It is probable that precious stones were origin- ally valued less for their beauty and rarity than for the magical and medicinal powers which tliey were supposed to possess. By a kind of sympa- thetic magic the amethyst (d, ' not,' and jj.(66(rKu, 'make drunk') with its wine-red colour was re- puted to be a preventive of intoxication, the red jasper (or blood-stone) was a cure for li.i'niorrhage, the green jasper brought fertility to the soil, and so forth. According to the doctrine of ' signa- tures,' each mineral was supjiosed to be marked by some natural sign which indicated the particular medicinal use to which it could be put. The belief in 'lucky stones' was widespread. Pliny gravely sets down the peculiar virtues of many of the precious stones which he describes : the diamond ' neutralizes poison and dispels delirium ' ; amber, 'worn on the neck, is a cure for fevers and other diseases,' and so on. From this superstition
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PREDESTINATION
PREDESTINATION
the writer of Rev. is far removed. It does not appear that his precious stones have any occult or mystical meaniiii;. He merely uses their colours ffisthetically, as the pigments of a splendid picture. His sole desire is to lire the imaj^ination with an idea of the radiant beauty of the city whose builder and maker is God.
LiTKRATDRE. — W. M. Flinders Petrie, art. ' Stones, Precious,' in llDli; A. S. Murray iiiitl A. H. Smith, art. 'Gem' in EBr^^ ; C. Babington, art. ' Gems* in Smith's DC A.
James Sthahan. PREDESTINATION.— 1. Context Predestina- tion in its wiliest reference, as attributed to God, is ' His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His will, wliereby, for His own glory, He hath foreordained whatsoever conies to pass' {The Shorter Catechism, A. 7). The word ' predestinate' appears nowhere in the AV of the OT, and in the NT it has now disapjjeared, having given place to ' foreordain ' in the RV in the four places where the AV had it (Ro S'-"- » Eph l^- "). ' Foreordained ' of the AV has also given place to ' foreknown ' in the RV of 1 P l'-'"' (wliere the Gr. is irpoeyvoiaij.hou. See Foreknowledge). ' Foreordain ' in the pas- sages referred to above, and also in Ac 4-* ( AV ' de- termined before '), 1 Co 2' (AV ' ordained '), renders TTpoopi^eii', the tense employed in these six instances being the aorist, as betitted a purpose of the Divine mind from eternity. The simple 6pii'ci.ii occurs similarly with a kindred meaning (Lk 22'-- : Kara rb dpiafx^vov ; Ac 2-** : t^ upia fxivri Bov\-q ; of. Ac 10« 17=''-^', Ro 1^).
2. Connotation. — Election and predestination belong to the purpose of grace cherished in the Divine mind from all eternity ; and as far as salvation is concerned they are the expression of the entire dependence of sinful man upon the grace of God from the beginning to the end. They are included together by St. Paul among the spiritual blessings bestowed upon believers ; and' the two transactions are regarded as taking place before the foundation of the world (Eph 1^- ^). Elertion has in view the persons who are to be the objects of Divine blessing ; predestination the privileges and blessings which are to be their portion (Ro 8'-»-2°, Eph l-"-^). Foreknowledge {wpdypwins, 1 P 1= ; cf. Ro 8=', I P l'-") belongs to the same purpose of grace, and is spoken of by St. Paul as the first stejJ in the Divine plan of salvation, for it is those whom God 'foreknew' whom He also ' foreordained ' to be conformed to the image of His Son. The word ' chose ' (dXaro) in 2 Th 2'^ includes ' foreknew ' and ' foreordained ' of Ro 8'-'", and has itself apparently the force of ' elected ' (eJfWfaro).
3. PFedestination in the moral world. — It be- longs to the very nature of God that He should have a counsel or purpose which embraces all things from the beginning to the end, and that this counsel shall be assuredly accomplished. This is again and again declared in Scripture : ' The Lord hath made all things for himself ; yea, even the wicked for the day of evil ' (Pr 16'') ; ' My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure'' (Is 46'"). St. Paul affirms this truth when he speaks of ' the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will' (Eph 1"). Not only the good but the evil of the world comes under the Divine predestinating purpose, for the evil as well as the good is known beforehand to the Omniscient (Ac 15''). 'In him we live, and move, and have our being ' (17^), and every act of man, whatever its motive, is performed with bodily life and strength, with faculties and powers which He lias supplied, and continues to supply, to the best and to the worst, to the noblest and the most depraved. 'Whilst not Himself the author of sin, He not only suffers the evil designs
and wicked purposes of men, but uses them (and by using them shows that He purpo.sed to use them from all eternity) for ends of His own, even the loftiest and holiest of which men can form any conce|)tion. The death of Christ was an essential element in the Divine plan of redemption. To bring to pass the death of Christ lie made use of the hatred of the Jews, the baseness of the betrayer, and the culpable weakness of the Roman governor. The hist ('hristians discerned and acknowledged this as they lifted up their united voice in prayer to God and said : ' Of a truth in this city against thy holy Servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the ])uoples of Israel, were gathered together, to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel foreordained to come to pass ' (Hera ij x^lp aov Kal i) pouXr) irpowpiaev ytviaSai, Ac 4'-'"' ). And St. Peter declared the same truth to the Jewish multitudes on the Day of Pentecost : ' Him being delivered up by the determinate counsel and fore- knowledge of God, ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay' {j^ upiaiMivri ^ovXy nal irpo- yviiffei ToO dead, Ac 2^). It was in language no less strong that the Lord Himself predicted His betrayal and death : ' The Son of man indeed goeth, as it hath been determined [Kara rb upurp.^i'oi', Lk 2"2-'') : but woe unto that man through whom he is be- trayed.' We also read that He showed 'unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and sutler many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up ' ( Mt 16-'). These passages ' com- bine to show that not only in the physical world, which is generally admitted to he subject in all its provinces to the absolute control and regulation of the Almighty, but also in the moral world, all circumstances and events, <lependent though they may be on the voluntary actions of His intelligent creatures, are nevertheless pre-arranged and pre- determined by Him ; or, in other words, that what- soever God does by His own personal agency in any department of the universe, and whatsoever He permits to be done by the agency of His rational creatures, is done or permitted by Him purposely and designedly, in accordance with His own determinate counsels, and for the accom]ilisli- nient of His own contemplated ends' (Crawford, 3f!/steries of Christ innity, p. 303).