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Chapter 5. On the Operations of God
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180 c h a p t e r 5 On the Operations of God 1. [Though we have little knowledge of the operations of God, we should make the following brief, general points. God’s operations have no defects or faults; they follow his intention and his will, and thereforearecompletely free, though he cannot will anything that does not seem best to him in his wisdom. Never does God fail to achieve his expectation or intention,never does he change his design, nothing can obstruct him when he wills or impede his intention when he has determined in himself to act in a certain way. His power operates without any painful effort on his part; nothing can occur contrary to his will; and he does not borrow his force from any external power or need its help when he wills to do something without the intervention of others. However, things which are inconsistent with each other cannot happen, as we have already said.1 And whether some action intervenes apart from the will of God itself, or whether on the contrary the actual volition is effective in itself, we may not say for certain.]2 2. Goodness is the cause of the divine operations From what has been said above about the divine goodness, we shall not be likely to disapprove the view that the great and good God was moved by his own supreme and pure goodness to make this whole world and all its 1. Note (1749): “Part III, Chapter 3, Section 1,” p. 168. 2. This section was added in 1744. part iii: on god 181 parts, in order that he might impart to things other than himself life, perfection , and happiness, and admitted no evils into the world other than those which appeared to be quite unavoidable to this end, because they are associated with the overriding good. Among the operations of God the first place is taken by the bringing into being of things different from himself, which before were not. This is called creation, indeed the first creation. That is called the second creation which gave matter its first forms, and created species out of matter which was not in itself suitable. The first creation seems to be the work of God alone.3 [It should not appear incredible to anyone that by his own power God caused things which previously were not to begin to be; human power could do nothing like this. One must reflect how small is man, how blind in seeing into the actual natures of things, so that he scarcely has any better understanding of how he recalls his own ideas and variously alters them and how he initiates new motions in his body when it is at rest. Whether a nature active from all eternity could also have brought anything into being from the first, so that the duration of created thingswould have anteceded all finite time, has not perhaps been adequatelyinvestigated on the basis of the nature of things, but there is no reason to doubt that God can preserve created things forever.]4 Preservation There is no agreed view as to what sort of power on the part of God created things require in order to continue: that is, whether they need the same continuous force by which they came into existence, or whether in the beginning so much natural durability was given to them that they can endure by themselves, unless they once again perish by the hand of divine power. It is also unclear whether the attraction and communication of movement which we observe between bodies is effected by some divine force which is either continuous or applied from time to time by a fixed law, or on the 3. The distinction between first and second creation was made by Reformed theologians . See Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics, chap. 9, pp. 197–98, and de Vries, Determinationes Ontologicae, III, XVII, p. 79. 4. The sentences between brackets were added in 1744. [54.86.180.90] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 10:28 GMT) 182 a synopsis of metaphysics other hand whether so much force was given to the bodies themselves at the beginning and is preserved along with them. In either case, however, it is absolutely certain that God who gave being to things themselves can also destroy them when he wishes, and all their duration and power must be credited to God. 3. All things are governed by the providence of God That God...