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August 02, 2005
Ch.VIII. Q.51. The Divine Will
THE will of God is distinguished as (a) the will of good pleasure; (b) the will of the signs.1 We are here chiefly concerned with the will of good pleasure, or the will of God, properly speaking. The will of the signs is a metaphorical phrase, meaning the revelations of God's will to us— not that will itself.
2. The will of God (of good pleasure) is eternal in itself. There can be no temporal interval between His will and its fulfilment, and nothing contingent can determine its nature or fulfilment.2 But in so far as the Divine will has to do with temporal effects, and is viewed from a temporal standpoint, we describe it relatively and in temporal and contingent terms, as (a) antecedent and consequent; (b) absolute and conditional.
3. From such a point of view we say that by His antecedent will God wills anything secundum se, without reference to particular circumstances; e.g., the salvation of mankind.3 And by His consequent will we say God wills a thing in view of circumstances foreseen; e.g., the everlasting punishment of obstinate sinners.4 Strictly speaking, there can be no temporal development or modification of God's will of good pleasure. But, since His will is accomplished in time, it exhibits to us the relations of antecedence and consequence.5
4. Similarly we say that the absolute will of God depends upon no external conditions. Thus, He willed to create. But His conditional will is said to depend upon some action on the part of His free creatures. Thus He wills the future glory of those whom He has called in Christ, if they make their calling and election sure. The relation between the will of God and the will of man, is mysterious. The former is eternal and irreversible, the latter real and free, within its proper limits. The appearance of contradiction in this, arises from the finiteness of our understandings, and the necessity of contemplating the infinite and immutable from a finite and mutable point of view.6 This bears upon Divine Predestination, which will be discussed in connection with the doctrine of grace.
5. The will of the signs is divided into five parts: (a) commandment; (b) prohibition; (c) permission; (d) counsel; (e) operation and example. The last mentioned includes the natural and supernatural orders, so far as we know them, and the life of Christ.7 The will of signs constitutes the chief subject matter of Moral Theology Proper.
1 Schouppe, Elementa, Tr. V., §§155-160; St. Thos., Summa, I., xix.; Forbes, Creed, pp. 47, 56-61; Owen, Dogmatics, ch. iv., § 13; Pearson, De Deo, XX., XXI., pp. 206-231; Petavius, De Dogmatibus, T. I., lib. v., ch. 1-4; Liddon, Some Elements, pp. 56-57, 184-190; Wilhelm and Scannell, Manual, Vol. I., pp. 227-233; Weidner, Theologia, p. 38.
2 Psa. cxv. 3.
3 II. Tim. ii. 4.
4 Rom. ix. 22.
5 Hodge, Syst. Theol., Vol. I., p. 404.
6 Hodge, pp. 404-405. Cf. Q. liii. 4.
7 Schouppe, § 158; Sanderson, Conscience, Lec. iv. § 20. Cf. St. Matt. vii. 21.
Posted by Debra Bullock at August 2, 2005 11:10 PM
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