Ill DISPLAY Of The vulgar diftin£tion of God's fecret and revealed wily is fuch, as towhich of the other may be reduced ; and therefore I have chofen it to infift upon. The fecret will of God, in his eternal, unchangeable purpofe, concerningall things which he hath made, to be brought by certain means to their appointed -ends: ofthis himfelfaffirmeth, that his min's/ 'hall 'land, and he will do all his pleafure, Ifoiah. xlvi. ao. This fine call the abfulute efficacious mall of God, the will of his good pleafure âlways fulfilled: and indeed this is the only proper, eternal, confiant, immutable will of God, whole order can neither be broken, nor its law traufreffed, fu longas with him there isneither change, nor f sadow of tanning. The revealed willof God, contaioeth not his purpofe and decree, but our duty, not what he will do according to his good pleafure, but what we fhould do ifwewill pleafe him ; and this çonfifting in his word, his precepts andpromifes, belongerh to us and our children, that we may do the will of God. Now this indeed is rather só monv4s, thansi Mosco, that which God willeth, than his will, but termed fo, as wé call thatdie will of a man which he bath determined fhall be done : this is the reifof him that finsmi, that every one which f eth the fanandbelieveth on him, may have evertRing life, . faith our Saviour, yamvi. go. that ih, this is that which his will bath appointed-Hence it is calledvoluntas figni, or the fge of his mill, metaphorically only called his will, faith O Aquinas r for in as much as our commands are the figos of our wills, the rime is faid oftheprecepts of God. This is the rule of out obedience, and. whole tranfgreffr- on makes an a£tion fìnful, for ö ä¡aagríoleis ii d,, io, fin is the tranfgreffianof á law, andthat fuch a law, as is given to the tranf reffor tobe obferved : nowGod bath not impofed on us the obfervation of his eternal decree and intention, which as it is utterly inr- pofíible for us to tranfgrefs or fruffrate, fo were we unblameable ifwe fhould. A- maGer requires ofhis fervant, to do what he commands, not to accomplifh what he in- tends, which perhaps he never difcovered unto him, nay, the commands offuperiours are not always figns that the commander will have the things commanded .fually per- formed, as in all precepts for trial: but only that theywho arefubjeis to this com- mand, !hall be obliged toobedience, as far as the fenfe of it doth extend, c her datum n in praeeptis divinis, faith (b) Durand, &c. and this is clear in the commands ofGod r: by which we are obliged to do what he commanded], and yet it is not always his pleafure, that the thing it felf, in regard of the event, flail be accomplifhed ; as we fatibefore in the examples of Pharaoh and Abraham. Now the will of God inthe firft acceptation, is faid to be hid or fecret, not becaufé it is fo always; for it is in fame particulars revealed and made known unto us, ttva ways. t. By his word, as where God affirmeth that the dead Ihall rife, we doubtrot, but that they fhall rife, and that it is the abfolute will ofGod that they fhall do fr. z. By the effeft, for whenany thing cometh to pars, we may café theevent on the will of God, as its caufe, and look upon it as a revelation of his purpofe. Jacob's fens little imagined that it was the will of God, by them to fend their brother into Egypt yet afterwards, yofeph tells them plainly, it was not they, but God that fern him thither, Gen. ola'. Butit is faid tobe fecret for two caufes. (r.) Becaufe for themolt part it is fo, there is nothing indivers Mims declarative of God's determination, but only the event : whichwhile it is future, is hidden to them who have faculties to judge ofthings part and prefent, but not to difcern things 'for to come. Hence St. .ames bids as not be too peremptory in our determination, if we will do this, or that, not knowinghow God will clofe with as for its performance. (z.) It is faid to be fecret, in reference to its caufe, which for themoft part is pall our findingout ; his paths are in the deeps, and his footfteps arernottinown. It appeareth then, that the fecret and revealed will of God are divers, infùrdry refpehs, but chiefly, in regard of their ohs, and their objets. - [r.] In regard oftheir ohs, the fecret will of God is his eternal decree, and deter- mination, concerning any thing to be done in its appointed time : his revealed will is an o£t, whereby he deciareth hnnfelf to love or approve any thing, whether ever it be done, or no. [z.] They are divers in regard of their objets; the objett ofGod's purpofe and decree, is that which is good in any kind, with referenceto its afloat 8s1terce, for it (a) Again. q. g. i9. a. 11. c. (b) Durand. dirt. c. 41. n. 'r molt.
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