CHAPTER I: __________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

§ 30. Benevolence of God.

The gracious will of God, to deliver fallen men from their ruined condition, is the first thing we have to consider, for it is this that originates the sending of the Son, who accomplishes the redemption, and the sending of the Holy Spirit, who applies it to individual persons. This, His gracious will, God at once announced in His promise (recorded in Gen. 3:15). But God did not then, for the first time, form this purpose of redeeming man; for, as He foresaw from eternity that he would fall, He determined at the same time both to create and to redeem him. [2] This purpose of God, however, will, in time, be accomplished only in the case of those who fulfil the condition upon which redemption is to be applied. Therefore we distinguish this gracious will of God into general and special benevolence. I. The gracious will of God is called the universal or general will (benevolence) when it is considered in itself, as it refers to all men alike miserable, and it is exhibited in preparing the means of redemption for all, and effectually offering the same to them, without for the present considering the manner in which men treat the grace thus offered to them. [3] HOLL. (586): "The universal benevolence of God is that act of divine grace by which God, having witnessed the common misery of fallen men, is moved not only earnestly to desire the salvation of them all, but also to give Christ as Mediator for its accomplishment, and to appoint appropriate and efficacious means with the intention that all men should use them, attain through them true faith in Christ, and possess and enjoy eternal salvation, procured through Him, to the praise of the divine goodness." This will is also called antecedent, inasmuch as, in the nature of the case, it antedates all question as to the manner in which man may treat the offered grace. [4] It refers to all men alike (universally to all, without a single exception. John 3:16; 1 Tim. 2:4; Rom. 11:32; Acts 17:30, 31; Tit. 2:11; 2 Pet. 3:9; Ezek 33:11), [5] depends alone upon God's compassion for the wretched condition of man, and has in no sense been called forth by any merit or worthiness of man. [6] This will of God, moreover, earnestly and sincerely proposes that all men obtain salvation through Christ, [7] and God offers unto all the necessary means, and is ready to render these available for them. [8] Meanwhile this will of God is still not as absolute and unconditional as is the compassion of God towards man, from which the plan of salvation has proceeded; that is, this will of God aims at saving men through the merits of Christ and the appropriation of the means of redemption as furnished to them. [9] The statements concerning the universal will of God may accordingly be summed up under the following characteristics: It is (1) gratuitous and free (Gal. 3:22; Rom. 11:32; 8:32); (2) impartial (Rom. 3:22); (3) sincere and earnest (Ezek. 18:23, 32; 33:11): (4) efficacious (Rom. 2:4); (5) not absolute, but ordinate and conditioned (John 3:16; 1 Tim. 2:6; Rom. 5:8; 1 John 1:4, 9, 10. [10] The universal will of God is distinguished from -- II. The Special Will of God. -- Thus this same
[11] will of God in reference to the salvation of men is designated, when we view it in connection with the divinely foreseen conduct of men towards the offered grace, as the condition upon which they are to be saved. HOLL. (586): "This special benevolence of God is that which induced Him to bestow eternal salvation upon sinners who embrace the means of salvation offered to them." Although the will of God is general, inasmuch as God's disposition is equally gracious toward all men, and inasmuch as for their salvation He has prepared a plan of redemption in the sending of His Son, available equally for all; yet it already follows from the above distinction, according to which the general will of God is not absolute, but ordinate and conditioned, that the accomplishment of this gracious will is conditioned by the conduct of man towards the offered grace. If the aim of the will of God, considered in itself, without regard to this conduct of men, be that all are to be saved by the plan of redemption through Christ, yet its aim, more specifically described, is that only those shall be saved who accept of the salvation offered and persevere therein, and it refers only to these. This will of God, thus more specifically described (the special will of God), is also called consequent, because the divine foreknowledge of the proper conduct on the part of man precedes it; and it is also designated as particular, because it refers not to all men, but only to those to whom God foreknows that they will properly treat the offered grace. [12] (Eph. 1:1; James 2:5; Rev. 2:10; 1 Tim. 1:16; John 17:20.) From this special benevolence of God, which is based upon the universal benevolence of God, and proceeds from it, there comes forth the purpose of God, [13] which is called predestination [14] or election; [15] the purpose, namely, to save through the merits of Christ the definite number of those whose right treatment of the offered grace God had foreseen. HOLL. (604): "Predestination is the eternal decree of God to bestow eternal salvation upon all of whom God foresaw that they would finally believe in Christ." [16] In virtue of the universal benevolence, salvation is provided for and offered to all, but the purpose of redemption is accomplished not with all, but only in the case of a definite number of men; the reason of this, however, lies in the special benevolence, in virtue of which only those really are to be saved who truly accept by faith the offered salvation, and persevere in this faith. [17] But God, by His foreknowledge, eternally foresees who these will be, and this foreknowledge is the ground upon which the purpose of God, embracing only a definite number of men, is eternal. [18] The decree of God is still further defined as (1), not absolute, but ordinate (determined by a certain order of means) and relative (1 Cor. 1:21), [19] i.e., there is no arbitrariness on the part of God, if He include a number of persons among the elect, and exclude others, for His purpose depends upon the observance of the order to which salvation is bound ("The apostle does not say that God absolutely wills to save all, in whatsoever manner they may conduct themselves, but that God wills that all may be saved, that is, by certain means." QUEN.), and He has respect, therefore, in forming His purpose, to man's conduct towards this appointed order of salvation. But this decree is also (2), not conditional, but categorical and simple, i.e., God does not allow it to be still doubtful, in time, whether He will bestow salvation upon this or that man, as though His purpose were only to save this or that man, if or after he may have laid hold upon the merit of Christ; but, by virtue of His foreknowledge, He recognizes in advance those who will lay hold upon the merit of Christ, and only to these does His purpose refer, and thus it is simple and categorical. [20] Hence it follows, therefore, also (3), that the election (taken in its strictest sense), because it rests upon an eternal decree of God, is immutable and irrevocable (so that an elect person cannot become a reprobate, Matt. 25:34; James 2:5; Matt. 24:24; 1 Pet. 1:2, 4; John 10:28; Dan 12:1; Rom. 8:29, 30); for God would not have correctly foreseen if His purpose would have to suffer change (election is immutable, because based upon an ordinate decree and because of the infallibility of the divine foreknowledge). Though the elect may for a while fall into sin and from grace, this cannot continue forever, and they cannot fail of eternal salvation. [21] The attributes or adjuncts of election and of the elect may be thus compendiously stated (QUEN., III, 20): "I. The attributes of election: (a) Eternity (Eph. 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:9; 2 Thess. 2:13; Matt. 25:34); (b) Particularity (Matt. 20:16); (c) Immutability (2 Tim. 2:19; Matt. 24:24; 1 Pet. 1:4; Rom. 8:29, 30). "II. The attributes of the elect: (a) Paucity (Matt. 20:16: 22:14; (b) Possibility of totally losing, for a while, indwelling grace (Ps. 51:12; 1 Cor. 10:12); (c) The certainty of election [22] (Luke 10:20; Rom. 8:38; 2 Tim. 4:8: Phil. 2:12); (d) Final perseverance in the faith (Matt. 10:22; Rev. 2:10)." In contrast with predestination stands reprobation. [23] As God foreknows those who will preseveringly believe in Christ; and as, in view of this, He forms His purpose to save these, so also, in the same way, His purpose of condemnation embraces the definite number of those who are lost; and therefore reprobation is "that act of the consequent divine will by which God (before the foundation of the world) through His vindicative justice, and for its perpetual glory, adjudged to eternal condemnation all contumacious sinners, of whom He foresaw that they would finally reject the proffered grace of the call and of justification, and would depart this life without faith in Christ." (HOLL. 643.) All the specifications referring to this topic correspond to those given concerning Predestination. The "internal exciting cause is the vindicative or punitive justice of God (Rom. 2:8); the external exciting cause is the rejection of the merit of Christ, i.e., the foreseen apistia or final incredulity (Mark 16:16; John 3:36)." [24] The form of reprobation, however, consists in "exclusion from the inheritance of eternal salvation, and in adjudication to eternal punishment according to the purpose and foreknowledge of God (Matt. 25:41)." Thus the attributes of reprobation and of the reprobate correspond to those of election and the elect. The attributes of reprobation are: (a) Eternity (Matt. 25:41; Jude 5:4); (b) Immutability (Numb. 23:19; 1 Sam. 15:29; Mal. 3:6)." The attributes of the reprobate are: "(a) Plurality (Matt. 7:13); (b) Possibility of being for awhile in the state of the truly regenerate; (c) Perseverance in final unbelief." OBSERVATION I. -- The foregoing representation, as here developed, belongs to the later period. GRH. is the first who, with special reference to earlier scholastic distinctions, presented the doctrine in this form; while the earlier theologians, in their statement of this doctrine, adhered to the definition which in Note 14 we designate as the second. That is as follows: "God determined from eternity to save those who would believe upon Christ." Thus the FORM. CONC. When, however, the later theologians undertook systematically to present what can be said concerning predestination, the statement of the FORM. CONC. did not seem to them sufficient, because the purpose of God to save all who would believe on Christ could not be so indefinite in His own mind as was expressed by the words, "all those who would believe." This purpose of God, they supposed, must rather be so positive that the definite number of those who should be saved must be known to Him, as otherwise it might be maintained that God would allow it to remain undecided until in the course of time which persons are to be saved; which would be inconsistent with the assumed eternity of the purpose. From this effort to express themselves accurately originated the definition of predestination in the strictest sense, as also the distinction between proqesiß and proorismoß. But to avoid the error of assuming that, if the number of the elect was fixed from eternity, their reception among that number in time was for that reason no longer conditioned by the conduct of men with reference to the offered grace, but depended upon an absolute and hidden decree of God, the further specification was added, that God, by virtue of His foreknowledge, antedating the purpose itself, from eternity foresaw who those would be who would accept the offered grace. (A specification which, indeed, is not unknown to the FORM. CONC., cf. Sol. Dec. XI, 54, but which was not then introduced into the definition of predestination.) And then there was added by the later theologians the distinction between the general and special will of God, which was meant to show that the will of God to save was, indeed, in itself considered, and without reference to the conduct of men, general and applicable to all; but that, as the actual conferring of salvation was dependent upon the conduct of men with reference to it, as soon as reference was had to this, it then became special, and referred then only to those who conducted themselves properly with reference to the offered salvation. By all these further specifications, however, the doctrine of predestination was only more accurately stated, and not in any wise altered. OBSERVATION II. -- The question, whether the foreknowledge of God does not necessarily determine the fate of men, so that human freedom is thereby abolished, is not discussed by any of the theologians in this connection. CHMN. (Loc. c., I, 162) endeavors, in the discussion of the cause of sin, to meet the above objection by remarking that the foreknowledge is no act of the will, and that therefore the future is not determined by it. "The fact, whether past or future, does not depend upon knowledge, but knowledge upon the fact, . . . and it was rightly said by Origen, yet we judge by common consent concerning foreknowledge, not that anything will happen because God knows that it will, but that, because it will happen, God already knows it.'" And so also the later Dogmaticians. QUEN. (I, 539): "That same divine foreknowledge or foresight does not depend upon any divine decree, nor does it of itself impose any necessity upon things foreseen, nor remove their contingency, although in itself it is certain and infallible." (Compare the specific statements in § 21, Note 4.) The FORM. CONC. appears to regard this question as belonging to the domain of the inexplicable and mysterious, the prying into which constitutes no part of human duty. Sol. Dec. XI, 54, 55. [1] HUTT. (l. c., 768, sq.) introduces the doctrine with the following words: "The apostle in his golden epistle to the Romans, having treated the subject of Divine Predestination very extensively and accurately, at length, as though having passed into a stupor, as he surveys somewhat more deeply the exhaustless abyss of the divine mysteries about this article, breaks forth in the almost unaccustomed exclamation: O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out.' Rom. 11:33. This exclamation has caused most of the orthodox Fathers to treat the article of Predestination too cautiously and briefly; and even to-day there are some who regard its consideration imprudent and useless, nay, rather troublesome and painful; who affirm that it cannot be presented, in an assembly of hearers, without great danger; and who apply to this the trite proverb, Noli me tangere. While we, indeed, think that the modesty and care of the ancient Fathers deserve praise, we, at the same time, neither can nor ought, in any way, to approve the excessively severe judgment of some later teachers. For if the consideration of this article ought to be regarded imprudent, certainly Christ and the apostles can scarcely be defended from the suspicion of temerity, since they often, and indeed accurately and publicly, presented and explained to their hearers the subject of Predestination. If you except the one article of Justification, there is scarcely any other theological topic which the Holy Spirit has so fully unfolded in the Scriptures of the New Testament, Matt. 28:22, 31; Mark 13;20, 22, 27; Luke 18:7; Job 13:18; 15:16; Rom. 8:30; and almost the entire ninth, tenth and eleventh chapters; 1 Cor. 1:27, 28; Eph. 1:4, 5; Col. 3:42; 2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:9; 2:10; Tit. 1:1; 1 Pet. 1:2; Rev. 17:14. As, therefore, those things which God has wished to be secret are not to be investigated, so those things which He has revealed are not to be denied or concealed; in order that we may not be found unlawfully curious in regard to the former, or culpably ungrateful in regard to the latter. . . . These matters being considered in such a manner that we can be occupied, profitably and with a good conscience, in the explanation of the mystery of eternal predestination, we are thoroughly convinced, nevertheless, that, just as we confine ourselves within the bounds and limits of the Divine Word, we will err neither in excess nor defect. But here we must especially observe the caution, to attend well to the source whence judgment concerning this article can and should be sought and framed. Moreover, the Book of Christian Concord teaches correctly, that outside of and beyond the Word of God no place for weighing this mystery should be left for human reason. . . . Furthermore, neither is Predestination to be sought immediately in God Himself, whom no one has ever seen. But it is the Word of God alone from which the entire treatment of this mystery is to be solely sought; as, in it, nothing has been omitted that at all pertains to the mystery of our salvation and election: nay, rather, according to the testimony of the apostle, the whole counsel of God has been revealed in it to us. Acts 20:27. . . . This Word is nothing else than the Gospel of Christ. As, therefore, we have the will of God revealed in the Word of the Gospel, we declare that this itself must be considered the eternal and immutable decree; and the counsel and purpose of God is the ground both of our eternal election and salvation, because in God there are not contradictory wills." FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec. XI, 9, sq.): "Still this eternal election or ordination of God to life eternal must be considered not merely in that secret, heavenly, and inscrutable counsel of God, as though the election comprehended or required nothing more, and in thinking upon it nothing more required to be taken into account than the fact that God has foreseen what men and how many will attain salvation, and who and how many will perish eternally, or as though the Lord would make a military review, and would say or determine, This one is to be saved, but that one is to be damned; this one shall persevere steadfast in faith to the end, but that one shall not persevere.' For, from this opinion, many derive absurd, dangerous, and pernicious thoughts, which produce and strengthen, in the minds of men, either security and impenitence or distress and despair. . . . (13) Wherefore, as we wish to think or speak correctly and with profit concerning the eternal election or predestination and ordination of the sons of God to eternal life, let us accustom ourselves not to endeavor, by our reason, to investigate the mere, secret foreknowledge of God, which no man has explored and learned to know. But let us meditate upon the divine election according to the manner in which the counsel, purpose, and ordination of God are revealed to us, through the Word, in Christ Jesus (who is the true Book of Life). Therefore, let us comprehend at the same time, in thought, the whole doctrine concerning the purpose, counsel, will, and ordination of God (namely, all things which pertain to our redemption, call, justification, and salvation)." [2] GRH. (IV, 146): "After Adam with all his descendants had been ensnared, by the Fall, in the toils of eternal death, and no other remedy could be found for this evil, by the wisdom either of men or angels; God, coming forth from the secret seat of His majesty, revealed the adorable mystery concerning the restoration of the human race, through His Son, Gen. 3:15. From the fact, therefore, that God, in fulfillment of this first promise, sent in the fulness of time His own Son, born of a woman, Gal. 4:4, we infer that God from eternity had made a decree concerning sending His Son into the flesh, that, by His obedience and satisfaction, the wounds might be healed, which the infernal serpent had inflicted upon man, and the blessings lost by the Fall might be restored." [3] QUEN. (III, 1): "The most kind and merciful, universal will of God the Father towards fallen men embraces within its bounds all men in general who have been placed in misery, and has, according to our method of conception, two acts; of which the first is the pity of God, by which He inwardly and sincerely lamented that the human race, and indeed the whole of it, had been deceived so basely by the fraud of the devil, and, through the Fall, had been cast into instant, and that, too, eternal ruin; and by which He willed to deliver it from evil, and, provided it could be done without any injury to His justice, to recover for the same its lost salvation. The second act is that by which God, moved by this pity and love to man, made a decree concerning the liberation of the human race, through the sending of His Son, and the revelation of the same through the Gospel, to the end that all might believe in Him and thus be saved. For upon the interposition of His Son, offering and promising a most perfect satisfaction, God mercifully ordained from eternity in His Son to restore all, and give them eternal life." [4] GRH. (IV, 169): "The antecedent will is so named, because it precedes the consideration of the obedience and disobedience of men, and consists simply in that aspect of the divine will in which we regard the beneficent will of God as disposing itself equally towards all." HOLL. (586): "The antecedent will is that by which God wills the salvation of all fallen and wretched men, and for attaining this has given Christ as a mediator, and has ordained those means by which the salvation acquired through Christ, and the strength for believing, are offered to all men with the sincere intention of conferring such salvation and faith." [5] HUTT. (Loc. c., 792): "In this antecedent will of love and mercy in God, not even a single individual of the entire human race has been neglected or passed by, even the son of perdition not being excepted, John 17:12. The full force of this assertion is, that God desired the salvation of all mortals,; that he destined His Son as the Redeemer for the whole world equally; that He willed to offer these blessings to all in common, even to those who indeed do not actually hear this Word, who do not actually believe, who are not actually saved; yea, even to those who God foreknew would not hear His Word, would never believe, and also never be saved." The passages which ordinarily are quoted against the universality of grace, are Rom. 9:18, 19; 9:11-13, 22. In reference to Rom. 9:19, QUEN. (III, 12): "From this passage the Calvinists frame an argument like this: The will of which Paul speaks is absolute. But it is the will to save and to destroy, of which Paul speaks. Therefore, the will to save and to destroy is absolute.' Reply: The minor premise is false. For, indeed, it is the same will in both cases; yet there is a difference between willing the same absolutely, and with a condition." In reference to Rom. 9:28, HOLL. (594): "(a) THe apostle speaks not of the general, or universal, but of the special mercy of God, by which He justifies those believing in Christ (v. 30), and therefore he does not treat of the antecedent but of the consequent will of God. (b) The mercy of God is indeed free, but it is not absolute. . . . (c) God hardens whom He wills by sending upon them hardness, not causatively but judicially." . . . In reference to Rom. 9:11-13 (QUEN. III, 12): "(a) The text does not speak of Esau and Jacob, in their persons, but of their descendants. . . . (b) It does not give this testimony with reference to eternal predestination to salvation, or reprobation to destruction. Therefore, the Calvinists are inconsiderate in assuming that the love for Jacob, and the hatred towards Esau, relate to love of the former for life, eternal and absolute, and the reprobation of the latter to death eternal and absolute; but the apostle treats, Rom. 9:10, 11, of the rejection of the Jews from the outward superiority which they enjoyed in the course of so many ages, and the reception by the Gentiles of those prerogatives which the Jews claimed for themselves alone. If the discussion had been concerning election, from the opinion of the Calvinists this absurdity would follow, viz., that all the descendants of Jacob have been saved, and, on the other hand, all the descendants of Esau have been condemned. Therefore the sense of the passage is: I have not brought or granted as much blessing to the descendants of Esau as I have to the descendants of Jacob, and thus I have preferred the latter to the former; I have loved them less (the word hatred is thus employed, Luke 14:27; Matt. 10:37)." In reference to Rom. 9:22, "From these words it is clear that God has indeed prepared vessels of mercy for glory, but vessels of wrath are not said to have been prepared by God, but to have been tolerated by God with much long suffering. Wherefore, men hardened not by God, but by themselves, and by their own wickedness and voluntary perversity, have become vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, because they despise the counsel of God against themselves, Luke 7:30." [6] HOLL. (599): "The mercy of God has been called forth by no merits, Gal. 3:22; Rom. 11:32. Pity for the sinner does not move God causally, but only affords an occasion, and presents an object for pity, towards which, while He is able, yet He is under no obligation, to exercise filanqropia. For in man there is no impelling cause whatever." [7] HOLL. (599): "The benevolence of God towards the fallen human race has not been feigned or counterfeited, but is earnest and sincere; because, in the caring for human salvation, the will of the sign conspires most harmoniously with the will of the divine purpose, the precept and promise with the divine intention. He acts the hypocrite who promises one thing with his mouth and another with his heart; to think this of God is a crime." HUTT. (Loc. c., 792): "The truth of this statement is evident from clear testimonies of Scripture, 1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9; Matt. 23:37; Ez. 18:32. Finally, the same is manifest from the use of the oath in most solemn attestation, Ez. 33:11." [8] HOLL. (599): "The benevolence of God is not an empty vow, a fruitless wish, an indifferent complacency, by which one does not long to effect or obtain the thing which pleases him and which in itself he loves, and, therefore, is not willing to employ the means leading to that end; but it is an efficacious desire, by which God seriously intends, through sufficient and efficacious means, to effect and obtain the salvation of men, in which He is most ardently delighted, Rom. 2:4. The antithesis of the Calvinists states that God indeed, by His will, manifested in Scripture, or that of the sign (signi), wishes all to be saved; but by His secret will, which they call that of His purpose (beneplaciti), that He wishes to save the elect alone." (QUEN., III, 7.) CF. __________________________________________________________________

§ 18, Note 13. [9] HOLL. (600): "Although the first compassion of God, by which He pitied the human race that had fallen into sin, and in fact the appointment of a Mediator, and the administration of the means of salvation, are absolute, yet the merciful will of God to confer remission of sins and eternal salvation is not absolute, but relative and limited by justice, because it has respect to the satisfaction of Christ, by which divine justice was satisfied." QUEN. (III, 5): "It is founded in Christ, and is limited to the ends and means by which He is moved." In regard to the will of God, in general (HUTT., Loc. c., 782): "The will of God, in this mystery, is not considered according to its own most simple essence; it is distinguished only according to our understanding, and access to it does not lie open to our mind; but by reason of His act, with respect to things created, God goes forth beyond His own essence. According to the former method of consideration the will in God is just as indivisible as it is impossible for the essence of God itself to be divided into parts. But, according to the latter method of consideration, namely, as the will of God goes forth beyond its essence to creatures, it is twofold. For, whatever God wills to take place in created things, He wills either simply or with a determined mode or condition. The former will is commonly called, in the schools, absolute, and is joined with the immutable necessity of the event; according to this He calls those things which are not, as though they were, Rom. 4:17. . . . The latter will if fulfilled in no other way than by the fulfilment of the predetermined mode or precise condition; when this is not fulfilled, it likewise comes to pass that that does not occur which God has notwithstanding especially willed should occur. The former is to be altogether separated from this mystery, and to be relegated to the schools of the Stoics and Calvinists . . . but the latter, namely, the modified or limited will of God, enters into the act of the present mystery." [10] HOLL. (600): "The benevolence of God is ordinate, because God from His most profound counsel established a fixed taxiß or series of means, to which, in the conferring of blessedness upon sinners, He has regard. These means are the Word of God and the Sacraments, by which God seriously intends to call sinners to the kingdom of grace, and convert, regenerate, justify, and save them. By this ordinate will God wishes not only that all men be saved, but also that all men come to the knowledge of the truth. The will is called conditionate, not as though God wills only the end, and does not will the means, or wills the end under a condition which He Himself from His mere purpose is unwilling should be fulfilled in many; but as God, willing that men should be saved, does not will that they should be saved without regard to the fulfilment of any satisfaction or condition, but should be led to salvation under the condition of determined means." Hence the proposition concerning the universality of grace is more specifically expressed thus: "God wills, through ordinary means, to confer saving faith upon all men." (Ib.) [11] GRH. (IV, 169): "Moreover this division (into antecedent and consequent will) distinguishes not the will by itself, which in God is one and undivided, just as the essence also is one; but its twofold relation. In the antecedent will, regard is had to the means of salvation, in so far as, on the part of God, they have been appointed and are offered to all. In the consequent will, regard is had to the same means, but in so far as they are accepted or neglected by men." HUTT. (l. c., 783): "This distinction was introduced into the Church because of those passages of Scripture which bear witness that the will of God is not always done or fulfilled, e.g., Matt. 23:37; 1 Tim. 2:4." [12] HOLL. (586): "The consequent will is that by which God, from the fallen human race, elects those to eternal life who He foresees will use the ordinary means, and will persevere to the end of life in faith in Christ." More specific definitions. HOLL. (587): "The will of God is said to be antecedent and consequent. (1) Not with regard to time, as though the antecedent will preceded the consequent in time; for, as God is free from any limitations of time, He does not have any will which anticipates another in time. (2) Neither with regard to the divine will itself, as though two actually distinct wills in God were affirmed; for the divine will is the essence itself of God, and a connoted object, conceived under the mode of an act of volition. (3) But the will of God is said to be antecedent and consequent, from the order of our reason, distinguishing the diverse acts of volition in God, according to a diverse consideration of the objects, and regarding one act before the other, so that it is only indicated that the antecedent will precedes the consequent in that which is the image of the divine reason: because, according to our mode of conception, God's willing eternal salvation to men, and His providing the means of grace, are anterior to the will of the same to confer in act eternal salvation upon those who would to the end believe in Christ, or to assign eternal condemnation to the impenitent." QUEN. (III, 2): "The antecedent will relates to man, in so far as he is wretched, no regard being had to circumstances in the object; but the consequent will is occupied with certain circumstances in reference to man, namely, as he is believing or unbelieving." [HOLL. (588): "Wherefore the antecedent and consequent wills of God are not opposed to each other in a contrary or contradictory manner, but are subordinated to one another. The latter is materially contained in the former, and passes into it when the condition is assumed. This I prove thus: By His antecedent will, God wills that all men be saved if they believe to the end. But those using aright the ordinary means of salvation, are those who finally believe. Therefore the antecedent will of God is not overthrown, abolished, or removed by the consequent, but rather passes into the same when the condition is fulfilled."] "The antecedent respects the giving, and the consequent, the receiving of salvation on the part of man. The former is universal; the latter, particular. The former precedes. the latter follows, a purified condition. In the former, salvation is regarded with reference to the means, as on the part of God, these have been established and offered equally to all men. In the latter, the same salvation is regarded with respect to the means, but in so far as these are either accepted or neglected by men. The will of God, pertaining to that which is antecedent (antecedanea), defines what men ought to do, viz., to hear the word of God, through its hearing to receive faith, to apply to themselves the merit of Christ, and by means of this faith to be saved. The consequent will considers what men in fact do or do not, whether they obey the antecedent will or not, i.e., it considers who in fact use the means of salvation established by God and who do not, who hear the Word of God and believe in Christ and who do not." HUTT. (l. c., 794): "In the antecedent will (prohgoumenh) faith is considered as a part of the order which God, so far as it pertains to Himself, desires should be observed. In the consequent will (epomeuh) the same is considered not only in the manner in which God desires His own order to be observed by men, but, in so far as that order either is in fact observed by believing, or is not observed by not believing. Although, indeed, this occurs in time with regard to men; yet, by reason of His prescience, it was especially present to God, inasmuch as, by the nature of eternity, nothing is future to Him, but all things are from eternity especially present to Him in the most simple now (tw nun). By reason of the ultimate difference, the consequent will always attains its end, either for salvation or condemnation; but the antecedent will, not in like manner." Concerning the necessity of this distinction, HOLL. (587): "This distinction (between the general and special will) is necessary, on account of the wonderful combination of divine justice and mercy, which are to be reconciled with each other. For there are expressions in the Holy Scriptures that show that the mercy of God is inclined towards all sinners, 1 Tim. 2:6; 2 Pet. 3:9. There are other expressions which indicate the justice of God, and exclude from the inheritance of salvation those who resist the divine order, John 3:18; Mark 16:16. Finally, there are biblical passages in which both the mercy and justice of God are declared, Matt. 23:37. Christ, by His antecedent will, as far as it pertained to Himself, willed that the children of Israel be gathered together; but, by His consequent will, because they were unwilling to be gathered, He willed that their house be left to them desolate, cf. Acts 13:46. This distinction is implied in the parables of Christ, Matt. 22:1; Luke 14:16." [13] QUEN. (III, 14): "From the admitted universal benevolence of God, in the establishment and presenting of means, whereby He has determined to convert, regenerate, justify, and save men, though His own efficacy, there arises a special benevolence conspicuous in the predestination to eternal life." . . . [14] The Dogmaticians observe that the word predestination' has been employed in the Church in various senses: sometimes in a wider sense, according to which it denotes the purpose of God, referring equally to the saving of believers and the condemnation of unbelievers; sometimes in a narrower sense, according to which it refers alone to the former. In the latter sense they understand it to be employed in Biblical usage. Rom 8:30; Eph. 1:5. HOLL. (607): "Some Fathers and teachers have employed the word predestination improperly (aknrwß), inappropriately, and in a wider sense than is lawful, to denote the divine purpose both for saving believing men and condemning unbelievers. But in Biblical usage the term predestination is always taken in a good sense, to denote the divine decree concerning the salvation of fallen men." But, even then, there is still a threefold distinction to be observed in the definition of predestination; and the more the Dogmaticians appropriate at one time the one, and again the other, so much the more is this distinction to be considered, in order that the thought may not hence arise, that the Dogmaticians stood in opposition to each other in regard to the subject itself. Sometimes they understood by predestination, in the most general manner, the purpose of God to establish a scheme of redemption whereby all might be saved. BR. (711): "The decree refers to the entire work of leading man to salvation." Thus the notion is defined by the Formula Concordiae (Sol. Dec. XI, 14): "Therefore we embrace in mind, at the same time, the entire doctrine of the design, counsel, will, and ordination of God (viz., all things which pertain to our redemption, call, justification, and salvation, cf. sq.)," and, after it, HUTT. and others. HOLL. (609) gives the following definition: "Predestination, taken in a wider sense, can be defined as the eternal, divine decree, by which God, from His immense mercy, determined to give His Son as Mediator, and, through universal preaching, to offer Him for reception to all men who from eternity He foresaw would fall into sin; also through the Word and Sacraments to confer faith upon all who would not resist; to justify all believers, and besides to renew those using the means of grace; to preserve faith in them until the end of life, and, in a word, to save those believing to the end." Sometimes those are more particularly described in whose case the decree of redemption is really to be accomplished; they are those concerning whom God knows that they will believe. HOLL. (608): "In the special or stricter sense, it signifies the ordination of believers to salvation, combined with proqesiß and prognwsiß. The proqesiß (the divine, general and undefined decree concerning the communicating of eternal salvation to all sinful men who, to the end, will believe in Christ) is therefore more specifically defined through the prognwsiß (the foreknowledge of certain human persons or individuals, who will retain true faith in Christ to the last breath of life)." In the latter case, however, by predestination (taken in the strictest sense) only that decree is understood which was really based upon the general proqesiß in accordance with the antecedent prognwsiß, in so far as it embraces the specific number of men who are to be saved, which decree is called proorismoß. HOLL. (608): "In the most special and strict sense, by which proorismoß is distinguished from proqesiß and prognwsiß, and denotes the eternal purpose of God, determinate or applied to certain men as individuals, whom God from the common mass of corruption elects to eternal life, because He distinctly foresees that they will believe to the end in Christ." The meaning of the last two distinctions is this: that, when we come to speak very accurately, the conceptions of the proqesiß and prognwsiß, contained in the latter statement, are merely the antecedent factors of the true and actual purpose (the proorismoß), which factors, therefore, are not to be connected with the conception of predestination itself, when that is defined as an act or decree. Whence these two factors, viz., the proqesiß and prognwsiß are also defined as the normative or directive sources from which election proceeds; the proqesiß being regarded as the primary or mediate normative source, and the prognwsiß as the immediate and proximate source. QUEN. (III, 18): "The proqesiß is the primary directing principle of election; yet not immediate, but mediate, for it concurs with the intervening prognwsiß, or the foreseeing for election of individuals who would to the end believe in Christ." [15] Concerning the relation between predestination and election. QUEN. (III, 16): "Election is a synonym of predestination, yet predestination and election are not logical synonyms, so as to have the relation of genus and species, as the Calvinists state (contending that the divine predestination as a genus contains, within its bounds, two species, viz., election and reprobation; or, as others say, it contains two decrees, the one of election, the other of reprobation)." HUTT. (773): "But, according to the tenor of Scripture, they are grammatical synonyms, and of the same breadth. And, although they differ somewhat with respect to formal signification, yet materially, and in relation to the subject, they are not distinguished; whence in Eph. 1:4 and 5, both terms, election and predestination, are received in the same sense, nor is there an unlike example given in Scripture." HOLL. (605): "Predestination and election agree with respect to the subject, because no man has been predestined to eternal salvation who has not been elected to the same, nor has nay one been elected who has not been predestinated." But "they differ with respect to formal signification. Election, according to is formal notion, relates to the objects which are to be elected; and predestination, to the end and order of means, which lead to the end of election, or eternal life. For the particle pre, in the word predestination, connotes the priority and eternity of the divine ordination; but the particle e, in the word election, connotes the common aggregate of men, from which there is a separation of some men, and therefore the divine election is the separation of some men from the common mass of corruption, and their adoption into the inheritance of eternal salvation. Predestination (1) presupposes prognwsiß, the foreknowledge of certain persons believing to the end, Rom. 8:29; (2) it formally denotes the ordination to eternal life of those men who, according to the divine foreknowledge, receive and continue to employ the means of grace. Acts 13:48. But election (1) presupposes the love of God, Eph. 1:6; (2) it formally denotes the separation, from the common mass of perdition, of those men who He foresees will perseveringly believe in Christ, John 15:19." "Another expression for predestination is, according to Phil. 4:3; Rev. 3:5, the writing in the Book of Life." [16] (a) Full Definition. HOLL. (604): "Predestination is an act of the consequent divine will, by which God (moved by gratuitous mercy, because of the merit of Christ, to be apprehended by persevering faith) separated from the fallen human race, and ordained to the obtaining eternal salvation for the praise of His glorious grace, those men alone and individually who He foresaw would believe in Christ to the end." QUEN. (III, 19): "Predestination is an act of the divine will, by which, before the foundations of the earth were laid, not according to our works, but out of pure mercy, according to His purpose and design, which He purposed in Himself in consideration of the merit of Christ to be apprehended by faith, God ordained to eternal life for the praise of His glorious grace such men as, by the power of the Holy Ghost, through the preaching of the Gospel, would perseveringly and to the end believe in Christ." QUEN. (III, 14): "The peculiar and chief foundation of this fundamental article is Eph. 1:4-7." (b) The form of election is then thus described by QUEN. (III, 18): "It consists in the entire taxiß, or order, which God, in ordaining the eternal decree of election, had as His design, and according to which, for the sake of His own mercy, because of the merit of Christ apprehended by faith, He elects those believing and persevering in faith to the end of life, or, according to which He fulfils in time the election decreed from eternity." From the fact that election has its ground in the preceding proqesiß and prognwsiß, which are related as major and minor premises to the conclusion, viz., the proorismoß, the syllogism of Predestination arises: "Every one who will perseveringly believe in Christ to the end of life will certainly be saved, and, therefore, shall be elected and be written in the Book of Life. "But Abraham, Peter, Paul, etc., will perseveringly believe in Christ to the end of life. "Therefore, Abraham, Peter, Paul, etc., will certainly be saved, and, therefore, shall be elected and be written in the Book of Life." (HOLL., 630.) (c) The causes of election are then stated thus: "The efficient cause of election is the will of the Triune God, freely decreeing (Rom. 8:28; Eph. 1:4; John 13:18; 15:16, 19; Acts 13:2; 2 Thess. 2:13); the impulsive or moving internal cause is the purely gratuitous grace of God (Rom. 9:15, 16; Eph. 1:5; 2:8, 9; Rom. 11:5, 6); the moving external cause is the merit of Christ, regarded with respect to foreseen final application (Eph. 1:4-7)." As the external less principal cause, some state, "Faith in Christ, and this final." [17] HUTT. (795): "Concerning the question (whether the eternal election of those who are to be saved is to be assigned to the antecedent or the consequent will), a twofold way presents itself, some turning too much to the right, others too far to the left, and both from the path of truth, although in a diverse mode, relation, and end. For those who follow the side of Calvin affirm that the decree of election should be sought in the antecedent will of God alone, but in such a way, as thence to derive both the absolute and the particular will, and indeed also the absolute election of few men. Huber, on the other hand, likewise placed election in the antecedent will alone; and, although contending aright, against the Calvinists, that this will is universal, yet erroneously and falsely constructed thence, against the orthodox, the opinion that election is universal and entirely unlimited. Therefore, just as Calvin removes and eliminates from the decree of election all reference to faith, so Huber does the very act of faith. Each of these errors, deviating from the analogy of faith, violates it in this, that it altogether substitutes election from every consideration of righteousness, imputed through faith on account of Christ. In this way, indeed, it is lawful to infer no election at all, rather than either the absolute election of a few, or the universal election of all. For in all Scripture the name of the elect is never ascribed except to those alone who actually believe and absolutely persevere in faith. In the second place, even the very sound of the terms, election and elect, and their peculiar relation, intimate and prove a distinction or dissimilarity with respect to men. For the elect are so called in distinction from the non-elect; and yet, in fact, Christian piety and faith forbid us making any distinction among men in the antecedent will. Therefore, the orthodox Church, making a separation from each of these errors, places election not in the sole and merely simple antecedent will of God, but rather in the consequent will." [18] HOLL. (633): "Those elected by God in Christ are wretched sinful men; yet not all promiscuously, but those whom God from eternity distinctly foresaw as those who would believe in Christ to the end." THerefore (619), "The election to eternal life of men corrupted by sin was made by the most merciful God, in consideration of faith in Christ remaining steadfast to the end of life." To guard the expression, in consideration of faith (intuitu fidei), from misunderstanding, it was still farther observed by QUEN. (III, 36): "(a) Faith, and that, too, as persevering or final faith, enters into the sphere of eternal election, not as already afforded, but as foreknown. For we are elected to eternal life from faith divinely foreseen, apprehending, to the end, the merit of Christ; (b) Faith enters into election not by reason of any meritorious worth, but with respect to its correlate, or so far as it is the only means of apprehending the merit of Christ; or, in other words, faith is not a meritorious cause of election, but only a prerequisite condition, or a part of the entire order divinely appointed in election;" others express themselves so as to mark faith as the less principal external cause. Concerning the different expressions through which the relation of faith to predestination is stated, BR. (725): "Some of our theologians, indeed, have said that faith in Christ is the instrumental cause of the decree of election; others, that it is its condition; some that it is the condition on the part of the object of election; others that it is a part of the order of predestination. These all practically agree with each other, and with those who call it the impulsive less principal cause. For all acknowledge that faith is not a mere condition which exercises no causality; but, as it is constituted for the act of saving, so is it for the act of decreeing salvation (virtually causing salvation), as that in consideration of which we have been elected, and yet not as a principal cause, of itself able to influence God to elect us. Whence, when faith is otherwise regarded under the figure of a hand or organ, by which, as a cause of salvation, the grace of God electing and the merit of Christ are apprehended, and, in this manner, is usually called an instrument; yet here the relation of faith to the decree of election itself must be shown: where our theologians do not say that it is of the manner of an instrument, which the efficient principal cause, God, in electing, employs to produce the act of election by a real influx. But those who have spoken of an instrumental moral cause cannot understand anything else than an impulsive less principal cause. . . . Therefore, then, this formula of speaking remains, by which faith is called the impulsive cause or reason, yet not the chief or principal; but with the addition, for the sake of avoiding ambiguity, of less principal." BAIER commends the following from MEISSNER: "It seems more fitting that faith be considered not separately as a peculiar cause of election, distinct from the merit of Christ, but joined with that merit as apprehended, so as to render both united the one impelling cause of election. For neither does faith merit without the application, nor does it itself move God to elect, but both combined in the divine foreknowledge, i.e., the merit apprehended by faith, or faith apprehending the merit." Concerning the relation of prescience and predestination, HUTT. (Loc. c., 803): "I. The word Prescience is received in this place, not in a general, indefinite, and loose sense, concerning the knowledge of all future things; in which sense the prescience of bad things, as well as of good, belongs to God, and presupposes, at the same time, predestination: but restrictedly and determinatively to a certain matter and subject, namely, to prescience of faith in Christ, which is peculiar to the elect. This determinative distinguishing of prescience always presupposes predestination, according to Rom. 8:29, whom He foreknew, viz., according to the interpretation of Augustine, those who would believe in His Son, He also did predestinate; and He indeed predestinated them to be conformed to the image of His Son. For in this passage the Apostle does not treat of the antecedent will of God, by reason of which He wishes all men to be conformed to the image of His Son, but he treats of those who already, in the very decree of God, are conformed to this image. II. This prescience is not the predestination itself of God, or the decree of election, as Calvin affirms. . . . For the Apostle, in the words just cited, expressly considers prescience and predestination as two distinct things; saying, whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate; otherwise, a most senseless notion, such as this, would appear: Whom He predestinated, He predestinated.' . . . Therefore, it is decided aright that the word prescience in this passage denotes, according to the Hebrew idiom, not the simple knowledge of God, but that which is joined with approbation and delight, because determined to an object pleasing to God, viz., to Christ apprehended by faith, or, what amounts to the same thing, to faith apprehending the merit of Christ. III. This prescience, which we have said enters into the decree of election, is not regarded as a cause, on account of, or because of, which election takes place, or salvation itself is conferred upon the elect; because it is not an essential part, constituting election itself, but is added to predestination only as an adjunct, and that, too, inseparable. For although prescience, since it is placed in a lower grade, can be sometimes unaccompanied by predestination, as happens in regard to the sins and wicked actions of men, yet, with predestination determined because of a higher grade, it is necessary that the lower should always be included. Hence the Apostle says: The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, "The Lord knoweth them that are His,"' 2 Tim. 2:19. Moreover, He knew this not only in time, but foreknew it from all eternity. This knowledge or foreknowledge is therefore an eye, as it were, of the eternal election; for he who would destroy this would render our election blind and destroy it." [19] HOLL. (631): "The decree is relative, because when God predestined certain fallen men to eternal life, and, indeed, some rather than others, He regarded something outside of Himself as an impulsive external cause, viz., the merit of Christ, to be apprehended by persevering faith." QUEN. (III, 31): "Predestination to eternal life is not absolute, but is founded upon Christ as Mediator. The antithesis of the Calvinists, who exclude the merit of Christ from the causes of election, and refer to means of accomplishing it furnished in time, and, therefore deny that Christ is the meritorious cause of our election." The doctrine of Calvin, is accordingly distinguished from that of the Lutheran Church, in that, according to the former, predestination rests upon an absolute decree of God ("by which God absolutely of Himself, without a prerequisite condition or without outward respect to any other cause or intervening reason, wills and does something, according to the manner in which He absolutely willed to create and preserve it." QUEN.); and hence, likewise, it is not the earnestly intended will of God that all men should be saved unto whom the Gospel is preached, and, accordingly, a distinction is made between the manifest will, or that of the sign, and the secret will, or that of the purpose. [20] HOLL. (631): "God indeed decreed absolutely and unconditionally to save this or that one, because He certainly foresaw his persevering faith in Christ." If it be asserted of the decree that it is not conditioned, it appears to contradict the former assertion that it is not absolute. HOLL. (632) explains the apparent contradiction by the following: "When the decree of predestination is said to be not absolute, it must not be regarded on that account conditional. For the idea is not, that God from eternity would elect this or that one to salvation, if he would believe in Christ, and depart hence in the true faith, but because he would believe and would persevere. Faith regarded in the will of God, before the act of predestination, is therefore indeed a condition, under which He desires the salvation of all; yet in the decree itself it is not a condition under which the election was made, but a reason by which God was moved to elect. Therefore, the decree should not be denied to be absolute, when considered with respect to that which is conditional; yet not in such a manner as to exclude the consideration of the a priori reason outside of God, as a part in the order of predestination, which is, without doubt, faith in Christ foreseen from eternity, or, what amounts to the same thing, the merit of Christ, apprehended by faith. For the decree must not be confounded with the antecedent will of God, which, we affirm, from the Word of God, does not exclude a condition, but appoints it, Rom. 11:23." [21] QUEN. (III, 21): "Through mortal sins the elect may altogether lose and banish the Holy Ghost, faith and the grace of God, and thus for a time become subjects of condemnation, yet they cannot be wanting to the end, and perish eternally. Total loss of grace is one thing, final loss of grace is another. That is total, by which any one is entirely deprived of the grace of God; that is final, by which any one, shortly before death, departs from the faith, and dies in unbelief." [22] HOLL. (642): "A regenerate man in the midst of the course of his life is certain of his election conditionally (Phil. 2:12); but at the end of life, he rejoices in the absolute certainty of his predestination." [23] HOLL. (644): "The word reprobation' (apodokimasia) is not found in just so many syllables in Holy Scripture. The word adokimoß is used, 1 Cor. 9:27; 2 Cor. 13:5; Heb. 6:8." QUEN. (III, 21): "It is otherwise called prografh eiß to krima, Jude 4." [24] BRCHM.: "When the case of reprobation is considered, there is need of pious caution. We must avoid considering God the cause of reprobation in the same manner as He is the cause of election. For He is the cause of election, but with regard to His effecting it and with regard to the end; both with regard to the decrees and to all the means leading to the end. But the matter is different in reprobation. For, since reprobation is eternal perdition, to which there is no direct way except through sin, and especially unbelief, every one must see that reprobation cannot be ascribed to God as effecting it, inasmuch as it is either damnation itself or sin, the means leading thither. The true cause of reprobation is in man himself, and is undoubtedly the obstinate contempt of the grace offered in the Gospel. . . . God, meanwhile, is not the indifferent witness of reprobation, but, as the just avenger of crimes and of despised grace, is occupied with certain special acts concerning the wicked and unbelieving, who, although they have been for a long time admonished, invited, and punished, yet out of pure malice have continued to despise and resist the Gospel." __________________________________________________________________