-07 Chapter 7. Of the Decree and Counsel of God.
1-07 Chapter 7. Of the Decree and Counsel of God.
1. In the powerful Efficiency of God, the Decree of God obtains the first place; because this manner of working, being most perfect of all, chiefly agrees to the Divine Nature.
2. The Decree of God is his determinate purpose of effecting all things by his almighty Power, and according to his counsel. Ephesians 1:11, He does all things according to the counsel of his own will.
3. In the Decree of God appear his constancy, truth, and faithfulness.
4. CONSTANCY is that by which the Decree of God always remains immutable. Numbers 23:19, The strong God is not a man that he should lie, nor the Son of man that he should repent. Proverbs 19:21, The Counsel of the Lord shall stand.
5. TRUTH is that by which God declares what he alone has decreed. Jeremiah 10:10, Jehovah is a God of truth.66 Romans 3:4, Let God be true and every man a liar. For although his words may seem sometimes to sound like another thing, yet the sense of them always agrees with the Decree.
6. FAITHFULNESS is that by which he effects what he has decreed, as he has decreed it. Isaiah 46:10, My Counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.
7. Every Decree of God is eternal. 1 Corinthians 2:7; Acts 15:18.67
8. To this Decree of God pertains his Counsel. Ephesians 1:11; Acts 4:28.68
9. The Counsel of God is, as it were, his deliberation concerning doing everything in the best manner, after it is approved by his understanding and will.
10. Counsel is attributed to God in respect to his perfect judgment, whereby he does all things advisedly; i.e., willingly and by set purpose — and not in respect to any inquiry upon which we men depend for such a judgment. For God sees and wills all and everything, together. Therefore it is called, as it were, deliberation — but it is not deliberation properly so-called.69
11. Three things concur in the perfection of this counsel. 1. A propounded scope or end. 2. A concept of the mind tending towards that scope (an intention), and 3. good-pleasure of the will.
12. The scope or end of this Counsel is the glory of God himself; that is, that goodness or perfection of God which is manifested by his Efficency, and which shines forth in his works. Ephesians 1:6, To the praise of his glorious grace.
13. In every artificer,70 or someone who works by counsel ad extra, outwardly, there is a platform beforehand in the mind, which he looks into when he is about to work, so that he may fit his work to it — so also in God, seeing that he does not work naturally or rashly, nor by constraint, but with greatest perfection of reason. Such a platform is to be conceived to pre-exist beforehand in his mind, as the exemplary cause of all things to be done. Hebrews 11:3, Those things we see were made of things that do not appear.71
14. The platform of all things is the Divine Essence, as it is understood of God himself as imitable72 by the Creatures — so that in some way, the Image of that perfection, or some footprint of it, may be expressed in the Creatures. That is, the Creatures themselves, as they are conceived in the Mind of God, are the platform or image of that nature which they have in themselves.
15. A platform in the mind of man, who attains to knowledge by Analysis or resolution, is collected about things themselves. And so things exist first in themselves, and then they come to the senses of men, and then to his understanding. Here they can make some Idea 73 to direct the subsequent operation. But because God understands all things by Genesis, or composition, and does not require knowledge by Analysis, or by resolution of things, all things are therefore first in his mind, before they exist in themselves.
16. In us, the things themselves are the example, platform, or copy; and our knowledge is the Image. But in God, the Divine knowledge is the copy-platform; and the things themselves are the Image, or express likeness of it.
17. An Idea in man is first imprinted, and afterwards expressed in the things. But in God, it is only properly expressing, not impressed, because it does not come from any other thing.
18. From this one foundation may all errors about merits, and foreseen faith, be sufficiently refuted.74
19. The Idea or platform, as it is absolutely considered in God, is only one; but as it includes diverse respects to the Creatures, it becomes manifold; so that it is true that the Idea of one Creature is not the Idea of another.
20. In God there are platforms of all perfections which are in the Creatures, because they proceed from the active power of God; but not platforms of imperfections, if they are formally considered as imperfections.
21. Therefore the knowledge of evil depends on denying good, just as the being of evil consists in the privation of good; for as everything has its being, so it is known.
22. Ideas, as they are many, so some of them are Connexa, knit together among themselves; and they depend one upon another. This is why a certain order arises of former and latter.
23. Ideas, as they are considered going before the Decree of God’s Will, represent a quiddity75 of things, and only a possible existence. As they are considered after the determination of God’s Will, they represent the same thing, as actually to come according to their actual existence.
24. From that diverse consideration, there arises a distinguishing of Divine knowledge into that which is called, Knowledge of simple understanding, and Knowledge of vision.
25. KNOWLEDGE OF SIMPLE INTELLIGENCE is knowledge of all possible things; that is, of all and every thing which may be done by most perfect knowledge in God.
26. KNOWLEDGE OF VISION is the knowledge of all future things, whether in their own nature they are necessary, or free, or contingent.
27. Those things that God knows by simple intelligence, 76 or mere understanding, he knows by his all-sufficiency. But those things he knows by vision, he knows by his Efficiency, or by the Decree of his own will. Psalms 33:15, He that frames their hearts, observes all their works. Isaiah 44:7, Who as I, foretells and declares it, or orders it to be, from the time that I disposed the people forever: that the things to come, and which shall come to pass, may be declared to them?
28. Some imagine a middle knowledge by which God is said to know by supposition, before the Decree of his will, such events that would come to pass if such causes were put. Seeing that it both determines events that will certainly to come to pass independently from God’s Will, and that it makes some knowledge of God depend chiefly on the object — I say that such a knowledge cannot stand with the great perfection of God.
29. The Divine Idea, according to the variety of Notions which are in the things, puts on diverse respects. In respect to the Principles, it is called Intelligence, whereby God perceives every several77 thing in every thing. In respect to truth belonging to every several thing, it is called Science,78 which as to its extent, is Omniscience. And as to that being which things have in their proper measure, it is called Prescience.79 In respect to the dependence of truths which they have among themselves, it is called Sapience,80 whereby he knows what is convenient for everything, and what is disagreeable for it. In respect to the whole order to be appointed in practice, it is called Prudence, whereby he knows to apply the fittest occasions to everything. Lastly, in respect to putting it into practice, it is called Art, whereby he knows to effect all things most skillfully. Hebrews 11:10.81
30. Those words are often used promiscuously in the Scriptures to explain the perfection of Divine understanding, to the capacity of those who have a very imperfect understanding; yet of their own nature, they allow for this distinction, and not another.
31. That conjectural knowledge which only some give to God, about contingent things to come, plainly repugns82 the nature and perfection of God.
Of those three things which were propounded [thesis 11], as concurring to
the perfection of God’s Counsel: namely, A scope conceived
of the mind, and intention of the will; The
Third remains to be considered, which
is called, Good pleasure.
32. The GOOD PLEASURE of God is an act of Divine will, most freely and effectually determining all things.
33. Good pleasure indeed in Scripture most usually sets forth the good will of God whereby he wills and determines a saving good to his own; yet because the whole Counsel of God is well pleasing to him, the term is rightly used by Divines to explain every Counsel of God, specifically according to the Scriptures.
34. This will is truly free, because whatever it wills, it wills it not by necessity of nature, but by Counsel.
35. It is most free, or chiefly and absolutely free, depending on no other; but the freedom of the will of men and Angels, by reason of that dependence which the will has on God, is less free in partaking of another.83
36. Freedom in those operations which are outward, is not only concomitant (as it is in inward operations), but it is also antecedent 84 by way of a principle: because what God wills to work outwardly, he does not will out of a necessity of nature, but out of a precedent choice. For there is no necessary connexion 85 between the Divine Nature, and those Acts.
37. This will is Effectual, because whatever it wills, God effects it in its time; nor is there anything that is not done if he wills it to be done. Psalms 115:3; Psalms 135:6, Jehovah does whatever he pleases.
38. Hence the Will of God is the first cause of things. Revelation 4:11, By your will they are and were created. But the Will of God, as it wills to work outwardly, does not presuppose the goodness of the object, but by willing, it makes the object good. James 1:18, Because he would, he begat us. Romans 9:18, He has mercy on whom he wills.
39. Therefore there is no cause, properly so-called, to be attributed to God’s Will.
40. Hence it is rightly said that God wills one thing to exist for another; but that one thing is not a proper cause whereby the will of God is inwardly moved to appoint that other thing. So God wills that the Sun and stars should exist for the generation, conservation, and corruption of things below; yet the Sun and Stars are not a cause why God wills those things to be generated, conserved, and corrupted. And so it is in all things outside of God, which indeed among themselves are causes and effects, even as they depend upon the Divine will. But there is no cause of God’s Will outside of itself.
41. Also, the willing of one thing in God, is not properly a cause that effects God willing another thing in himself. This is because the Efficiency of a cause upon an effect, and the dependence of the effect upon a cause, cannot be in the Will of God — which is God himself truly and plainly willing all things together, and at once, with only one act. Yet it is true that the Schoolmen86 say that a passive attingency87 of the Divine will in respect to one thing, is a cause of a passive attingency in respect to another. And so, in this sense, it is truly and piously said that God wills some one thing, because he wills another.
42. Therefore, although God wills many things which will not follow except upon some antecedent act of the Creature, yet the very act of willing in God does not properly depend as a consequent thing upon the act of the Creature.88 Nor is it lawful under the appellation of an Antecedent will, to give to God that imperfect will which is called Velleitas, a willingness in the Schools. For it does not agree to an Omniscient, Omnipotent, and infinitely blessed Nature.
43. Which is why that opinion is not to be admitted, which determines that God wills something antecedent to the act of the Creature, which afterwards he does not will towards them, but wills another thing. This is because it makes the Will of God mutable and dependent on the act of the Creature, so that as often as the act of the Creature is changed, so often the Will of God is also changed.
44. By that opinion also, that form of speech prescribed in the Word of God,89 in which we commit ourselves and all ours to God — such as, I will do this or that, if God wills — would not be used in all things; but would be turned to the contrary: God will do this or that, if man wills.
45. This will determines all things — greatest, least, contingent, necessary, free — without exception. The Scripture shows this of all kinds of things, such as Christ Jesus being glorified, and the Church being saved by him, Psalms 2:1-12; Psalms 110:4; Psalms 40:7-9; Hebrews 7:16; Hebrews 7:21; Ephesians 5:25; 2 Timothy 1:9.90 Of Pharaoh, Exodus 13:1-22, where God so disposed all things that he might move Pharaoh to persecute and overthrow the people of Israel; indeed, he hardened him, so that he might persecute them. Yet Pharaoh and Israel worked freely. In the same way, the selling of Joseph, in which all things happened freely and contingently — God determined it according to his will. Of the very heart of man, Psalms 33:15; Psalms 91:1-16 1 Samuel 10:9, 1 Samuel 10:26;92 Proverbs 21:1.93 Of a man killing another man by chance, Exodus 21:13.94 Of the Lot cast into the Lap, Proverbs 16:33.95 Of little sparrows falling to the ground. Of all the hairs on a man’s head, Matthew 10:29-30. Of the Lilies, Flowers, and Grass of the Earth, Matthew 6:28; Matthew 6:30. Finally, of all created things, Job 38:1-41; Psalms 104:1-35; Isaiah 45:7;96 Jeremiah 14:22.97
46. If God were not to determine all things, then his Will would not plainly and universally be the first cause; and therefore those who think the contrary must of necessity either make two first beginnings, or more than two, which is very far from all truth.
47. But there is not the same reason for will, as there is for Divine knowledge and power; for knowledge knows all things that may be known; and power can do all possible things; and they are stretched forth together beyond those things which actually have been, are, and shall be. But by his Will he does not will all things that he can will, but all things which he judges to be willed; and therefore they will actually come to be afterward. This is why, although God may be called Omniscient, and Omnipotent, yet he cannot be called Omnivolent.98
48. Whatever God wills in all these things, he is universally effectual. So that he can in no way be hindered or frustrated, whereby he cannot obtain what he wills. For if he were to properly will anything, and could not obtain it, he would not be most perfect and blessed.
49. Yet the Will of God does not imply a necessity upon all future things, but only a certainty as touching the event. So it could not be, as to the certainty of the event, that the bones of Christ should be broken, because God willed that they should not be broken.99 Yet there was no necessity imposed on the Soldiers’ Spears, and other second causes which were present.
50. No, it is so far off that the will of God, which most certainly attains to whatever it wills, urges all things with hard necessity, that it is the prime root and efficient cause of all that contingency and freedom which exists in things — because it effectually foreordains such effects to follow such causes.
51. In those things which God Wills, there is a certain order conceived; namely, that first he Wills the end, before he wills the means to the end, because he works by most perfect reason. And among means, he first Wills those things which come nearest to the end; for that which is first in order of execution, is last in order of intention; and so also it is contrarily.
52. This Will of God is partly hidden, and partly revealed, Deuteronomy 29:29.100
53. Those means by which this Will is revealed, are rightly called the Will of the sign, not only metaphorically, because they declare among men what they would have, but also metonymically, because they are either effects, or adjuncts, partly declaring the proper Will of God.
54. There are five signs put in that old verse, Praecipit, et Prohibit, Permittit, Consulit, Implet: He Commands and Forbids, Permits, Counsels, Fulfills.101 But because counsel is the same as a command, instead of counsel, it would be better to use Promittit, He promises.
Thus far in general of God’s Efficiency, which together with
his Sufficiency, make a fit and adequate object of
Faith. The kinds of Efficiency follow.