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IT is the proper worke of the Will to Predestinate, or to Decree, what of those infinite things which the understanding presented, shall bee, and come into light: for unlesse the Will of God, with his
Power, come to them, their being knowne makes them not to be.
Praedestinatio est propositum, propositum est actus practicus, & ultimus voluntatis; ergo Praedestinatio magis importat voluntatē, quàm scientiam, P Ferrius p. 232. He saith, Ʋltimus because there is an act of the Will even in knowing, Primò enim volumus aliquid scire, quam sciamus, vel intelligamus, deinde intelligimus, & tunc quod intellexi∣mus voluntate probamus: as it is a little above in the same Author.
Here then is the first Act of Gods Will chusing, and refusing: chusing these things (that now are) to bee, refusing all the rest which he knew notitiâ simplicis intelligentiae, of infinite variety, but hee cast them into perpetuall darknesse, and silence; so ac∣cording to the Psal. 115. 3. Quaecun{que} voluit fecit.
The Will of God being in it selfe one, and simple, may be considered with diver∣sity, onely as conversant about things that are diverse, his Will allowing them to bee diverse.
1. There be some things therefore which God willeth, as to bee done by himselfe, by his owne Power: as the World to bee created of nothing: his Sonne to be sent into the World, made of a Woman, and such like:
This first Will of God never faileth, be∣cause hee workes it himselfe alone by his Almighty power. 2. There be some things which God willeth, as to bee done by the Creature, either as a naturall Agent, as flowers to be drawne out of the Earth by the Sunne in the Spring; or as by a volun∣tary Agent, as righteous and good workes to be done by man: yet God himselfe con∣curring and coworking with the Creature, a naturall and voluntary Agent, according to its kinde. This second will oftentimes fayleth, by the Creatures failing, by whom God would have the worke wrought; God permitting, and not hindering the faile as he could.
3. Some things God willeth and doth himselfe, or with others, as leading, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, antecedent, out of himselfe, his own goodnesse and mercy; as all the good wee have in Nature, or in Grace, our Crea∣tion, our Calling, our glory; God begin∣ning, following, perfecting all our good, out of his abundant and never-failing bounty: Some things hee willeth and doth, as following, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, led, or urged thereunto, upon occasion of some evill of the Creature; as to forsake, to punish, or to destroy it: and this is the Will of his Justice, the maker of all the evill of paine,
which wee suffer. This Distinction Da∣mascen tooke out of Chrysostome on the first to the Ephesians; and Anselme calls it voluntatem Misericordiae, & voluntatem Justitiae; wherewith why some Divines should finde such fault I know not, nor why it should not bee call'd the primary and chiefe Will of God, (and not a Vellei∣ty, or a simple complacentia) and the second a secondary and lesse desirable: for these two may well stand, and remaine together; as in a tempest, the will of the Merchant to save his goods abideth in him as his chiefe desire, though now as the case stands, hee by another will casts them into the Sea; neither are they contrary one to the other, seeing they have two objects diversly qualifyed; a man as hee is Gods Creature, and as hee is an impenitent Sinner, him God would have sav'd, and yet this God wills to perish.
There be many other distinctions of the Will of God, which doe not availe to the opening of the Doctrine of Predesti∣nation; and some of them availe not to the clearing of any Doctrine, but rather to the obscuring of truth, which we will omit. I will shut up this head with this sentence: There is nothing in the World that did not passe under the censure of the Will
of God, of some sort or kinde, or other, before it was, as it passed under the view of his knowledge. Voluntas Dei est prima & summa causa, &c. The Will of God is the prime and highest cause of all spirituall and corporall motions: for there is nothing visibly or sensibly, which is not from the invisible and intelligible Court of the King of Kings, either commanded, or permitted, according to the ineffable justice of Rewards and Punish∣ments, of thankes and retributions, in that most ample and immense Republike of the whole Creation. Prosper Epigram: 58. Aug. de Trin. l. 3. c. 4.