1)

Thus much touching the first distribution of God’s decree.

Secondly the decree of God, is either of action or of permission.

The decree of action is that, by which God from eternity purposed to do good, either by himself or by others, Ephes. 1:11. Philip. 2:13.

The decree of permission is that by which God has from eternity purposed and appointed to permit sins to be done, Act. 2:23, and 4:27, 28. Amandus Polanus, The Substance of Christian Religion, (London: Arn. Hatfield for Felix Norton, dwelling in Paules Chuchyard, at the sign of the Parrot, 1600), 52.

2)

Thus far concerning the action of God: now concerning his permission.

God’s permission, is the work of God’s permission, whereby God, according to his eternal decree permits the evil of the offence, or sin to be done, whilst he does not vouchsafe the grace not to sin, or gives it not to sinners, and does not incline or bend their will, no let or hinder sin. Isai. 2.6; Acts 14. 16; Rom. 1.24, 28; Psal. 81:13.

Permission is a suffering of the evils of the offence, that is to say, of sins which are not done by God himself, but he does suffer them according to his decree. Esai. 2.6; Acts 14:16; Roms. 1.24.

But God suffers the evil of the offense so that it cannot be done except he be wiling to it, & it can no otherwise be done then he suffers, nor no further then he permits, that he also may direct it to a good end.

He suffered the first man to fall, for two cause. The first is, that man might know his infirmity and weakness to stand in goodness, if he were left to himself, and had not every moment God’s grace vouchsafe unto him, and faith given, and continued unto him. The second, that by this means God might declare, both his mercy and power, in restoring and saving the elect, and also his justice and power, in punishing and destroying the reprobate.

He suffers even yet the Saints to fall into sin, that they being chastened for their sin, he might bring them to the true knowledge of themselves, and to humility, Psalm. 119:

“It is good for me O Lord, that thou hast humbled me, that I might learn thy statutes.”

He suffered also the reprobate to fall into sin, that he might show the glory of his justice in punishing them for their sin, Roms. 9:17; Exod. 9:16.

For God would not being good, suffer anything to be done evilly, except also being omnipotent, could evil to God.

He has not therefore by his eternal, immutable, most wise and most just purpose at any time wrought or approved evil, but permitted only, that the chief creatures should fall into sin.

Howbeit the devil and the wicked, yea all creatures are so in God’s power, that without his will, they cannot only not do anything, but they cannot so much as once move themselves, Gen. 20.6. So the false Prophet Balaam could not curse the people of Israel, Numb. 22; Job. 1:12; Proverb. 21.1; Acts 17, 25.28.

Hereupon we gather two doctrines or consequences.

The first pertains to our comfort, namely, that no evil can befall us from the devil or from wicked men, without the will & permission of God.

The other pertains to our instruction, namely, that whatsoever adversity comes to us, our mind must be turned away from our enemies, and the evil things with which we are afflicted, and be lifted up to God, and we must bear all things patiently, Job. 1. we must acknowledge the judgments of God to be just, and reverence them. Psal. 119. It is good for me O Lord, that thou hast humbled me and so forth. And we must commit our injury to God, and so forth. Amandus Polanus, The Substance of Christian Religion, (London: Arn. Hatfield for Felix Norton, dwelling in Paules Chuchyard, at the sign of the Parrot, 1600), 95-98.

Calvin:

Sermons:

1) Following that, since it is so that God willed that His Son might be thus exposed to death, may we not be ashamed of what He endured. May we not think that wicked men were in control and that the Son of God did not have the means to defend Himself. For everything proceeded from the will of God, and from the immutable decree which He had made. That is also why our Lord Jesus says in St. Luke, “Indeed, it is your reign now, and the power of darkness, As if He said, “Take no glory in what you are doing; for the devil is your master.” However, He shows that it is by means of the permission which God gave them. Although the devil possessed them, nevertheless, neither they nor he could attempt anything unless God had unleashed for them the bridle. That, then, in summary, is how we must have our eyes and all our senses fixed upon the will of God, and upon His eternal plan, when the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ is spoken of to us. Now He declares that such is the will of God, because it is written. For if Jesus Christ had not had testimony of what was ordered by God His Father, He might still have been in doubt. But He knew His office. God did not send Him here below that He might not have given Him fully to His express charge. It is true, inasmuch as our Lord Jesus is eternal God, He did not need to be taught by any Scripture; but inasmuch as He is our Redeemer and that He clothed Himself in our nature to have a true brotherhood with us, He had to be taught by Holy Scripture, as we see, above all, that He did not refuse such instruction. So then, since God has shown Him to what He was called, that is upon what He relies. That is why He is taken as a captive, in order not to draw back when He knew that He had to achieve the charge which was committed to Him, that is, to offer Himself in sacrifice for the redemption of us all.

So, then, we must learn that, inasmuch as the will of God is secret to Himself and incomprehensible, we must have recourse to Holy Scripture. It is true that God does not cease to have His counsel ordered by things that we imagine to be by chance. But that is not declared to us. We shall not always have special revelation to say that God has determined this or that. Then, we must withhold judgment. That is why we pray to God that He may heal us of an illness or that He may deliver us from some other affliction when we have fallen into it. And why? We do not know what He wills to do. To be sure, we ought not to impose a law upon Him. This condition ought always to be added: that His will may be done. But all our prayers ought to lead here: to ask Him that He may know us to be necessary and useful, and that we may meanwhile refer everything to Him in His secret counsel in order that He may do as seems good to Him. But when we have testimony through Holy Scripture that God wills a thing, then it is not proper to offer any reply, as I have already said. Calvin, Sermons on Deity of Christ, Sermon 5, Matt 25:51-66, pp., 88-9.

Commentaries:

1) We must now enter on that question by which vain and inconstant minds are greatly agitated; namely, Why God permitted Adam to be tempted, seeing that the sad result was by no means hidden from him? That He now relaxes Satan’s reins, to allow him to tempt us to sin, we ascribe to judgment and to vengeance, in consequence of man’s alienation from himself; but there was not the same reason for doing so when human nature was yet pure and upright. God, therefore, permitted Satan to tempt man, who was conformed to His own image, and not yet implicated in any crime, having, moreover, on this occasion, allowed Satan the use of an animal which otherwise would never have obeyed him; and what else was this, than to arm an enemy for the destruction of man? This seems to have been the ground on which the Manichaeans maintained the existence of two principles. Therefore, they have imagined that Satan, not being in subjection to God, laid snares for man in opposition to the divine will, and was superior not to man only, but also to God himself. Thus, for the sake of avoiding what they dreaded as an absurdity, they have fallen into execrable prodigies of error; such as, that there are two Gods, and not one sole Creator of the world, and that the first God has been overcome by his antagonist. All, however, who think piously and reverently concerning the power of God, acknowledge that the evil did not take place except by his permission. For, in the first place, it must be conceded, that God was not in ignorance of the event which was about to occur; and then, that he could have prevented it, had he seen fit to do so. But in speaking of permission, I understand that he had appointed whatever he wished to be done. Here, indeed, a difference arises on the part of many, who suppose Adam to have been so left to his own free will, that God would not have him fall. They take for granted, what I allow them, that nothing is less probable than that God should he regarded as the cause of sin, which he has avenged with so many and such severe penalties. When I say, however, that Adam did not fall without the ordination and will of God, I do not so take it as if sin had ever been pleasing to Him, or as if he simply wished that the precept which he had given should be violated. So far as the fall of Adam was the subversion of equity, and of well-constituted order, so far as it was contumacy against the Divine Law-giver, and the transgression of righteousness, certainly it was against the will of God; yet none of these things render it impossible that, for a certain cause, although to us unknown, he might will the fall of man. It offends the ears of some, when it is said God willed this fall; but what else, I pray, is the permission of Him, who has the power of preventing, and in whose hand the whole matter is placed, but his will? I wish that men would rather suffer themselves to be judged by God, than that, with profane temerity, they should pass judgment upon him; but this is the arrogance of the flesh to subject God to its own test. I hold it as a settled axiom, that nothing is more unsuitable to the character of God than for us to say that man was created by Him for the purpose of being placed in a condition of suspense and doubt; wherefore I conclude, that, as it became the Creator, he had before determined with himself what should be man’s future condition. Hence the unskillful rashly infer, that man did not sin by free choice. For he himself perceives, being convicted by the testimony of his own conscience, that he has been too free in sinning. Whether he sinned by necessity, or by contingency, is another question; respecting which see the Institution,and the treatise on Predestination. Calvin, Genesis 3:1-3.

Read the rest of this entry »

SEVENTH QUESTION: THE PROVIDENCE GOD IN EVIL

Do sins fall under providence, and how is it applied to them?

I. In this question, which all confess to be the most intricate and difficult among those agitated concerning providence, two extremes occur which are equally dangerous and to be avoided.

Pelagians sin
in defect.

First in defect, wherein an otiose permission about sins is ascribed to in defect. God. The other in excess, when the causality of sin is charged upon God. The former clashes with the providence of God, but the latter with his justice and holiness. Into the former, the Pelagians, who refer the method of God’s providence about evil to a bare and idle permission, run (as if he put forth no action in reference to it, but only indifferently beheld and permitted it).

The Manichaean
and Libertines in
excess.

On the latter, however, the Manichaeans, Simonians and Priscillianists formerly struck who made God the cause of wickedness of sins. This sinners readily seize to excuse their crimes: as Homer’s Agamemnon, “I am not to be blamed, but Jupiter and fated (ego d’ ouk aitios eimi, alla Zeus kai Moira, Iliad 19.86-87 [Loeb, 2:342-431); and Lyconides in the Aulularia of Plautus, “God was the instigator, I believe the gods wished it” (The Pot of Gold [Loeb, 1:310-111). This impiety is indulged by the Libertines of the present time.

Read the rest of this entry »

27.-Divine providence governs the bad as well as the good actions of men, the latter by an actio efficax, the former by a permissio efficax.

–WOLLEB p, 30: “By God’s providence things good and bad are ruled. Good things are ruled by effectual action, to which belong the praecurrence, concurrence and succurrence of divine power. Bad things are ruled by actuosa permissio and so by permission, determining and direction” .

–POLAN distinguishes (VI, 17) two parts. in “God’s actual providence”, namely actio and permissio. “God’s actio–is only one of the good things which God effects right from the first creation of all things, either by Himself or by others, in which also the punishment of evil is counted, because it is of the nature of moral good.

–Divine permission is the act of the divine will by which God, in whose power it is to inhibit the actions of others, if He wiled, does not inhibit them, but according to His eternal and righteous decree allows them to be done by the rational creature” .

28.- This permissio is not a moral one, by which God would approve of sin, but a physical, by which He gives sin way, a non-impeditio peccati–BREMISCHE BEKENNTNIS (HEPPE, p. 169) : “Evil is partly malum culpae, partly malum poenae. That” the evil with which God temporally and eternally punishes and wî1 punish the world is ordained by God, is undeniable.–But that evil which is sin and which God neither creates nor causes, cannot be completely and in every way withdrawn from the eternal ordering of God, even though it be said that God is such a controller of the world that apart from and contrary to His ordering many a thing happens in the world.-But God does not ordain evil as He does good, i.e. as something that pleases Him, but as the sort of thing He hates, nevertheless knowingly and willingly destines, lets be in the world and uses wondrously for good”.

–RIISSEN (VIII, 12): “Sin should not be withdrawn from the providence of God. It falls under it as to start, progress and finish.-13: As to beginning God freely allows sin.–14: This permission is, however, not ethical, like a licence to sin, but physical, a non-impeditio of sin.–The statement ‘God wills to allow sin’ thus does not mean ‘God wills to approve sin morally’. Hence KECKERMAN (p. 115) says: “If willing to permit is the same as willing the permission of sin, we agree that God willingly permits it. If it is the same as permitting it approvingly or approving the thing permitted, we must not admit that God willingly permits sin”.

Read the rest of this entry »