De Moor X:8: The Efficiency of the Divine Will in Providence

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It is accomplished on the part of God by the Command of His Will; so that the Acts of Providence considered on God’s part are nothing other than one altogether simple and immutable Command of the actuose divine Will:  hence in the Works of Providence Scripture makes mention both of the Will of God, Revelation 4:11, concerning which passage I spoke in Chapter VIII, § 10, and also of His Command and Word, Psalm 147:15, 16, as God is also often reported merely to command, to say, to speak, so that He might give effect to His Will in the works of Providence, Psalm 33:9; Lamentations 3:37, 38; Psalm 105:31, 34; 107:25; Job 37:6; etc.

Such that this Work brings no Change upon God.  The things that I taught in Chapter VIII, § 10, 11, with respect to Creation are able to be brought in for comparison; since from the same principles it is deduced, that Providence is not to be conceived of, 1.  after the manner of a new Labor, which God sometimes undertakes, having been previously idle:  2.  Neither after the likeness of a toilsome Labor, whereby God is fatigued:  3.  Nor does any Outflow of the essential divine Power have a place here, to be transfused into the creatures.  Indeed, all things ought to fall, if we consider, 1.  God’s Immutability, whereby nothing is able to be added or subtracted from Him:  2.  His Consummate Perfection, which, as Infinite, is incommunicable to Creatures, nor capable of division into parts, nor of increase or decrease:  also, this Infinite Perfection, having regard to His Power as much as to His other attributes, argues God’s Power to be inexhaustible and beyond fatigue.

If His Omnipotent Power is referenced, the exercise of His almighty command is indicated.  Thus, of course, Providence is defined by our Heidelberg Catechism, Question XXVII:[1]  other Theologians also speak in like manner.  But there is no reason why the Remonstrants should censure the manner of this sort of speaking, Apologia, chapter VI, page 67b, since, 1.  it is certain, that by this expression the Orthodox do not understand any violent coaction; nor mere potency in actu primo,[2] but its voluntary exercise, or the Exercise of His almighty command.  2.  But, that the Exercise of this sort of divine Power obtains in Providence, Scripture expressly testifies, Hebrews 1:3; Psalm 89:8-10, 13:  to this it has regard, that God in Providence is said to work, John 5:17; Ephesians 1:11.  Now, in the external works of God, as the divine Intellect is the directing Principium, so the Will is the commanding principium, but Power is the executing principium; neither without the addition of the Exercise of Power would the counsel of the Will infallibly obtain effect.  3.  Neither do the Orthodox thus incorrectly speak of Divine Providence as Omnipotent Virtue and Efficacy, so that they might signify, that the Providence of God does not consist in idle speculation, but that all things are preserved and directed by the actuose Power of God as the first Cause, which gives effect to whatever had been predetermined through eternal Providence.  Neither would the Remonstrants cavil at this manner of speaking, if they would rightly recognize, that the Preservation of all things by the Providence of God is the Force or Positive Act of divine Power, and is not a mere Negative Act of non-Annihilation; to which they tend in the place cited, Apologia, page 68, Then, whether that act, whereby God preserves all things, is the force or act of Power, is currently controverted among the Scholastics:  with a great many, indeed, almost all, asserting, that Preservation is thought to be a negative act, and not positive, not without a great appearance of truth.  But the Remonstrants (they add) do not make so much of those idle disputations, that they are willing to quarrel because of them.  It is enough for them, if they should say, that God by His Providence preserves the things created by Himself:  Whether that Preservation be Force or an act of Power, or a merely negative act of the Will, whereby He wills not to destroy or annihilate the things created, they leave to be disputed by those to whom such disputation is pleasing.  But, to leave this to be disputed, TRIGLAND[3] observes, Antapologia, chapter IX, page 121b, and at the same time to assert, that God preserves the things created by Himself, and plainly ἀσύστατα/incompatible.  For whoever says that God preserves things, does not express a negative act of Will, but one plainly positive.  And, if in the preservation of things God willed nothing other than not to destroy them; the things created would not consist by the Force and Power of God, but by that of themselves; than which nothing more absurd is even able to be conceived.

Now, there is nothing to what They Object against this Catechetical expression:

1.  That this description of divine Providence is not admissible without qualification:  because otherwise God would be able to make use of no Providence, unless He makes use of it with some Force and Act of Power:  but thus divine Providence would not be involved with Evils; or, if it is involved with them, it would be involved with them by a certain Force and Act of Power:  but the very Censors themselves acknowledge, that God does not effectuate Sins as Sins, but only permits them.

I Respond:  In an Evil distinguish its material and its formal.  The material is the thing or action, to which the formal of the Evil adheres:  the formal is the defect, disorder, and viciousness adhering to that thing or action.  With respect to the former, which has the character of good, we ascribe the Force and Positive Act of its working to God:  but with respect to the latter, not at all, but Permission only; yet not a bare and idle permission, but Efficacious:  compare § 20, 21; Chapter XV, § 4.

2.  That Providence is an action; not a quality or property, which is wont to be called δύναμις/power.

I Respond:  In Philosophy δύναμις/power/ability and ἐνέργεια/ operation are indeed opposed;[4] yet δύναμις is not always used so strictly, but is also taken for efficacious operation, Romans 15:13,[5] 19:[6]  thus, in Ephesians 1:19, τὸ μέγεθος τῆς δυνάμεως, the greatness of the power, of God, and ἡ ἐνέργεια τοῦ κράτους τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ, the working of His mighty power are used interchangeably.  Neither in God, altogether simple, independent and infinitely perfect, just as in creatures, with respect to essential faculties and qualities, are δύναμις/power/ability and ἐνέργεια/ operation really distinguished:  but, when we attribute to God in some Eternal Action ἐνέργειαν τῆς δυνάμεως, the working of power, this is done with respect to the Work produced outside of God through His Power, without any change in God Himself or new Actuosity after the preceding Rest or Quiet, as it were.

[1] Heidelberg Catechism 27:  What dost thou mean by the providence of God?  The almighty and everywhere present power of God; whereby, as it were by His hand, He upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures; so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, and all things come, not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.

[2] That is, power as a mere potency (actus primus), as opposed to power actually exercised.

[3] Jacobus Trigland the Elder (1583-1654) was a Dutch Reformed pastor and theologian.  He was deputed by the Synod of North Holland to the Synod of Dort; he was a member of the committee appointed to draw up the Canons of Dort.  In 1633, he became Professor of Theology at Leiden.

[4] That is, potency versus act.

[5] Romans 15:13:  “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power (ἐν δυνάμει) of the Holy Ghost.”

[6] Romans 15:19:  “Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power (ἐν δυνάμει) of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.”