Of God's Works and His Decree

Thus far concerning the first part of Theology: the second followeth, of the works of God.

The works of God are all those which he doth out of himself, that is, out of his divine essence.

These are common to the Trinity, the peculiar manner of working always reserved to every person.

The end of all these is the manifestation of the glory of God.

Romans 11:36
For him are all things, to him be glory for ever.

The work, or action, of God is either his decree or the execution of his decree.

The decree of God is that by which God in himself hath necessarily, and yet freely, from all eternity determined all things.

Ephesians 1:4,11
As he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.... In whom also we are chosen, when we were predestinated, according to the purpose of him, which worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.

Matthew 10:29
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and not one of them falleth on the ground without your Father?

Romans 9:21
Hath not the potter power on the clay to make of the same lump one vessel to dishonour, and another to honour?

Therefore the Lord, according to his good pleasure, hath most certainly decreed every thing and action, whether past, present, or to come, together with their circumstances of place, time, means, and end.

Yea, he hath most justly decreed the wicked works of the wicked. For if he had nilled them, they should never have been at all. And albeit they, of their own nature, are and remain wicked; yet in respect of God's decree, they are some ways good: for there is not any thing absolutely evil.

1 Peter 3:17
For it is better (if the will of God be so) that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.

The thing which in its own nature is evil, in God's eternal counsel is respectively good, in that it is some occasion and way to manifest the glory of God in his justice and his mercy.

God's foreknowledge is conjoined with his decree, and indeed is in nature before it: yet not in regard of God, but us: because knowledge goeth before the will and the effecting of a work. For we do nothing but those things that we have before willed, neither do we will any thing which we know not before.

God's foreknowledge in itself is not a cause why things are, but as it is conjoined with his decree. For things do not therefore come to pass, because that God did foreknow them: but because he decreed and willed them, therefore they come to pass.

The execution of God's decree is that by which all things in their time are accomplished which were foreknown or decreed, and that even as they were foreknown & decreed.

The same decree of God is the first and principal working cause of all things, which also is in order and time before all other causes. For with God's decree is always his will annexed, by the which he can will that which he hath decreed. And it were a sign of impotency to decree any thing which he could not will. And with God's will is conjoined an effectual power, by which the Lord can bring to pass whatsoever he hath freely decreed.

The first and principal cause, howbeit in itself it be necessary, yet it doth not take away freedom of will in election; or the nature and property of second causes; but only brings them into a certain order; that is, it directeth them to the determinate end, whereupon the effects and events of things are contingent or necessary, as the nature of the second cause is. So Christ according to his Father's decree died necessarily (Acts 17:3) but yet willingly (John 10:18, Matthew 26:53). And if we respect the temperature of Christ's body, he might have prolonged his life; and therefore in this respect may be said to have died contingently.

The execution of God's decree hath two branches; his operation, and his operative permission.

God's operation is his effectual producing of all good things, which either have being or moving or which are done.

God's operative permission is that by which he only permitteth one and the same work to be done of others, as it is evil; but as it is good, he effectually worketh the same.

Genesis 50:20
You indeed had purposed evil against me, but God decreed that for good, that he might, as he hath done this day, preserve his people alive.

Genesis 45:7
God hath sent me before you to preserve your posterity in this land.

Isaiah 10:5-7
Woe unto Asshur, the rod of my wrath, and the staff in their hands in mine indignation, I will give him a charge against the people of my wrath to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them under feet like the mire in the street. But he thinketh not so, neither doth his heart esteem it so: but he imagineth to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.

God permitteth evil by a certain voluntary permission, in that he forsaketh the second cause in working evil. And he forsaketh his creature, either by detracting the grace it had, or not bestowing that which it wanteth.

Romans 1:26
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections.

2 Timothy 2:25,26
Instructing them with meekness that are contrary minded, proving if God at anytime will give repentance, that they may know the truth; and that they may come to amendment out of the snare of the devil, which are taken of him at his will.

Neither must we think God herein unjust, who is indebted to none.

Romans 9:15 I will have mercy on him to whom I will shew mercy.

Yea it is in God's pleasure to bestow how much grace, and upon whom, he will.

Matthew 20:15
Is it not lawfull for me to doe as I will with mine owne?

That which is evil hath some respect of goodness with God: First, in that it is the punishment of sin: and punishment is accounted a moral good, in that it is the part of a just judge to punish sin. Secondly, as it is a mere action or act. Thirdly, as it is a chastisement, a trial of one's faith, martyrdom, propitiation for sin, as the death and passion of Christ (Acts 2:23, 4:24). And if we observe these caveats, God is not only a bare permissive agent in an evil work, but a powerful effector of the same; yet so, as he neither instilleth an aberration in the action, nor yet supporteth, or intendeth the same, but that he most freely suffereth evil, and best disposeth of it to his own glory. The like we may see in this similitude: Let a man spur forward a lame horse; in that he moveth forward, the rider is the cause; but that he halteth, he himself is the cause. And again, we see the sunbeams shining through a glass; where the light is from the sun, the color not from the sun but from the glass.