ARTICLE VII.

THE DIVINE DECREES.

BY REV. D. T. FISKE, NEWBURYPORT, MASS.

THAT God has decreed or "fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass," is a doctrine which holds a conspicuous place in the history of dogmatic theology. It has been a prominent element in not a few of those great controversies which have agitated the church. Upon it, and the ethical and metaphysical problems intimately connected with it, has been expended much of the profoundest thought of every age. It has often been discussed with earnestness and eminent ability, though not always with Christian candor and char ity. By many it has been defended on biblical and rational grounds, as one of the most fundamental doctrines of Christianity; by others it has been rejected as contrary to reason and scripture, and as having no place in the Christian system. Some have claimed for it the highest practical value, while others have insisted that, if true, it is a purely speculative doctrine, having no connection whatever with the practical duties of religion; and yet others have branded it as a false dogma, fraught with all manner of mischievous tendencies. It is a doctrine which can be easily misrepresented and caricatured; and which has often been rejected through sheer misapprehension and prejudice; while it is manifestly held, in its true spirit and substance, by many persons who sedulously exclude the formal statement of it from their creed. Indeed we are persuaded that not a few of its most vehement opposers might, by an unprejudiced inspection, find all the essential elements of this doctrine among their most cherished convictions of religious truth. We are wil ling, moreover, to admit that the formal rejection of the doctrine, and the prejudice entertained against it, are in part, at least, traceable to the infelicitous manner in which it has sometimes been represented and defended. There

has not always been, on the part of its advocates, a judicious and discriminating use of terms, nor a sympathetic appreciation of the difficulties and objections with which, to most minds, the doctrine of divine decrees is environed. It has been made to wear a stern and forbidding aspect, which does not properly belong to it, and needlessly to assume an attitude of antagonism to certain other well-established truths.

It is earnestly hoped that the present discussion of this important doctrine may tend to abate prejudice and misunderstanding, and to promote that unity of faith which may reasonably be expected to characterize those who are taught by the same Spirit of truth."

I.

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STATEMENT OF THE Doctrine.

In stating what we believe to be the Calvinistic and true doctrine of divine decrees, we shall aim to distinguish it, on the one hand, from fatalism, and on the other, from Arminianism; from the views of those who pervert it, and from the views of those who reject it. It stands midway between the doctrine of necessity and the doctrine of contingency. It invests God with a universal sovereignty and dominion; but does not reduce the universe to a mere piece of complicated mechanism, moved alike, in all its parts, by the direct exertion of his omnipotent and resistless power.

In discussing this subject we encounter at every step the difficulties arising from the ambiguity and inexact use of language. Here the subtle boundary line between truth and error is easily obscured by a double-meaning word or phrase. We shall not, therefore, rely wholly upon any one formal statement or definition of the doctrine; but having given such a statement or definition, shall endeavor to elucidate it, and guard it from misapprehension.

By the doctrine of divine decrees we mean that, God from eternity purposed or determined so to constitute and govern the universe as to make it certain that all events would take place precisely as they do take place.

To indicate further the exact meaning of this statement, it is important to observe several things:

(a) The decrees of God are to be distinguished from his laws, statutes, edicts, and commands. The term "decree" is, in many respects, an unfortunate one to denote the thing intended. It is apt to suggest the idea of legal enactment and authoritative requirement. It is generally used, except by theologians, in this legal sense. It is often so used by the sacred writers. Hezekiah "published a decree" throughout all Israel, requiring the passover to be kept (2 Chron. xxx. 5). Cyrus "made a decree," commanding the rebuilding of the temple (Ezra vi. 3). "Caesar Augustus made a decree," requiring that the people throughout his empire should be taxed (Luke ii. 1). The Christians were accused of doing things "contrary to the decrees of Caesar," that is, contrary to his laws or edicts. But in theological discourse the word "decree" has a very different meaning. It is not a synonym of law, command, precept; but of plan, purpose, determination. When it is said that God decrees an event, it is not meant that he commands or requires it; but that he has a purpose respecting it, which renders its occurrence certain. An event may be commanded which is not decreed; and so an event may be decreed which is not commanded, but prohibited. It is important in treating the subject now under discussion not to overlook this distinction; and to remember that a divine decree is not a law, rendering the thing decreed obligatory on any body, but is a mental purpose or determination, which renders the thing purposed certain to exist.

(b) The decrees of God are to be distinguished from his wishes, desires, and preferences. A decree may involve a desire, or it may not. Much the same distinction exists here as was pointed out above between laws and decrees. God may desire what he does not decree, and may decree what he does not desire. His commands always imply that he sincerely wishes the thing commanded to be done; but his purposes or decrees imply no such wish. When therefore it is said, as it sometimes is, that God wills everything

which he decrees, it must be remembered that when will is used as a synonym of decree, it is not then a synonym of wish or desire.

(c) The decrees of God are to be distinguished from his prescience or foreknowledge. Foreknowledge and decrees are intimately connected, but not identical, though in Greek the same word (πроуivάσкw) is often used to denote both. Without raising the question, at this point of the discussion, which is the ground of the other, we wish distinctly to state that by divine decrees we mean something different from divine prescience. To say that God foreknows all things, is not the same as to say that God decrees all things, or purposes to do what secures the certainty of all things.

(d) The decrees of God are to be distinguished from his creative and administrative agency. There are those who hold that the purposes of God are themselves the producing cause of all events; that they have an inherent, causative energy; and that there is no intermediate act, on the part of God, between his purposes and the existence of the events purposed. But this theory we cannot adopt. All analogy is against it. Human purposes have no inherent power of causation. Man determines to do something, and then does it; and the act of doing is distinct from the determining purpose. May we not hence infer that it is so with God? And even aside from the analogical inference, may we not affirm that the divine purposes are not themselves the immediate efficient cause of the events to which they relate ? Do they not long lie inoperative in the mind of God? Did not the purpose of creation exist untold ages before anything was created? And was not the creative act a distinct act put forth at that point of time to carry into effect the prior purpose? It is important then to distinguish, since there is ground for the distinction, between the purposes and the creative and providential agency of God. Our statement of the doctrine under discussion is, not that God so created and so governs the universe as to render it certain that all events will take place as they do; but that from eternity God so purposed to create and govern the universe, etc.

"God

executeth his decrees in the works of creation and provi dence."

(e) The decrees of God are not merely his purposes to permit events to take place as they do. Some hold that, with regard to the existence of sin, we can only affirm that the divine decrees extend to it in the sense that God determines to permit it, that is, not to prevent it. But this language does not seem to express the whole truth. deed, be said to decree the existence of whatever he could have prevented, but determined not to prevent. But the decrees of God are not mere negatives. They are purposes positively to do something, and to do that which renders certain the existence of all events, sin included.

God might, in

(f.) It is important to notice, that according to our statement of the doctrine, the decrees of God relate primarily to his own acts. He purposed, from eternity, to do precisely as he has done, and as he is doing, and as he will do; that is, to create the universe as he did create it, and to govern it as he is governing it. But while the decrees of God relate thus primarily to his own acts, they relate secondarily to all events which follow directly or indirectly as a consequence of his acts, or have the ground of their certainty in his acts. And if all events come into existence, not necessarily, but certainly, in consequence of what God does (which we hold to be the case), and if God does as he does in consequence of his decrees, then may it be properly said that all events are decreed, and that God has purposed "whatsoever comes to pass."

(g.) It is important, further to observe, that our statement of the doctrine of decrees designedly discriminates between certainty and necessity. It does not affirm that God deter mined that all thinge must take place as they do, but that he determined that all things will take place as they do. It does not say that God purposed so to create and govern the universe as to render it necessary for all things to come into existence precisely as they do, but so to create and govern the universe, as to render it certain that all things would come into existence precisely as they actually do. No one can correctly understand the doctrine of the divine purposes who