith Enoch in the morning of the World) the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints, as if he had been then in the Clouds coming to Judgment. Jesus Christ cries out of God forsaking and men piercing him, Psal. 22. 1. and 16. as if he had then been upon the Cross with all the wrath of God and fury of men upon him. Whom he did predestinate (saith St. Paul, Rom. 8. 30.) them he called; whom he called, them he justified; whom he justified, them he glorified; he speaks as if all the Elect were already in Heaven: Hence God is said to be (Isai. 45. 11. as the Sept. there hath it) foreign, a Maker of things to come; the Event is as certain as if it were already done. Now for the understanding of this point, we must distinguish of Events; either they are good things, or else evil, viz. sins. Touching the first, the Decree of God is Effective; touching the last, the Decree of God is Permissive. The first come to pass, Deo efficiente; the last, Deo permittente; but both do fall out infallibly.
1. Those Events which fall under his Effective Decree do fall out infallibly. This is clear upon a double Account.
1. The Will of God is Causa Causarum, an Universal Supreme Cause, having all things under it; It reigns over all the armies in heaven and the inhabitants of the earth, Dan. 4. 35. The poor Sparrow is no more forgotten by it, than the great Image of Worldly Monarchy. Natural Agents must be under it, as the primum Movens; Free Agents must be under it, as the primum Liberum: the Lot is the greatest Casualty, and yet wholly disposed of by it: Sin is the most monstrous Ataxy, and yet it is reduced into order thereby. Now albeit Particular and Inferiour Causes may fail of the intended Issue; yet the Universal and Supreme Cause cannot be frustrated, because it governs all.
2. The Effective Decree of God is backed with his Omnipotence. Who ever resisted his Will? He that doth it must first grapple with Omnipotence. The Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disanul it? his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? Isai. 14. 27. Can any Creature hinder the purpose of the Lord of hosts? All Creatures are ready prest for his Service. But if one Creature could steal away all its Fellow-creatures from him, yet who shall turn back his Almighty Hand? None can stay his hand, nor say to him, What dost thou? Dan. 4. 45. His power is insuperable, therefore none can stay his hand; his Sovereignty is unaccountable, therefore none can say, What dost thou? He worketh all things after the Counsel of his own Will, Eph. 1. 11. and if he work, who can let it? Isai. 43. 13. Surely none. When God's Hand and God's Counsel go together, the Effect cannot fail.
2. Those Events which fall under his Permissive Decree, do also fall out infallibly. As on the one hand, without God's permission, no sin can come into being; If God suffer it not, no man can wrong Israel, Psal. 105. 14. and (which is less than an injurious act) Balaam cannot curse her, Numb. 22. 38. and (which is yet less than a cursing word) the idolatrous Nations cannot so much as desire her land, Exod. 34. 24. So on the other hand, upon God's permission sin doth follow. All Nations will walk in their own ways, Acts 14. 16. Nay, and the Israel of God (if but suffered) would do so too, Deut. 18. 14. If God permit it, the wicked will do wickedly, the Jews will fill up the measure of their sins, Mat. 23. 32. wickedness will build her an house in Shinar, in the Reprobate world, there it will be established and set upon her own base, Zach. 5. 11. And what would not a Saint do, if but left in manu consilii sui? Jeremy falls from praising his God, to cursing his Birthday, as it were in one breath, Jer. 20. 14, 15. Peter falls from his profession of Martyrdom, to the denial of his Master, Matth. 26. If God permit sin, sin follows upon it; I say, upon it, not from it, as an Effect from a Cause, but upon it, as a Consequent upon an Antecedent. To shut up this point; The Decrees of God, whether as effective of Good, or as permissive of Evil, are still infallible as to the Event.