Of The Providence Of God In Governing The World Diversely, Thrust From This Pre-Eminence By The Arminian Idol Of Free-Wi
Chapter 4
OF THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD
IN GOVERNING THE WORLD
DIVERSELY, THRUST FROM
THIS PRE-EMINENCE BY THE
ARMINIAN IDOL OF FREE-
WILL I come now to address what lies between the providence of God and the Pelagian idol, which is bellum, a]spondon – implacable war and immortal hatred – absolutely destructive to the one side. For that concept of it which Christianity has embraced up to now, and that sense in which the Arminians maintain it, can no more be consistent with each other than fire and water, light and darkness, Christ and Belial. The one who goes to conjoin them, plows with an ox and an ass; they must be tied together with the same ligament – "quo ille mortua jungebat corpora vivis" – with which the tyrant tied dead bodies to living men. This strange advancement of the clay against the potter, is not by way of repining,100 as if to say, "Why have you made me thus?"
It is by way of emulation, "I will not be so; I will advance myself to the sky, to the sides of your throne."101 This was previously unknown to the more refined Paganism. As these made a goddess of Contingency, so they (with a better error), made a goddess of Providence; They
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feigned that she helped Latona to give birth in the isle of Delos; intimating that Latona, or nature, though big and great with assorted effects, could still produce nothing without the interceding help of Divine Providence.102 This mythology of theirs seems to contain a sweeter gust of divine truth than any we can expect from the towering fancies of those who are inclined to believe that God sustains all things for no other reason but that he does not destroy them.103 Now, that their proud, God-opposing errors may better appear according to my former method, I will plainly show what the Scripture teaches us concerning this providence – with what is agreeable to right and Christian reason; not what is dictated by tumultuating affections.
Providence is a word which, in its proper meaning, may seem to comprehend all the actions of God that are outwardly of him, and that have any respect to his creatures, and all his works that are not ad intra
(essentially belonging to the Deity). Now, God "works all things according to his decree, or the counsel of his will," Eph 1:11, whatever he does now it pleased him to do from the beginning, Psalm 115:3; and known to God are all his works from eternity. Therefore, three things 104 concerning his providence are to be considered: 1. His decree or purpose, whereby he has disposed of all things in order, and appointed them for certain ends which he fore-ordained. 2. His prescience, whereby he certainly fore-knows all things that shall come to pass. 3. His temporal operation, or working in time – "My Father works up to now," John 5:17 – whereby he actually executes all his good pleasure. The first and second of these have been the subject of the former chapters; only the latter now requires our consideration.
Providence, then, we may conceive of as an ineffable act or work of Almighty God, whereby he cherishes, sustains, and governs the world, or all things created by him, moving them agreeably according to those natures which he endowed them with in the beginning, for those ends which he has proposed. To confirm this, I will first prove this position:
That the whole world is cared for by God, and governed by him, and this applies to all men, good or bad, and all things in particular,
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however small and inconsiderable in our eyes. Secondly, I will show the manner in which God works all, in all things, and according to the diversity of secondary causes which he has created. Some are necessary, some are free, and others are contingent, to produce their effects nec pa>ntwv, nec ejpi< to< polu>, sed kata< sumqeqhko>v, merely by accident.
The providence of God in governing the world is made known to us plentifully, both by his works and by his word. I will give a few instances of either sort: 1. In general, the almighty Dhmiourgo>v, and Framer of this whole universe, proposes to himself no end in the creation of all things – he lacks neither power, goodness, will, nor wisdom, to order and dispose the works of his own hands – it is altogether impossible to be otherwise. 2. Take one particular instance concerning accident, the knowledge of which by some means or other, in some degree or other, has spread itself throughout the world – and that is the almost universal destruction of all by the flood, whereby the whole world was nearly reduced to its primitive confusion. Is there nothing but chance to be seen in this? Was there any circumstance about it that did not show a God and his providence? Not to mention those revelations whereby God foretold that he would bring such a deluge. What chance, what fortune, could collect such a small number of individuals of all sorts, in which the whole of its kind might be preserved? What hand guided that poor vessel from the rocks and gave it a resting-place on the mountains? Certainly, the very reading of that story in Gen 7-8, being confirmed by the catholic tradition of all mankind, would be enough to startle the stubborn heart of an atheist.
The word of God does not relate it less fully than his works declare it, Psalm 19, "My Father works up to now," says our Savior, John 5:17.
But did not God end his work on the seventh day, and did he not then "rest from all his work?" Gen 2:2. True, he rested from his work of creation by his omnipotence; but his work of governance by his providence as yet knows no end. Yes, and he does various particular things besides the ordinary course, only to make known "that he thus
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works," John 9:3.105 Just as he has framed all things by his wisdom, so he continues them by his providence in excellent order, as is declared at large in that golden Psalm 104: and this is not limited to any particular places or things, but "his eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good," Prov 15:3; so that "none can hide himself in secret places that he shall not see him," Jer 23:24; Acts 17:24; Job 5:10,11; Exodus
4:11. And all this he does that men "may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside him. He is the LORD, and there is none else. He forms the light, and creates darkness: he makes peace, and creates evil: he does all these things,"
Isaiah 45:6-7. In these and innumerable similar places, the Lord declares that there is nothing which he has made, that he does not govern and sustain with the good hand of his providence.
Now, this general extent of his common providence to all in no way keeps him from exercising certain special acts of providence towards some in particular. I mean his church here on earth, and those of which it consists; "for what nation is there so great, who has God so near to them?" Deut 4:7. In governing this, he most eminently shows his glory and exercises his power. Join here his works with his word – what he has done with what he has promised to do for the conservation of his church and people – and you will find admirable issues of a more special providence. He promises that "the gates of hell shall not prevail," against this church Mat 16:18; he also promised to remain in their midst, Mat 28:20; supplying all things necessary, Mat
6:33; desiring that "all their care might be cast upon him, who cares for them," 1 Peter 5:7; forbidding any to "touch his anointed ones," Psalm
105:15, because they are "the apple of his eye," Zec 2:8. Now, this special providence has respect to a supernatural end, to which alone that providence is to be conveyed.
For wicked men, as they are excepted from this special care and government, so they are not exempted from the dominion of his almighty hand. He has created them "for the day of evil," Prov 16:4, and provided a" place of their own" for them to go to, Acts 1:25. He
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does not allow them to live outside the boundary of his all-ruling providence in this world, but allows and endures their iniquities with great patience and "long-suffering," Rom 9:22 – often defending them from the injuries of one another, Gen 4:15. He grants many temporal blessings to them, Mat 5:45, disposing all their works to the glory of his great name, Prov 21:1-2. He declares that they also live, and move, and have their being in him, (Act 17:28)and are under the government of his providence. No, there is not the least thing in this world to which his care and knowledge does not descend. It would not become his wisdom to sustain, order, and dispose of all things created by him, and yet leave them to the ruin of uncertain chance. Jerome, then, was injurious to God's providence, and cast a blemish on his absolute perfection, when he thought to clear God's majesty from being defiled with the knowledge and care of the smallest reptiles and vermin at every moment.106 St. Austin expressly to the contrary asked, "Who has disposed the several members of the flea and gnat, and given them order, life, and motion?" etc. 107 This is most agreeable to the holy
Scriptures, as in Psalm 104:20-21, 145:15; Mat 6:26, 30, "He feeds the fowls, and clothes the grass of the field;" Job 39:1-2; Jonah 4:6-7.
Surely it is not troublesome to God to take notice of all that he has created. Did he use that great power in the production of the least of his creatures, so far beyond the united activity of men and angels, for no end at all? Doubtless, even they must also have a well-disposed order, to manifest his glory. "Not a sparrow falls on the ground without our Father;" even "the hairs of our head are all numbered,"
Mat 10:29-30. "He clothes the lilies and grass of the field, which is to be cast into the oven," Luke 12:27-28. Behold his knowledge and care of them! Again, he used frogs and lice to punish the Egyptians, Exodus
8; with a gourd and a worm he agitated his servant Jonah, chapter 4; indeed, he calls the locusts his "terrible army;" – and shall not God know and take care of the number of his soldiers, the ordering of his dreadful host?
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It is sufficiently proved that God, by his providence, governs and disposes of all things created by him. The manner in which he works all in all, (1 Cor 12:6) how he orders the works of his own hands, (Psa
102:25) and in what this governing and disposing of his creatures (Psa 67:4) chiefly consists, now comes to be considered. Here four things are principally to be observed: First. The sustaining, preserving, and upholding of all things by his power; for "he upholds all things by the word of his power," Heb 1:3. Secondly. His working together with all things, by a causal influence in the agents themselves; "for he also has wrought all our works in us," Isaiah 26:12. Thirdly. His powerful overruling of all events – necessary, free, and contingent – and disposing them to certain ends to manifest his glory. So Joseph tells his brothers, "As for you, you thought evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, that many people should be saved alive," Gen 50:20. Fourthly. His determining and restraining secondary causes to have particular effects: "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, like rivers of water: he turns it wherever he will,"
Prov 21:1.
First. His sustaining or upholding of all things is his powerful continuation of their being, and of their natural strength and faculties, that were bestowed on them at their creation: "In him we live, and move, and have our being," Acts 17:28. So he does not work all by himself in them, without any co-operation of theirs – that would turn all things into stocks;108 indeed, it would remove their own proper nature from stocks. It would also be contrary to that general blessing which he spread over the face of the whole world in the beginning, "Be fruitful, and multiply," Gen 1:22 – it would leave them to subsistence on their own while God, in the meantime, merly chooses not to destroy them.109 That would make God an idle spectator of most things in the world; he would not "work up to now," as our Savior says. And he would grant to various things here below an absolute being that is not derivative from him. The first of these is blasphemous; the latter is impossible.
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Secondly. As for God's working in and together with all secondary causes to produce their effects, it seems beyond the reach of mortals to determine which part or portion in the work we are to pointedly assign to him, and which to the power of inferior causes. Nor is an exact comprehension if in any way necessary – so we make everything beholding to his power for its being, and everything beholding to his assistance for its operation.
Thirdly. His supreme dominion exercises itself in disposing of all things to certain and determinate ends for his own glory. And his dominion is chiefly discerned in advancing itself over those things which are most contingent, making them in some sense necessary, inasmuch as they are certainly disposed of to some proposed ends.
Between the birth and death of a man, how many things that are merely contingent occur! How many chances! How many diseases! In their own nature, they are all evitable; and in regard to the event, not one of them but to some proves mortal. Yet, it is certain that a man's
"days are determined; the number of his months are with the Lord; he has appointed his bounds that he cannot pass," Job 14:5. And oftentimes by things that are purely contingent and accidental, God executes his purposes – bestows rewards, inflicts punishments, and accomplishes his judgments – as when he delivers a man to be slain by the head of an axe, flying from the handle in the hand of a man cutting a tree by the way. But in nothing is this more evident than in the ancient casting of lots, a thing as casual and accidental as can be imagined, huddled in the cap at a venture. Yet God overrules them to declare his purpose, freeing truth from doubts, and manifesting his power: Prov 16:33, "The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing of it is from the LORD." You may see this in the examples of Achan (Joshua 7:16-18); Saul (1 Samuel 10:20-21); Jonathan (1
Samuel 14:41-42); Jonah (Jonah 1:7); and Matthias (Acts 1:26). And yet this overruling act of God's providence (as with no other decree or act of his) does not rob contingent things of their proper nature – for
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cannot the one who effectually causes them to come to pass, also cause them to come to pass contingently?
Fourthly. God's predetermination of secondary causes. I do not place this last as though it were the last act of God's providence about his creatures; for indeed it is the first act that concerns their operation.
His predetermination of secondary causes is that effectual working of his, according to his eternal purpose, whereby some agencies, such as the wills of men, are the most free and indefinite causes, or the unlimited lords of their own actions, in respect to their internal principle of operation (that is, their own nature). Yet all agencies, in respect to God's decree and by his powerful working, are determined to have this or that particular effect. It is not that they are compelled to do this, or hindered from doing that, but they are inclined and disposed to do this or that, according to their proper manner of working – that is, most freely. For truly such testimonies of God's powerful working are obvious everywhere in Scripture: stirring up men's wills and minds, bending and inclining them to various things, governing the secret thoughts and motions of the heart – so that his working cannot by any means be relegated to a naked permission, or a governance only of external actions, or a general influence, whereby men would have
[independent] power to do this or that, or anything else – which some suppose God's whole providence consists of.
Let us now jointly apply these several acts to free agents, working according to choice or relation, as the wills of men do. That will open the way to view the Arminian heterodoxies concerning this article of Christian belief. And here, two things must be premised: first. That these free agents are not deprived of their own radical or original internal liberty; secondly. That they are not exempt from the moving influence and governance of God's providence. The first would leave no just room for rewards and punishments; the other, as I said before, is injurious to the majesty and power of God. St. Augustine judged
Cicero worthy of special blame, even among the heathens, for attempting to make men so free, that he made them sacrilegious –
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denying they were subject to an overruling providence.110 This gross error was directly maintained by Damascen, a learned Christian, who taught, "Things of which we have any power, do not depend on providence, but on our own free will." 111 This is an opinion fitter for a hog of the Epicurus herd than for a scholar in the school of Christ.
And yet this proud, prodigious error is now, though in other terms, stiffly maintained. For what else is asserted by those who ascribe such an absolute independent liberty to the will of man, that it has in its own power every circumstance, every condition whatsoever, that belongs to operation – all things otherwise required on the part of God to perform an action; so that it remains solely in the power of a man's own will, whether he will do it or not. This supreme and plainly divine liberty, joined with such an absolute, uncontrollable power and dominion over all his actions, would exempt and free the will of man not only from all fore-determining as to the production of particular effects, but also from any effectual working or influence of the providence of God in the will itself – influence that would sustain, help, or cooperate with the will in doing or willing anything.
Therefore, the authors of this imaginary liberty have wisely framed an imaginary concurrence of God's providence, that corresponds to it – namely, a general and indifferent influence, always waiting and expecting the will of man to determine itself toward this or that effect, good or bad. God is, as it were, always ready at hand to do that small part which he has in our actions, whenever we are pleased to use him; or, if we please to let him alone, then he would in no way move us to perform anything. Now, God forbid that we should give our consent to the choice of such a captain, under whose conduct we might go down again to Paganism – to erecting such an idol on the throne of the Almighty. No, doubtless, let us be most indulgent to our wills, and assign them all the liberty that is competent for a created nature, to do all things freely according to election and foregoing counsel, being free from all natural necessity and outward compulsion. But for all this, let us not presume to deny God's effectual assistance, his particular
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powerful influence on the wills and actions of his creatures, directing them to voluntarily perform what he has determined. This is what the Arminians, opposing on behalf of their darling free-will, work in the hearts of men: an overweening of their own power, and an absolute independence of the providence of God. For –
First, they deny that God (in whom we live, and move, and have our being) does anything by his providence, "whereby the creature should be stirred up, or helped in any of his actions."112 That is, God leaves a man entirely in the hand of his own counsel, to dispose of his own absolute independent power, without any regard to God's providence at all. From this they may well conclude, as they do, "that those things which God would have done by us freely" (as are all human actions),
"he cannot himself will or work more powerfully and effectually, than by wishing or desiring it," as Vorstius says.113 This is no more than what one man can do concerning another, and perhaps far less than an angel can do. I can wish or desire that another man would do what I have a mind that he should do; but, truly, to describe the providence of God by such expressions seems to me intolerable blasphemy. But thus it must be – without such helps as these, Dagon cannot keep his head on, nor can the idol of uncontrollable free-will enjoy his dominion.
Hence Corvinus will grant that the killing of a man by the slipping of an axe's head from its handle, although contingent, may be said to happen according to God's counsel and determinate will; but on no terms will he yield that this may be applied to actions in which the counsel and freedom of man's will take place, as though they should also be dependent on any such overruling power.114 By this, he absolutely excludes the providence of God from having any sovereignty within the territory of human actions. That plainly shakes off the yoke of God's dominion, and makes men lords who are paramount within themselves. So they may well ascribe to God (as they do) only a deceivable expectation of those contingent things that are yet to come, there being no act of his own in producing such effects, on which he can base any certainty.115 He may only conjecture, according to his
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guess at men's inclinations. And, indeed, this is the Helen116 for whose enjoyment, these thrice ten years, they have maintained warfare with the hosts of the living God. Their whole endeavor has been to prove that, notwithstanding the performance of all things on the part of God, that are required to produce any action, yet the will of man remains absolutely free to do it or not to do it, both in respect to the event, as well as its manner of operation.117 That is, notwithstanding
God's decree that such an action shall be performed, and his foreknowledge that it will thus come to pass; and notwithstanding his cooperating with the will of man (as far as they will allow him) for doing it; and though he has determined by that act of man to execute some of his own judgments; yet there is no kind of necessity except that he may just as well omit it, as to do it. This is the same as saying,
"Our tongues are our own; we ought to speak: who is lord over us? We will vindicate ourselves into a liberty of doing what and how we will, though we cast God out of his throne for it."118 And, indeed, if we mark it, we shall find them undermining and pulling down the actual providence of God, at the root and several branches of it; for –
First. For his conservation or sustaining of all things, they assert that it is likely nothing but a negative act of his will, whereby he wills or determines not to destroy the things created by him;and when we produce passages of Scripture which affirm that it is an act of his power, they say these passages are foolishly cited.119 So, truly, let the Scripture say what it will (in their conceit), God no more sustains and upholds all his creatures than I do a house by not setting it on fire, or a worm when I do not tread upon it.
Secondly. For God's concurring with inferior causes in all their acts and working, they affirm it is only a general influence, alike on all men, which they may use or not use at their pleasure; and in the use, they determine it to this or that effect, whether good or bad (so Corvinus says)120 as it seems best to them. In a word, this influence is nothing more to the will of man than what allows it to play its own part freely according to its inclination – as they jointly say in their Confession.121
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Observe, also, that they consider this influence of God's providence not to be on the agent, the will of man, by which it would be helped or enabled to do anything (no, that would seem to grant self-sufficiency), but only on the act itself to produce it.122 If I were to help a man lift a log, it may become lighter for him, but he is not made one jot stronger by it; this takes away from the proper work of providence, consisting in an internal assistance.
Thirdly. For God's determining or circumscribing the will of man to do this or that in particular, they absolutely reject it as a thing which is destructive to their adored liberty. "It is in no way consistent with it," they say in their Apology.123 So also Arminius says: "The providence of God does not determine the will of man to one part of the contradiction."124 That is, "God has not determined that you will do this thing rather than that, or do this and omit that; nor does He by any means overrule your wills." So the sum of their endeavor is to prove that the will of man is so absolutely free, independent, and uncontrollable, that God does not – no, with all his power he cannot – determine that it will certainly and infallibly perform this or that particular action, and thereby accomplish his own purposes and attain his own ends. Truly, it seems to me the most unfortunate attempt that Christians ever lighted on; if it were to get success comparable to the greatness of the undertaking, then the providence of God in men's esteem would be quite thrust out of the world. "Tantae molis erat."125
The new goddess Contingency could not be erected until the God of heaven was utterly despoiled of his dominion over the sons of men. In its place, a home-bred idol of self-sufficiency has been set up, and the world is persuaded to worship it.
But, so that the building will climb no higher, let all men observe how the word of God overthrows this Babylonian tower.
First. In innumerable places it pointedly says that his providence rules in the counsels of men and in their most secret resolutions. This is why the prophet declares that he knows that "the way of man is not in himself" – that "it is not in man that walks to direct his steps," Jer
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10:23; and Solomon says that "a man's heart devises his way, but the LORD directs his steps," Prov 16:9; David, also, laid this ground, that "the Lord brings the counsel of the heathen to nothing," and "makes the devices of the people of no effect," but "his own counsel stands forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations," Psalm 33:10-11.
David then proceeds accordingly, in his own distress, to pray that the Lord would infatuate 126 and make "foolish the counsel of Ahithophel," 2 Samuel 15:31 – the Lord did this by also working in the heart of Absalom to listen to the cross counsel of Hushai.127
Secondly. That the working of his providence is effectual even in the hearts and wills of men to turn them whichever way he will, and to determine them to take this or that course in particular, as he pleases:
"The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, are from the LORD," says Solomon, Prov 16:1. Jacob trusted and relied on this when he prayed that the Lord would grant that his sons find favor and mercy before that man whom he then supposed to be some atheistic Egyptian, Gen 43:14. From this we must grant, either that the good old man believed that it was in the hand of God to incline and unalterably turn and settle the heart of Joseph to favor his brothers, or else his prayer must have had such a senseless sense as this:
"Grant, O Lord, such a general influence of your providence, that the heart of that man may be turned to good towards my sons, or else that it may not, being left to its own freedom." A strange request! Yet I cannot conceive how it may be bettered by one who believes the Arminian doctrine. Thus Solomon affirms that "the king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water: he turns it wherever he will," Prov 21:1. The heart of a king has an inward natural liberty that is equal with others, and he has an outward liberty that belongs to his state and condition above others. If this liberty is still so in the hand of the Lord, that he always turns the king's heart to what he pleases in particular – then certainly other men are not excepted from being ruled by the same providence. This is the plain sense of these words, and the direct thesis which we maintain in opposition to the Arminian
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idol of absolute and independent free-will. So Daniel, also, reproving the Babylonian tyrant, affirms that he "did not glorify the God in whose hand was his breath, and to whom belonged all his ways,"
Daniel 5:23. Not only his breath and life, but also all his ways – his actions, thoughts, and words – were in the hand of God.
Indeed, thirdly, sometimes the saints of God, as I touched on before, prayed that God would be pleased in this way to determine their hearts, and bend their wills, and wholly incline them to some certain thing, and to do that without any prejudice to their true and proper liberty. So David in Psalm 119:36, "Incline my heart toward your testimonies, and not to covetousness." This prayer being his, may also be ours, and we may ask it in faith, relying on the power and promise of God in Christ that he will perform our petitions, John
14:14. Now, I desire any Christian to resolve whether by these and similar requests, he intends to desire from the hand of God nothing but an indifferent motion toward any good, such that it leaves him to his own choice whether he will do it or not (which is all the Arminians will grant him); or rather, that he would powerfully bend his heart and soul to his testimonies, and have God work in him an actual embracing of all the ways of God – not desiring more liberty, but only enough to do it willingly. No, surely the prayers of God's servants would request with Solomon that the Lord would be with them, and "incline their heart to him, to keep his statutes and walk in his commandments," 1
Kings 8:57-58; and with David, to "create in them a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within them," Psalm 51:10; according to God's promises, they entreat him "to put his fear into their hearts," Jer 32:40,
"to unite their hearts to fear his name," Psalm 86:11, to work in them both the will and the deed – an actual obedience to his law. This cannot possibly aim at nothing but a general influence, which enables them alike either to do, or not to do, what they so earnestly long for.
Fourthly. The certainty of various promises and threatenings of Almighty God depends upon his powerful determining and turning the wills and hearts of men whichever way he pleases. Thus, to those
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who fear him, he promises that they will find favor in the sight of men, Prov 3:4. Now, if, notwithstanding all God's powerful operation in their hearts, it remains absolutely in the hands of men whether they will favor those who fear him or not, then it is wholly in their power whether God will be true to his promises or not. Surely when Jacob wrestled with God on the strength of such a promise, Gen 32:12, he little questioned whether it was in the power of God to perform it.
Indeed, the event showed that there ought to be no such question, chapter 33; for the Lord turned the heart of his brother Esau, just as he turns the hearts of others – as when he makes them pity his servants when they have at times carried them away as captives, Psalm 106:46.
See also the same powerful operation required to execute his judgments, Job 12:17, 20:21, etc. In brief, there is no prophecy or prediction in the whole Scripture, no promise to the church or faithful, whose accomplishment requires the free actions and concurrence of men. Rather, it evidently declares that God disposes of the hearts of men, rules their wills, inclines their affections, and determines them freely to choose and to do whatever he in his good pleasure has decreed shall be performed – such were the prophecies of deliverance from the Babylonian captivity by Cyrus, Isaiah 45; of the conversion of the Gentiles; of the stability of the church, Mat 16; of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, chapter 24; with innumerable others. I will add only a few reasons at the close of this long discourse.
This opinion, that God has nothing but a general influence on the actions of men, and does not effectually move their wills to this or that course in particular – First. It grants a goodness of entity, or being, to various things, of which God is not the author, such as those special actions which men perform without his special concurrence; this is blasphemous. The apostle affirms that "of him are all things."
Secondly. It denies that God is the author of all moral goodness; for any action is good inasmuch as it is such an action in particular. If any
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action is good, according to this opinion, it is to be attributed merely to the will of man. The general influence of God moves man no more to prayer than to evil communications, which tends to corrupt good behavior.128
Thirdly. It makes all the decrees of God altogether uncertain, for their execution depends on human actions; his foreknowledge of such things is thus made fallible and easily deceived; no reconciliation is possible, or to be hoped for, between the following and similar assertions:
S.S.
Lib. Arbit.
"In him we live, and move, and have our being," Acts 17:28.
"God's sustaining of all things is not an affirmative act of his power, but a negative act of his will."
"He upholds all things by the word of his power," Heb 1:3
"Whereby he will not destroy them,"
Rem. Apol.
"You have wrought all our works in us,"
Isaiah 26:12. "My Father works up to now," John 5:17.
"God by his influence bestows nothing on the creature whereby it may be incited or helped in its actions,"
Corvinus.
"The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD," Prov 16:1. "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water: he turns it wherever he will," Prov 21:1.
"Those things God would have us freely do ourselves; he can no more effectually work or will than by way of wishing,"
Vorstius.
"Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to covetousness," Psalm 119:36. "Unite my heart to fear your name," Psalm 86:11. "You have not glorified the God in whose hand your breath is, and to whom belong all your ways," Daniel 5:23.
"The providence of God does not determine the free-will of man to this or that in particular, or to one part of the contradiction," Arminius.
See Mat 27:1, compared with Acts 2:23, and 4:27-28; Luke 24:27; John 19:31-36. For the necessity of other events, see Exodus 21:17; Job 14:5; Mat 19:7, etc.
"The will of man ought to be free from all kinds of internal and external necessity in its actions," Rem. That is,
God cannot lay such a necessity upon any thing that it must infallibly come to pass as he intends. See the contrary in the places cited.