Calvinists admit that the all comprehensive decree of God de- termines all events according to their inherent nature, the actions of free agents as free, and the operation of necessary causes, neces- sarily. It also comprehends the whole system of causes and effects of every kind ; of the motives and conditions of free actions, as well as the necessary causes of necessary events. God decreed sal- vation upon the condition of faith, yet in the very same act he de- creed the faith of those persons whose salvation he has determined. " Whom he did predestinate, them he also called." Thus his decree from the beginning embraced and provided for the free agency of man, as well as the regular procedures of nature, ac- cording to established laws. Thus also his covenants, or con- ditional promises, which he makes in time, are in all their parts the execution of his eternal purpose, which comprehended the promise, and the condition in their several places as means to the end. But that the decree of God can be regarded as suspended upon conditions which are not themselves determined by the decree is evidently impossible.
1st. This decree has been shown above (questions 3-7) to be eternal and all comprehensive. A condition implies liability to change. The whole universe forming one system, if one part is contingent the whole must be contingent, for if one condition failed the whole concatenation of causes and effects would be de- ranged. If the Arrninian should rejoin that although God did not foreordain the free acts of men, yet he infallibly foreknew and provided for them, and therefore his plans can not fail ; then the Calvinist replies that if God foresaw that a given man, in given circumstances, would act at a given juncture in a certain way, then God in decreeing to create that very man and place him in those very circumstances, at that very juncture, did foreordain the certain futurition of that very event, and of all its consequences. That God's decree is immutable and does not depend upon uncer- tain conditions, is proved (1.) from its eternity, (2.) from the direct assertions of Scripture. — Is. xiv., 24, 27 ; xlvi., 10 ; Ps. xxxiii., 11 ; Prov. xix., 21 ; Eom. ix., 11 ; Eph. iii., 11.
2d. The foreknowledge of God, as Arminians admit, is eternal; and certain, and embraces all events, free as well as necessary;.
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But, (1.) as shown in the preceding paragraph, this foreknowl- edge involves foreordination, and (2.) certainty in the foreknowl- edge implies certainty in the event ; certainty implies determina- tion ; determination leaves us to choose between the decree of an infinitely wise, righteous, and benevolent God, and a blind fate.
3d. A conditional decree would subvert the sovereignty of God and make him, as to the administration of his whole govern- ment and the execution of all his plans, dependent upon the un- controlable actions of his own creatures. But the decrees of God are sovereign.- — Isa. xl., 13, 14 ; Dan. iv., 35 ; Kom. ix., 15-18.
4th. His decree is declared to depend upon his own " good pleasure/' and the " counsel of his own will." — Eph. i., 5, 11 ; Rom. ix., 11 ; Matt, xi., 25, 26.
5th. The decree of God includes the means and conditions. — 2 Thes. ii., 13; 1 Pet. i. 2; Eph. i., 4
6th. His decree absolutely determines the free actions of men.— Acts iv., 27, 28 ; Eph. ii., 10.
7th. God himself works in his people that faith and obedience which are called the conditions of their salvation. — Phil, ii., 13 ; Eph. ii., 8 ; 2 Tim. ii., 25.
12. How far are the decrees of God efficacious and how far permissive ?
All the decrees of God are equally efficacious in the sense that they all infallibly determine the certain futurition of the event decreed. Theologians, however, classify the decrees of God thus : 1st. As efficacious in as far as they respect those events which he has determined to effect through necessary causes, or in his own immediate agency. 2d. As permissive, as far as they respect those events which he has determined to allow dependent free agents to effect.
13. How may it be proved that the decree of God renders the event certain ?
1st. From the nature of the decree itself as sovereign and un- changeable, (see above.)
2d. From the essential nature of God in his relation to his .creation, as an infinitely wise and powerful sovereign.
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3d. The foreknowledge of God regards future events as cer- tain. The ground of this certainty must be either in God, or in the events themselves, which last is fatalism.
4th. The Scriptures ascribe a certainty of futurition to the events decreed. There is a needs be that the event should hap- pen " as it was determined." — Luke xviii., 31-33 ; xxiv., 46 ; Acts ii., 23 ; xiii., 29 ; 1 Cor. xi., 19 ; Matt, xvi., 21.