Chapter 5
Attributes
138. Are the divine attributes the same with the divine essence?
They are, for were they not, God would be neither supremely simple nor perfect since He
would be made up of different attributes really distinct. Neither could He be immutable
were His attributes distinguishable from His essence.
139. How are they usually distinguished?
Theologians have adopted various modes of distribution. The most common are those
into communicable and incommunicable, natural and moral.
140. What attributes are termed communicable?
Knowledge, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, truth.
141. What are the incommunicable?
Self-existence, independence, simplicity, infinity, eternity, immutability, unity.
142. Is there any objection to this distribution of the divine attributes?
It has been objected that of those attributes called incommunicable, some faint
resemblance is to be found in creatures. Thus finite duration is some image of infinite
duration as much as finite power of omnipotence.
143. How are they otherwise divided?
Natural and moral, absolute and relative.
144. What are the natural perfections of God?
Unity, self-existence, omnipotence, immutability, spirituality, eternity, wisdom,
knowledge.
145. Which are the moral perfections of God?
Justice, holiness, goodness, truth.
146. Are there any other theological divisions of the divine attributes?
Negative and positive.
147. What perfections arise out of the necessary existence of God?
All His natural perfections and some of His moral, as Dr. S. Clarke1 supposes.
148. What perfections are dependent on the divine will, and what on His understanding?
His moral attributes depend on His will, as morality is seated in the will. His knowledge
and wisdom appear to be connected more immediately with His understanding.
149. What names are given to God in the Holy Scriptures?
Jehovah Aleim [Elohim, YHWH God], Adonai Jah [Lord Yah], Sheddi [Shaddai,
Almighty], Aloi [Elohi, my God].
1 [See the footnote under question #57.]
150. What is the import of these names?
יהוהsignifies "self-existence" [and] "eternity" from הוה; אל imports "strength" from איל
[help], אלה [God] a cultu [from the cult]; שדי"all-sufficient," if from שדה "all mighty";
"to pour forth," if from ה שד vastavit [made empty]; אהיה"I am" imports "independence,"
"immutability," "eternity," and so on. יה from היה "to exist" denotes "the essence" ο, ων;
עליון "most high" from עלה "to ascend"; אדון "Lord," "supporter." The Greek names
κυριος and θεος are also significant. The first denotes "self-existence" from κυρω "to
exist," also "authority." The second, "maker," "pervader," from θεω "to place."2
151. Is there any distinction between the self-existence and independence of God?
No; the latter is implied in the former. What exists of itself can depend on no other.
152. How can it be demonstrated that God is self-existent and independent?
These imply that God cannot but be, and be what He is, and that altogether in and of
Himself. They are proved
1. From express passages of Scripture: "I am that I am" (Ex. 3:14); "I am Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the ending" (Rev. 1:8).
2. As God is the cause of all things and the upholder of them all, it would imply a
contradiction to say He was dependent on anything.
3. If God is infinitely above the highest creatures, He can depend on none.
153. How may the unity of God be demonstrated? 2 See Horae Solitariae.
It may be proved from His self-existence and infinity. The unity of God means that there
neither is nor can be more than one individual divine substance. It is plainly declared in
the Word: Deuteronomy 6:4, "Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God is one God." Exodus
20:3, "You shall have no other gods before me." James 2:19, "You believe that there is
one God, you believe well." The unity of God is inferred from His necessary existence
and infinity, from the unity of design observable in the world, and from the supposition
of more gods than one being unnecessary.
154. How is the spirituality of God evinced?
The spirituality of God is His immateriality, and it comprises a negative and positive
idea. The first consists in removing from our idea of God the known properties of matter.
The second in referring to Him the powers of perception, thought, will, and action. That
God is immaterial appears from
1. His self existence
2. His being where body is
3. From His omnipresence
4. From His invisibility
5. From the express language of Scripture. "God is a Spirit" (John 4:24).
155. What is meant by the simplicity of God, and how is it proved to be a divine perfection?
The simplicity of God is that divine attribute by which God is not only free from all
composition or division but utterly incapable of either. It is proved
1. From the divine independence
2. From His unity
3. From His absolute perfection
156. Is God necessarily invisible?
Yes; spirit is invisible.
157. Is activity essential to God?
Yes, an inactive spirit is a contradiction.
158. What is meant by the "life" of God?
The most perfect kind of existence, comprehending both being and blessedness, by which
He not only is and is happy but also is the source of existence and happiness. God is life
essentially, "The Father has life in Himself" (John 5:26) and eternally.
159. Is there any distinction between the immensity and omnipresence of God?
The omnipresence of God arises from His immensity: the latter as an absolute attribute
belonging to God from eternity, the former refers to His relation to place as existing in
time.
160. How does it appear that God is omnipresent?
1. From the plain declarations of Scripture; see Psalm 139. "Do not I fill heaven and
earth says the Lord" (Jer. 23:24).
2. It is necessary that the preserver of all things should be present with all things.
3. It is necessary to His perfection.
161. Is He everywhere present with His essence or only with His power and knowledge?
Effects being produced everywhere proves that God is essentially everywhere. Besides,
His power and knowledge belong to His essence.
162. Is He equally present everywhere?
Yes, though not in the same manner: His glorious presence is particularly in heaven, His
gracious presence with the good, and so on.
163. Is He present in empty space beyond the limits of creation?
Yes, for He might create other worlds beyond the bounds of those already made, and He
would be essentially present in them as well as in ours. Whatever pertains to God is
infinite, but were His essence contained within any limits, it would be finite. Solomon
says, "Behold the heaven of heavens cannot contain You" [2 Chron. 6:18].
164. Is space a divine attribute? Or is it a creature? Or quality? Or nothing?
Space is nothing more than a certain relation of being and cannot be conceived of but as
relation. We derive the idea from extended substances.
165. How may it be demonstrated that God is eternal?
The eternity of God implies His existence without beginning or end, or succession of
duration. That He is without beginning is inferred
1. From His self-existence
2. From express passages of Scripture, "I was set up from everlasting, from the
beginning, or ever the earth was" (Prov. 8:23).
That He is without end is inferred from His spirituality, simplicity, and immutability.
"From everlasting to everlasting, God" [Ps. 90:2].
166. Does the eternity of God exclude all succession of duration?
Yes, because
1. He is said to be before succession. "Before the day was, I am" (Isa. 43:13).
2. Were His duration successive, then there must have been some first day or year,
which is inconsistent with the idea of eternity. Besides, a day would then be but a
day to Him, and not "as a thousand years" [2 Peter 3:8].
3. Succession is inconsistent with immutability and perfection.
4. His knowledge proves Him without successive duration. "For He sees the present
without a medium, the past without recollection and the future without foresight.
To Him all truths are but one idea, all places but one point, and all times but one
moment."
167. Have we any idea of duration without succession?
No, our idea of duration is derived from the succession of our ideas.
168. Do not the Holy Scriptures speak of past, present, and future with respect to God?
Yes, in accommodation to the only mode in which we are capable of conceiving of the
works of God and in respect to the effects produced in times.
169. Is time a portion of eternity or something entirely distinct?
They are entirely distinct, being species of duration directly opposed. Eternity always was
and will be; it is one unsuccessive, unmoving presence. Time began, continues by
succession, and is to terminate.
170. Is immutability a divine perfection?
Immutability is that perfection by which all possibility of change is denied in the deity.
Malachi 3:6, "I am the LORD, I change not"; Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ the same
yesterday today and forever." The immutability of God belongs to everything pertaining
to the divine nature. To suppose Him capable of change is inconsistent with His supreme
perfection, with His simplicity, and with His eternity. Indeed, true eternity is true
immutability, though they differ in our conceptions. Immutability is the state itself,
eternity the measure of that state.
171. Is the will of God immutable as well as His essence?
Yes, because
1. The will of God is the same with His essence; it is Deus volens [God-willing].
2. His purposes are eternal.
3. There can be no cause for a change in the divine will. He may will a change
without changing His will. Psalm 33:11: "The counsel of the Lord stands forever;
the thoughts of his heart to all generations."
172. Is immutability of will reconcilable with liberty?
Yes, for the liberty of God's will does not consist so much in indifference as in
independence on all things without Himself. What God is, He chooses to be, though He is
what He is immutably; and to be immutably good is no weakness, but the height of
perfection.
173. How can the repentance of God be reconciled with immutability?
This language is used in accommodation to the weakness of our capacity in the same
manner as the several members of the body are in Scripture referred to God. When,
therefore, God is said to repent, it is nothing more than that there is such a change in His
conduct as in man proceeds from a change of mind, or repentance; though this change in
God's dispensation was the object of an eternal immutable decree.
174. How can the nonfulfillment of threatenings be reconciled with immutability?
All these threatenings are conditional, though the condition may not have been expressed;
and they are intended more to declare what could be the result of natural causes or the
inseparable connection between demerit and punishment than what God intends to
accomplish in every particular case.
175. How is the knowledge of God distinguished?
It may be variously considered
1. As to its mode and object
2. Speculation and practical
3. As the knowledge of simple intelligence and of vision
176. What is the knowledge of simple intelligence?
The knowledge of all possible things, of all that may be, though it never shall be.
177. What is the knowledge of vision?
The knowledge of all things future. It follows the act of the divine will decreeing, which
it presupposes.
178. Is there any Scientia Media [middle knowledge]? 3
This signifies a middle species of knowledge between the two just mentioned, differing
from the knowledge of intelligence (or natural knowledge), because it relates to future
3 [In short, middle knowledge served the grounds for the idea that God chose to predestine to come to pass one of the possible universe-outcomes that His creatures might have chosen apart from God's decree. This was an attempt to reconcile man's free will with God's sovereignty. Middle knowledge was first set forth by Jesuits, most notably Luis de Molina (1536–1600), in the late 1500s and was shortly adopted by Jacob Arminius (1560–1609) and most of his followers. At the Reformation, the Reformed, following in the Augustinian tradition, posited that God has two fundamental types of knowledge: (1) knowledge of all things possible that He could bring to pass if He so chose and (2) knowledge based on His actual, free decree to create and ordain all things that will ever come pass—a knowledge of all things future. The Jesuits and Arminians posited a type of knowledge for God in between these two, or a "middle knowledge." This middle knowledge involved a knowledge of what creatures would do in various possible situations considered apart from any decree of God. God chooses a possible scenario, or world, for His creatures where their autonomous free will is not impinged on, but which gives God's desired outcome, and God wills to create it so. The typical Reformed response to this, as Alexander gives, is not to accommodate such a paradigm but to deny that such a middle knowledge is possible for God at all. It is impossible for anything to happen, or to be conceived of happening, apart from the concurrent will of God, as the creature is in all ways dependent on the will of the Creator.]
things, and from that of vision, because it refers to things only hypothetically future.
Turretin's4 arguments against a Scientia Media are
1. That the other two kinds of knowledge embrace everything that is capable of
being known
2. Because things cannot be foreseen as true that are not true
3. Because all the acts of a created will are subject to the divine providence
4. No uncertain knowledge is to be attributed to God
5. Scientia Media
A. Destroys God's dominion over the free acts of the will.
B. If there were a Scientia Media, some other cause might be assigned for
predestination than the mere beneplacitum [good-pleasure] of God.
179. By whom and for what purpose was it invented?
By the Jesuits to support the semi-Pelagian doctrine respecting the foreknowledge of faith
as the cause of election, and to maintain the freedom of the will.
180. Does the knowledge of God extend infallibly to contingencies?
Anything is said to be contingent in the language of theology that in the nature of things
might have been otherwise than it is. It refers not to the event that is certain but to the
mode of production. That God knows things contingent is proved
4 [Francis Turretin (1623–1687) was a professor of Geneva, representing something of the height of scholastic Reformed orthodoxy. Turretin's Institutes in the Latin were widely used at Princeton and many orthodox seminaries in America in the 1800s. Turretin's section is found in Institutes of Elenctic Theology, ed. James Dennison (Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Publishing, 1992) 1:212–18.]
1. From its being said in the Bible: "Hell and destruction are before the Lord, how
much more the hearts of the children of men." [Prov. 15:11]
2. From His predicting them
3. From the perfection of His nature
4. From His decreeing them
181. Is the knowledge of God noetical or dianoetical?5
Noetical; He perceives everything by intuition.
182. What is the object of the divine will?
Good.
183. Does God will anything necessarily?
Necessity is twofold:
1. Absolute, by which a thing from its nature cannot be otherwise than it is
2. Hypothetical—that is, something else being granted, the other follows of
necessity, as salvation from election
Now God wills Himself absolutely necessarily, because He is the chief good and
therefore He cannot but will and love Himself.
184. Does God will anything freely?
5 [The difference is that noetical, for Alexander (see #402), refers to a knowledge of things through a simple intuition unmediated through anything or the things themselves, which knowledge God alone has. Dianoetical refers to knowledge through discursive reasoning based on the things themselves, which knowledge creatures have.]
Liberty also is twofold:
1. That of spontaneity which is opposed to coercion
2. That of indifference
In the first sense, what God wills most necessarily, He wills freely. But in the second also
He wills all created things freely. For all created things are with respect to God
contingent; that is, He might will or not will them.
185. Is the will of God properly divided into secret and revealed?
Yes, the first refers to the will that lies hid in God, the last to that made known in the law
and gospel. The first has for its object all things God has determined to effect or permit,
the second all that relates to our duty.
186. What other terms are used to express this distinction?
Decretive and preceptive, ευδοκιας and ευαιρεστιας ["approval" and "good pleasure"].
These are derived from Scripture: the first, [from] Matthew 11:26; the second, [from]
Romans 12:2; Ephesians 5:10; also beneplaciti et signi [of good pleasure and of sign].
187. Is there no contrariety in these two wills?
No. The decretive will determines the event; the preceptive prescribes the duty. They do
not contradict each other, because they have different objects, and though God may will
that event should take place contrary to His precept, yet He forces no one to act against
His commandment.
188. Is the will of God properly distinguished into antecedent and consequent?
No. By the first is understood that by which God wills something to a rational creature
prior to any act of the creature; the second is that by which He wills something after some
act or many acts of the creature.
Thus they say He has an antecedent will to save all men, and a consequent will to
save only those who believe. Christ had an antecedent will to gather together the children
of Israel and a consequent will to scatter them abroad. But this is dishonorable to God, as
it ascribes contrary wills to Him, makes Him mutable, His will inefficacious, and subjects
Him to the conduct of man.
189. Into efficacious and inefficacious, absolute and conditional?
If these terms refer respectively to the decretive and preceptive will of God, they may be
correct; but if they are referred only to the decretive will, they are not.
190. Can any cause be assigned for the divine will? Can any reason?
The will of God is the first cause, the cause of all things, and consequently it can have no
cause prior to it. But as God does everything most wisely, He must have reasons for His
volitions though they be hidden from us.
191. Is the will of God the primary rule of right and wrong?
It is as it regards man because God is perfectly good, but not as it respects God Himself,
for God wills many things because they are good in themselves. Were the will of God the
only rule of right and wrong, He might make atheism, envy, pride, and so on virtues.
192. How does it appear that justice is a divine attribute?
Justice is that attribute which disposes God to render to Himself and all His creatures that
which is equal and right. Psalm 11:7: "The righteous Lord loves righteousness." His
justice appears in His giving righteous laws to all His creatures, in the sanctions of these
laws, and so on.
193. What is general justice?
It is that by which God does what is right in all His works.
194. What is vindicatory justice?
That by which God punishes sin as sin.
195. How can it be demonstrated that this last is an essential attribute of God?
1. From the voice of Scripture
2. From the dictates of conscience and the consent of all people
3. From the sanction of the law and all the Levitical ceremonies and from our
redemption by the death of Christ
196. How may it be proved that God is good?
1. Because it is essential to perfection.
2. He that is the cause of all created good must be the supreme good.
3. His word declares Him good. Psalm 25:8: "Good and upright is the Lord."
4. Proved from the works of creation, providence, and redemption.
197. How is goodness defined?
It is that attribute by which God is beneficial to His creatures.
198. What is the love of God, and how is it distinguished?
The love of God is His natural delight in that which is good. It is distinguished in the love
of benevolence, beneficence, and of complacency.
199. What is love of benevolence, what of beneficence, what of complacency?
The first is that by which God from eternity wished well to His creatures, the second that
by which He does them good in time, the last is that by which He delights in them on
account of some rays of His own image He finds upon them.
200. By what considerations is the love of God recommended to us?
By the majesty of Him who loves, by the vanity and unworthiness of its recipients, by the
dignity of Him in whom we are loved, and by the multitude and richness of the blessings
that flow from it.
201. What is the grace of God?
God's free favor and love. It is distinguished into common and special.
202. How are the mercy and the grace of God distinguished?
Mercy is the divine benignity exercised toward the miserable. Grace is the same
benignity exercised toward the unworthy.
203. Wherein does the greatness of the divine mercy appear?
1. From the character of Him who exhibits it, who is perfectly blessed and independent
2. From the character of its objects who are enemies, miserable and sinful
3. From its effects: redemption from sin and hell, and the conferring eternal life
4. From its duration, which is eternal
204. How is the truth of God evinced?
It is that essential attribute by which God is infinitely removed from all falsehood and
deceit. It is evinced by the sense of the excellence of truth found in the minds of His
creatures, by the fulfillment of predictions, and so on.
205. Can it be proved from the sacred Scriptures?
Romans 3:4: "Yea, Let God be true and every man a liar." Psalm 31:5: "Into your hands I
commit my spirit: You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth." Psalm 100:5: "For the
Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations."
206. What is the distinction between the truth and faithfulness of God?
The truth of God consists in the exact agreement of His words and works with His
thoughts, inclination, and will. His faithfulness consists in the exact correspondence of
His works with His declarations, predictions, and all the relations in which He stands to
His creatures.
207. Does the word holiness mean any distinct attribute or the aggregate of all?
Some divines consider it as a distinct attribute, others as the aggregate of all.
208. Can the holiness of God be defined or analyzed?
Charnock defines it to be negatively "a perfect and unpolluted freedom from all evil,"
positively as the "rectitude or integrity of the divine nature."6
209. Is omnipotence an attribute of God?
Yes, though the power and will of God do not differ essentially, but the first is more
extensive than the latter. It is divided into ordinate and absolute: the latter is that by
which He is able to do what He will not do, yet which may be done; the first is that by
which He does that which He has decreed to do. It [omnipotence] is
1. Ascribed to Him in the sacred Scriptures: Matthew 19:26: "with God all things
are possible"
2. Proved from power in His creatures
3. Proved from the works of creation, providence, and redemption
210. Can God do anything?
Yes, anything not repugnant to His nature, nor involving a contradiction.
6 [Stephen Charnock (1628–1680) was an English Puritan divine who wrote the classic on the existence and attributes of God: Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God (London: Thomas Tegg, 1840), 470]
211. How are impossible things distinguished?
Into supernatural, natural, and moral.
212. What is a supernatural impossibility?
Such as implies a contradiction and that divine power cannot effect, such as to make a
sensitive stone.7
213. What is a natural impossibility?
That which cannot be effected by the power of second causes, as creation.
214. What is a moral impossibility?
That which cannot be done consistently with the laws of holiness.
215. Is it any derogation from omnipotence not to be able to do impossibilities?
No. They are not the objects of power.
216. Could God create an infinite being?
No. Two infinite beings imply a contradiction.
217. Could God deny Himself or act inconsistently with His perfections?
2 Timothy 2:13: "If we believe not, yet He abides faithful: He cannot deny Himself."
7 [Alexander may be referring to making a stone that can sense things. However, if it could sense things, then, by definition, it would not be a stone.]
218. What is the dominion of God?
It is His absolute right to and authority over all His creatures to do with them as He
pleases.
219. On what is His dominion founded?
The foundation of God's dominion is twofold:
1. The supreme excellency of His nature
2. The number and richness of His benefits as Creator and Preserver
220. Is the dominion of God absolute and unlimited?
Yes. As He is perfectly independent, so He is subject to no law but does with His own
what He wills, and no one can say unto Him, "What doest Thou?" [Job 9:12].
221. Have we any adequate ideas of God?
None. We know only in part. God is infinite and, of course, by every finite being,
incomprehensible. "Can you by searching find out God?" [Job 11:7].
222. How does it appear that God is infinitely perfect?
It is a dictate of common sense and should always be considered as a first principle in
theology. The Scriptures represent all His attributes as infinite.
223. Do the works of God prove Him infinite in all His perfections?
His works, unless it be the act of creating, are all finite, and therefore cannot strictly be
said to prove their author infinite.
224. Do all men agree in ascribing infinite perfections to God?
They do, as far as their ideas of perfection extend.
225. Is God infinitely happy?
Yes, for His independence and omnipotence place Him beyond the reach of all external
evil, and His infinite perfection and holiness forbid the supposition of any cause of pain
within Himself; but if happy at all, He must be infinitely so.
226. Is it right to ascribe to God everything we know to be a perfection?
We can't avoid it.