In which regard they are not only tolerable, but simply necessary, because without them it is utterly impossible to reconcile some places of Scripture seemingly repugnant. In the 2 2d chapter of Genesis, verse 2, God commandeth Abraham to take his only son Isaac, and offer him for a burnt-offering in the land of Moriah. Here the words of God are declarative of some will of God unto Abraham, who knew it ought to be, and little thought but that it should be, performed ; but yet, Avhen he actually addressed himself to his duty, in obedience to the will of God, he receiveth a countermand, verse 12, that he should not lay his hand upon the child to sacrifice him. The event plainly manifesteth that it was the will of God that Isaac should not be sacrificed ; and yet notwithstanding, by reason of his command, Abraham seems before bound to believe that it was well-pleasing unto God that he should accomplish what he was en- joined. If the will of God in the Scripture be used but in one ac-
1 Aquin., p. q. 19, ar. ad. 1,
WHETHER THE WILL OF GOD MAY BE EESISTED. 45
ceptation, here is a plain contradiction. Thus God commands Pharaoh to let his people go. Could Pharaoh think otherwise, nay, was he not bound to believe that it was the will of God that he should dis- miss the Israelites at the first hearing of the message? Yet God affirms that he would harden his heart, that he should not suffer them to depart until he had showed his signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. To reconcile these and the like places of Scripture, both the ancient fathers and schoolmen, with modern divines, do affirm that the one Avill of God may be said to be divers or manifold, in regard of the sundry manners whereby he willeth those things to be done which he willeth, as also in other respects, and yet, taken in its proper signification, is simply one and the same. The vulgar distinction of God's secret and revealed will is such as to which all the others may be reduced; and therefore I have chosen it to insist upon.
The secret will of God is his eternal, unchangeable purpose con- cerning all things which he hath made, to be brought by certain means to their appointed ends : of this himself affirmeth, that " his counsel shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure," Isa. xlvi. 10. This some call the absolute, efficacious will of God, the will of his good pleasure, always fulfilled ; and indeed this is the only proper, eternal, constant, immutable will of God, whose order can neither be broken nor its law transgressed, so long as with him there is neither change nor shadow of turning.
The revealed will of God containeth not his purpose and decree, but our duty, — not what he will do according to his good pleasure, but what we should do if we will please him; and this, consisting in his word, liis precepts and promises, belongeth to us and our children, that we may do the will of God. Now this, indeed, is rather rh "^iXriTov than TO &gX>j^a, that which God willeth, rather than his will, but termed so as we call that the will of a man which he hath deter- mined shall be done : " This is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have ever- lasting life," saith our Saviour, John vi. 40; that is, this is that which his will hath appointed. Hence it is called "voluntas signi," or the sign of his will, metaphorically only called his will, saith Aquinas ;^ for inasmuch as our commands are the signs of our wills, the same is said of the precepts of God. This is the rule of our obedience, and whose transgression makes an action sinful ; for i] aij^apria, Isrh tj avo//.ia, " sin is the transgression of a law," and that such a law as is given to the transgressor to be observed. Now, God hath not imposed on us the observation of his eternal decree and intention ; which, as it is utterly impossible for us to transgress or frustrate, so were we un- ' Aquiu., q. g. 19, a. 11, c.
4G A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
blamable if we should. A master requires of his servant to do what he commands, not to accomplish what he intends, which perhaps he never discovered unto him; nay, the commands of superiors are not always signs that the commander will have the things commanded actually performed (as in all precepts for trial), but only that they who are subjects to this command shall be obliged to obedience, as far as the sense of it doth extend. " Et hoc clarum est in prseceptis divinis," saith Durand,^ etc., — "And this is clear in the commands of God," by which we are obliged to do what he commandeth ; and 5'et it is not always his pleasure that the thing itself, in regard of the event, shall be accomplished, as we saw before in the examples of Pharaoh and Abraham.
Now, the will of God in the first acceptation is said to be hid or secret, not because it is so always, for it is in some particulars re- vealed and made known unto us two ways: —