Divine decree

“ To tell us a thousand times, without any distinction or discrimination, that all things are equally the result of the Divine decree, and then tell us that the relation between God’s decree and sin is essentially different from the relation existing between his decree and holiness, would certainly be a very singular and unwarrantable use of language. ”

“ And the Prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord: Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die and not live.”
The decree came direct from God that he should die. What can set aside or reverse that Divine decree of heaven? Hezekiah had never been in a condition so insuperable with a decree so direct and definite from God. Can prayer change the purposes of God? Can prayer snatch from the jaws of death one who has been decreed to die? Can prayer save a man from an incurable sickness? ”

“ A divine decree, resting beyond the gaze of human beings, works mysteriously to bring all things into outer manifestation at the proper time. ”

“ Had the event been left at uncertainties in the divine counsels, to depend upon the contingent turn of man's will, Christ might have been the first-born among but few or no brethren—a captain without soldiers and a prince without subjects—to prevent which, and to secure to him many brethren, the decree is absolute, the thing ascertained, that he might be sure to see his seed, there is a remnant predestinated to be conformed to his image, which decree will certainly have its accomplishment in the holiness and happiness of that chosen race ”

“ That wheresoever the words translated decree or decrees are found in the New Testament, thereby are denoted, laws, statutes, or decrees: as "Decrees of Cæsar," Acts xvii. 7: "A decree from Cæsar," Luke ii. 1: Moses' ceremonial law, "The hand-writing to ordinances," Col. ii. 14: "The law of commandments in ordinances," Eph. ii. 15: and this word is found used only in these five places in the whole New Testament: and the Septuagint interpreters often use the word in the Old Testament to this purpose; for laws, Dan. vi. 8; for decrees, Dan. ii. ”

“ For the law and judgment that was in force against them before this peace was decreed shall be most diligently observed, so that they be restrained from iniquity;—for robbers and plunderers are excepted from this divine peace, and, in fact, from every peace. If any one strive to oppose this pious decree, so that he will neither promise the peace to God nor observe it, no priest shall presume to sing a mass for him or to give heed to his salvation; if he be ill, no Christian shall presume to visit him, and, unless he come to his senses, he shall do without the Eucharist even at the end. ”

“ In the twenty-first session (July 16, 1562) a decree couched in four dogmatic chapters and four canons was promulgated upon it, to the following purport: laymen, and priests other than the actual celebrant, are not bound by divine right to communicate in both kinds; the church has full power to make what changes it pleases in the mode of administering sacraments; the whole sacrament of the Eucharist is received entire under either kind singly; and little children are not bound to communicate. The canons pronounce anathemas against maintainers of the contrary propositions. ”

“ If his decree of election requires for its accomplishment an efficient operation, so also does his decree of reprobation. If Divine agency is directly and efficiently, requisite to produce a good volition, it must follow that it is in the same sense requisite to produce a sinful volition. ”

“ And this decree (that the affairs of mankind should be governed by a prophet) has been settled upon them as a religious duty, and has been linked together with the obedience toward God, and the obedience toward his prophet, through which alone a reward in future life may be obtained—in accordance with the word of him, who is truth and justice—and his word is judgment and decree, "O ye believers, obey God, and obey the prophets, and those among yourselves who are invested with the command." ”

“ Nay, the design of this decree being to set aside the ceremonial law, and the carnal ordinances of that, they were by it established in the Christian faith in general, and were the more firmly assured that it was of God, because it set up a spiritual way of serving God, as more suited to the nature both of God and man; and, besides, that spirit of tenderness and condescension which appeared in these letters plainly showed that the apostles and elders were herein under the guidance of him who is love itself. ”

“ The decree of God is, when it concerns His own actions, absolute, but when it concerns man’s, conditional, i.e. the decree relative to the Saviour to be appointed and the salvation to be provided is absolute, but the decree relative to the persons saved or condemned is made to depend on the acts—belief and repentance in the one case, unbelief and impenitence in the other—of the persons themselves. ”

“ Because we have heard that ecclesiastics and others belonging to the Catholic religion are compelled by men of different religions to celebrate the sacrifices of the lustrum, we, by this decree, do ordain that if any one believes that those who observe the most sacred law ought to be compelled to take part in the rites of a strange superstition, let him, if his condition permits, be beaten with staves, but if his rank exempts him from such rigor, let him endure the condemnation of a very heavy fine, which shall fall to the State. ”

“ Zaccai, a contemporary of Jesus, was once asked what was the reason for performing all the ritual of the sacrifices, [105] and the other minutiæ of the ceremonial law. He answered: "A corpse does not defile, and waters do not cleanse. But it is a decree of the King of kings. The Holy One, blessed be He, hath said, 'I have ordained my statute; I have decreed my decree. Man is not entitled to transgress my decree.' As it is written (Num. xix. 2) , 'This is the decree of the Torah'" (Pesikta 40b) . ”

“ Should God’s decree encompass thee with blackest night,
The same decree will readily help set thee right.
Should Providence at times thy life to menace seem,
’Twas Providence that gave it, can prolong its gleam.
Should life’s events appear to threaten every way,
God can in heaven prepare a home for thee to stay.
What ’tis thou tremblest at, a special favour count,
Designed to bring thee safe to Zion’s holy mount.
And now we turn again from morals,—they’ve no end,—
To see how fares it with our lion and his friend.380
They came to where the well was. ”

“ For, as the Deity is just, holy and merciful; wise in all his counsels, and true in all his declarations to the sons of men, it is inconsistent with his attributes, by an antecedent decree, to fix our commission of so many sins in such a manner, that there is no possibility for us to avoid them. ”

“ It was the revelation of Jesus Christ that the angel gave to St. John to be delivered to the churches, Rev. i. 1. So here (v. 21) : I will show thee what is written in the scriptures of truth, that is, what is fixed in the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. The decree of God is a thing written, it is a scripture which remains and cannot be altered. ”

“ They preached Christ to have been risen without seeing corruption, not only because God had decreed it, but because he had manifested that decree in his prophet, therefore doth Saint Paul cite by special number the second Psalm for that decree, and therefore both Saint Peter and Saint Paul cite for it that place in the sixteenth Psalm; [368] for when God declares his decree and purpose in the express words of his prophet, or when he declares it in the real execution of the decree, then he makes it ours, then he manifests it to us. ”

“ All these powers, however, do not belong to each Congregation. (See Roman Congregations.) Again, their decrees are particular or universal, according as they are directed to individuals or to the whole Church. Particular decrees, containing simply an authentic interpretation of a universal law, are called equivalently universal. Finally, most decrees are disciplinary, dealing with positive ecclesiastical laws, which they explain, or enforce, or dispense from; but some are doctrinal, e.g., those which declare a doctrine to be untenable, or an act unlawful because contrary to a divine law. ”

“ So great haste is necessary in order not to fall out with them. [In the margin: “Send that decree, and write to the governor and archbishop to summon the provincial of the Augustinians and tell him how advisable it is to punish that religious, and those who act so; and have them advised that no mission shall under any consideration be granted to religious against whom such accusations are made. Have them advise us of what is done.” “This decree was carried out.”] ”

“ In considering which, we shall maintain, that the decree of God does not lay any force on the will of man, nor preclude the means of grace, as ordained by him, for the salvation of them that do, or shall hereafter, believe unto life everlasting; nor does it obstruct the preaching of the gospel, and therein proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation, to those who set under the sound thereof, as an ordinance for their faith. ”

“ If the Decree to be pronounced De Ecclesia, putting aside controverted points, aimed only at displaying to the eyes of all men the beauty and majesty of the Spouse of Christ to the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls, how easily might we set forth the whole of the doctrine of the Church ”

“ What are the causes and considerations moving him to make this decree. They are sufficient to have justified a decree for the total suppression of idolatry, much more will they serve to support this. There is good reason why all men should fear before this God, for, (1.) His being is transcendent. "He is the living God, lives as a God, whereas the gods we worship are dead things, have not so much as an animal life." (2.) His government is incontestable. He has a kingdom, and a dominion; he not only lives, but reigns as an absolute sovereign. ”

“ Great numbers of the most learned divines are of opinion, that in such a case the Head of the Church is infallible in what he teaches; but there are others of a contrary opinion, who think that his decree is not to be considered as infallibly certain, till the body of the bishops receive it, either by their express approbation, or their tacit submission when it becomes a decree of the whole Church, whose infallibility is undoubted. ”

“ He will persevere in doing penance all His life, and finally bring it to it conclusion on the Cross, to which (according to the saying of St. Paul) He will affix the decree of your condemnation, cancelling it with His Own Blood: Blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to us. ”

“ No more does God's absolute purpose of saving his chosen preclude the necessity of the gospel revelation, or the use of any of the means through which he has determined the decree shall take effect. Nor will the right understanding, or the reverent belief of God's decree, ever allow or suffer a Christian in any case to separate the means from the end, or the end from the means. ”

“ It is a terrible decree, I grant; yet no man shall be able to deny but that God foreknew what end man should have ere he created him, and therefore foreknew because he had so ordained by his decree.”—Ibid. ”

“ Even in a state of innocence, when all was perfection and excellence, when God was clearly discovered in all his works, every place being his temple, every moment a time of worship, and every object an incitement to religious reverence and adoration - even then, God chose to consecrate a seventh part of time to his more especial worship, and to hallow it unto his own service by a perpetual decree. ”

“ A failure to make this distinction has been a fruitful source of division and distress of our holy cause, and a failure to so distinguish between God's permissive and overruling decree of sin and his causative decree of holiness will ever cause distress and confusion among our people. ”

“ Then they came near, and spake before the king concerning the king's decree Hast thou not signed a decree, that every man that shall ask a petition of any God or man within thirty days, save of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. ”

“ Nor again, that, not Peter only, but all, passed the decree in common, as it is written: "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us;" and as Paul and Timothy "delivered to the cities the decrees to keep that were decreed by the Apostles and Ancients." [72] For a decree made in common by many shews not an equality of power in each, but a competent authority to join in that decree. Such acts proceed, not only from equal, but from unequal assemblies. ”

“ No, indeed! but of his own good will be makes such things serve man, that all of them together may be for his own glory.—3d, The Lord's decree is the first rise of [pg 073] all things that are, or have been, or are to come. This is the first original of them all, to which they must be reduced as their spring and fountain. All of you may understand that there are many things possible, which yet actually will never be. The Lord's power and omnipotency is of a further extent than his decree and purpose. His power is natural and essential to his being ”

“ But that it may be possible for the nature of this decree and of our benevolence to come to the knowledge of all men, it will be your duty by a proclamation of your own to publish everywhere and bring to the notice of all men this present document when it reaches you, that the decree of this our benevolence may not be hidden. ”