thereof in the predestination of 3. "The blinding of the wicked, and all the wicked deeds which follow thereupon, are called the works of Satan, of which yet the cause is not to be sought elsewhere, than in the will of man, out of which ariseth the root of evil, wherein resteth the foundation of the kingdom of Satan, which is sin.” B. 2. ch. 4. sec. 1. OTHERS. ty of choice which God permitted to the will of man he abused and kept not the law of his justice." Con. of the Waldenses. 3. "The cause or guilt of this unbelief as well as of all other sins, is no wise in God, but in man himself." Con. R. D. C. Head 1. Art.. 5. of the Canons. "He leaves the non-elect in his just judgment to their own wickedness and obduracy." Con. R. D. C. Head 1. Art. 6.of the Canons. * "It cannot be doubted, that Providence was concerned about this fall of our first parents. It is certain that it was foreknown from eternity; none can deny this, but he who sacrilegiously dares to venture to deny the omniscience of God. Nay, as God by his eternal decree laid the plan of the whole economy of our salvation, and preconceived succession of the most important things presupposes the sin of man, it could not therefore, happen unforeseen by God. And this is the more evident, because, according to Peter, "He (Christ) was foreordained before the foundation of the world," and that as the Lamb, whose blood was to be shed. 1 Pet. i. 19, 20.” "And if foreknown, it was also predetermined; thus Peter, in the place just quoted, joins together the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Nor can God's prescience of future things be conceived, but in connexion with his decree concerning them. From all this may be inferred by a plain consequence, that man could not but fall on account of the infallibility of the divine prescience, and of that necessity which they call a necessity of consequence; for it is inconsistent with the divine perfection that any decree should be rendered void, or that the event should not be answerable to it." "And when we affirm, that God foreordained and infallibly foreknew, that man should sin freely, the sinner could not but sin freely; unless we would have the event not answer to the preordination and the prescience of God. And 'tis so far from the decree of God, in the least to diminish the liberty of man in his acting, that, on the contrary, this liberty has not a more solid foundation than that infallible decree of God. To make God the author of sin, is such dreadful blasphemy, that the thought cannot, without horror, be entertained by any 3. Of Providence in reprobation." According to divine revelation, God superintends, orders and directs in all the actions of men, and in every instance of sin; so that his hand and agency is to be seen and acknowledged in men's sinful actions, and the events depending on them, as really and as much as in any events and actions whatever.” Syst. Vol. 1. p. 166. God moves, excites and stirs up men to do that which is sinful; and deceives, blinds, hardens, and puts sin into the heart, by a positive, creative influSyst. Vol. 1. p. 166 to "To work in men to will and to do, is to do that which is effectual to produce the will and the deed; so that there is a certain connexion between the former and the latter." once. 217. Hopkins' Sermons, p. 195. Thus does God form the character of those who were OTHERS. operation, in the view of motives. Satan placed certain motives before his mind, which, by a divine energy, took hold of his heart and led him into sin." Emmons, p. 232. 3. Of Reprobation. " In forming characters, God exercises neither justice nor injustice," but sovereignty. T. Williams' Sermons, f. 192. "God knew that no external means and motives would be sufficient of themselves, to form Pharaoh's moral character. He determined, therefore, to operate on his heart itself, and cause him to put forth certain evil exercises, in the view of certain external motives. When Moses called upon him to let the people go, God stood by him, and moved him to refuse. When Moses interceded for him and procured him respite, God stood by him, and moved him to exult in his obstinacy. When the people departed christian. God, indeed created man mutably good, infallibly foresaw hissin, foreordained the permission of that sin, really gave man sufficient. powers to avoid it, but which could not act without his influx; and though he influenced his faculties to natural or physical actions without influencing the moral goodness of those actions: (All which appears from the event :) Yet God neither is, nor in any respect can be, the author of sin. And though it be difficult, nay impossible for us, to reconcile these truths with each other; yet we ought not to deny what is manifest, on account of that which is hard to be understood." Witsius' Economy, B. 1. ch. 8. Sec. 10, 11, 12, 27 and 28. AND CALVIN, In the chap. and sect. last named, Calvin quotes with approbation the similitude of Augustine, who compared the human will to a horse, which could be governed by its riders. He supposed the will to be a power of choice, and not to consist in a continued creation of volitions. God permits the Devil to ride the will of a wicked man, and the "foolish, wanton rider violently carrieth it through places where no way is, driveth it into ditches, rolleth it down steep places, spurreth it forward to stubbornness and fierceness;” while God "guideth it into the right way." In chap. 18. sec. 1. Calvin ridicules the idea of such a bare permission of events as excludes the doctrine of previous appointment, or decree; but in no place does he discard the doctrine of such a permission as excludes the immediate agency of God in the creation of sin. OTHERS. "Nothing can happen in this world without his decree and ordinance, and yet God cannot be either the author, or guiltie of the evils that happen in this world," Con. Belgia. 1 from eternity predestinated to damnation; and thus by his providence he executes his decree of reprobation. Syst. Part. 1. ch. 4. passim. God is as much the author of sinful as of holy volitions, and the professed Calvinist who denies this is not so consistent with himself as the Arminians. Syst. Vol. 1. p. 197. "Calvin, and the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, assert that the divine decree and agency, respecting the existence of sin, imply more than a bare permission, viz. something positive and efficacious." Those are not Calvinists "who hold to only a bare permission."* Syst. Vol. 1. p. 215. OTHERS. "In * To talk about bare permission, where God, as a punishment, blinds and hardens, says Calvin, is weak. His view of the providence of God in reprobation, is summarily exhibited in B. 4. ch. 4. sec. 3, 4 and 5. evil motions of wicked men God worketh after two sorts; the one by withholding his grace, whereby they might be moved to good; the other by using the ministry of Satan to stir, frame and incline their wills." "Whereas when his light is taken away, there remaineth nothing but darkness and blindness: whereas when his Spirit is taken away, our hearts wax hard and become stones; whereas when his direction ceaseth, they are wrested into crookedness, it is well said that he doth blind, harden and bow them from whom he taketh away the power to see, obey and do rightly. The second manner, which cometh near to the property of the words, is, tha for the executing of his judgments by Satan the minister of his wrath, he both appointeth their purposes to what end it pleaseth him, and stirreth up their wills, and strengtheneth their endeavours." In this manner he hardened Pharaoh, Sihon, and the wicked Israelites. B. 4. ch. 4. sec. 3 and 4. To say that the spirit from the Lord, which influenced Saul and others was the Holy Ghost is blasphemy. B. 4. ch. 4. sec. 5. 1 AND CALVIN, 4. The blame of all bad actions belongs to man and the devil: the praise of all good ones entirely to God. Inst. B. 2. ch. 5. sec. 2. and B. 2. ch. 1. sec. §. B. 2. ch. 2. sec. 3. OTHERS. 4. Men are altogether blameable for their bad actions, because "God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty that it is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined to good or evil." Con. C. Scot. Con. P. C U. S. and Say. Plat. ch. 9.sec. 1. But to man belongs no praise, to God is due all the glory, of every good work, because all ability to will and to perform good is wholly of the special grace of God. Con. P. C. U. S. Con. C. Scot. and Say. Plat, ch. 16. "It is through his grace that he crowns his gifts." Con. R.D. C. Art. 24. |