God has in the Scriptures foretold the certain occurrence of many events, including the free actions of men, which have after- wards surely come to pass. Now the ground of prophecy is fore- knowledge, and the foundation of the foreknowledge of an event as certainly future, is God's decree that made it future. The eternal immutability of the decree is the only foundation of the infallibility either of the foreknowledge or of the prophecy. But if God has decreed certain future events, he must also have in- cluded in that decree all of their causes, conditions, coordinates, and consequences. No event is isolated ; to make one certainly future implies the determination of the whole concatenation of causes and effects which constitute the universe.
7. What reasons may be assigned for contemplating the de- crees of God as one, all-comprehensive purpose ?
1st. As above shown, the decrees of God are eternal and im- mutable. 2d. No event is isolated. To decree one implies the foreordination of the whole concatenation of events which consti- tute the universe. As all events constitute one system, they must have been determined in one purpose. 3d. God decrees all things as they actually occur, i. e., as produced by causes, and as de- pending upon conditions, etc. The same decree, therefore, which determines the event, determines it as produced by its cause, and as depending upon its conditions.
Most of the mistakes which heterodox speculators have made, with reference to the nature of God's decrees, arise from the ten- dency of the human mind to confine attention to one fragment of God's eternal purpose, and to regard it as isolated from the rest. This decree never determined the certain occurrence of any single event as separated from the second causes which produce it, but it at once, and as a whole, determines the certain occurrence of all things that ever come to pass, the causes as well as their effects, the condition as well as that which is suspended upon it, and all in the very relations in which they actually occur.
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THE DECREES OF GOD IN GENERAL.
8. In what sense are the decrees of God free ?
The decrees of God are free in the sense that in decreeing he was solely actuated by his own infinitely wise, righteous, and benevolent good pleasure. He has always chosen as he pleased, and he has always pleased consistently with the perfection of his nature.
9. In ivhat sense are the decrees of God sovereign ?
They are sovereign in the sense that while they determine absolutely whatever occurs without God, their whole reason and motive is within the divine nature, and they are neither sug- gested nor occasioned by, nor conditioned upon anything whatso- ever without him.
10. What is the distinction between absolute and, conditional decrees ?
An absolute decree is one which, while it may include con- ditions, is suspended upon no condition, i. e., it makes the event decreed, of whatever kind, whether of mechanical necessity or of voluntary agency, certainly future, together with all the causes and conditions, of whatever nature, upon which the event depends.
A conditional decree is one which decrees that an event shall happen upon the condition that some other event, possible but uncertain (not decreed), shall actually occur.
The Socinians denied that the free actions of men, being in- trinsically uncertain, are the objects of knowledge, and therefore affirmed that they are not foreknown by God. They held that God decreed absolutely to create the human race, and after Adam sinned he decreed absolutely to save all repenting and believing sinners, yet that he decreed nothing concerning the sinning nor the salvation of individual men.
The Arminians, admitting that God certainly foreknows the acts of free agents as well as all other events, maintain that he absolutely decreed to create man, and foreseeing that man would sin he absolutely decreed to provide a salvation for all, and actu- ally to save all that repent and believe, but that he conditionally decreed to save individual men on the condition, foreseen but not foreordained, of their faith and obedience.
NOT CONDITIONAL. 167
11. What are the objections to attributing conditional decrees to God ?