Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_000.lzh/D_052.TXT

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3~                                                OF THE WILL OF GOD.                                                         Book

if the Lord will, we will do this, and that, and the other,
1 Cor. iv. 19. James iv 13, 14, 15. and this should be
owned and acknowledged, and submitted to in every state
and condition of life, whether of prosperity or adversity,
or in whatsoever befals us in our own persons, or in our
friends and relations, Acts xxi. 14. and this, properly
.spea.king, is the one and only will of God.         I shall next
inquire,
I1[. What are the objects of it.
First, God himself, not his Being, perfections, and
modes of subsisting; as the paternity of the Father; the
generation of the Son; and the spiration of the Spirit.
These naturally and necessarily exist, and do not depend
npon the will of God: but it is his own glory;
Lord hath made all things for himself; that is, for his
own glory, Prov. xvi. 4. He wills his own glory in all
he does; as all things are of him, as the efficient Cause;
and through him, as the wise Disposer of them; so they
are to him, to his glory, as the final Cause, and last end
of all; and this he wills necessarily; he cannot but will
his own glory; as "he will not give his glory to another;"
he cannot will it to another; that would be to deny
himself.
Secondly, All things without himself, whether good or
evil, are the objects of his will, or what his will is some
way or other concerned in: there is a difference, indeed,
between the objects of God's knowledge and power and
the objects of his will; for though he knows all things
knowable, in his understanding, and his power reaches to
all that is possible, though not made; yet he wills not
all things willable, if the word may be allowed, or that
might be willed; wherefore, as Amesins {1} observes, though
God is said to be omniscient and omnipotent, yet not
omnivolent.
   1st, All good things.--i. All things in nature; all
things are made by him, and all were originally good that
were made by him, even very good; and all were made
according to his will; Thou hast created all things, and
for thy pleasure; or by thy will, they are and were cre-
ated, Rev. iv. 11. even the heavens, earth, and sea, and
all that in them are.--2. All things in providence. God's
kingdom of providence rules over all, and extends to all
creatures, angels and men, and every other, and to all
events that befal them; not a sparrow falls to the ground
without the will of God; tie doth according to his will
in the armJt of heaven; in the heavenly host of angels;
and among the inhabitants of the earth, Dan. iv. 35. there
is nothing comes to pass but what God has willed, or-
dered, and appointed; Who is he that saith, and it cometh
to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not .9, Lam. iii. 37.
--3. All things in grace are according to the will of
God, all spiritual blessings in Christ, all grace given to
the elect in Christ, before the world was; the choice of
them in Christ; predestination to adoption by him; re-
demption through his blood; regeneration, sanctification,
and the eternal inheritance; all are according to the
good pleasure of his will, 2 Tim. i. 9. Eph. i. 3, 4, 5, 7,
9, 11. James i. 18. 1 Thess. iv. 3.
2dly, All evil things are the objects of God's will;
which are of two sorts.--1. Mahtm peenee, the evil of
afflictions; whether in a way of chastisement, or of pu-
nishment: if in a way of chastisement, as they are to the

Medulla Theolog. !. 1. c. 7. s. 47.

people of God, they are according to the will of God
they do not spring out of the dust, nor come by chance;
but are by the will, order, and appointment of God; as
to quality, quantity, duration, ends, and uses, Job xxiii.
14. Mic. vi. 9. 1 Thess. iii. 3. and which are consistent
with the justice, holiness, wisdom, love, and goodness of
God. If they are in a way of punishment, as they are to
wicked and ungodly men; there is no reason to complain
of them, since they are less than their sins deserve; and
not at all unworthy of a righteous God to will to inflict
on them, Lam. iii. 39. all judgments, calamities, and
distresses, which come upon kingdoms, nations, cities,
towns, and particular persons, are all of God, and accord-
ing to his will, Amos iii. 6. Not that God wills these
things for the sake of them; or as taking delight in the
afflictions and miseries of his creatures, Law. iii.
Ezek. xviii. 32. but for the sake of some good: the af-
flictions of his people are for their spiritual good, as well
as for his own glory: and the punishment of the wicked
is for the glorifying of his justice.--2. There is malum
culpae, or the evil of fault and blame, that is sin: about
thts there is some difficulty how the will of God should
be concerned in it, consistent with his purity and holiness:
that the will of God is some way or other concerned with
it is most certain; for he either wills it or not wills it:
the latter cannot be said, because nothing comes to pass,
God not willing it, Lain. iii. 37. or he neither wills it, nor
not wills it; that is, he has no care about it, nor concern
at all with it; and so it is without the verge, and not
within the reach of his.providence; which cannot be ad-
mitted, and which. none will say, but those who are athe-
istically inclined, see Ezek. ix. 9. Zeph. i. 12. Besides,
as Beza {2}, and other divines argue, unless God had vo-
luntarily permitted sin to be, there could be no display,
neither of his punitive justice, nor of his mercy: to which
may be added, that God's foreknowledge of sin most frilly
proves his will in it; that God foreknew sin would be, is
certain; as the fall of Adam; since he made a provision,
in Christ, for the saving of men out of it, before it was;
and so other sins; see 2 Sam. xii. 11. anO xvi. 22. Now
certain and immutable foreknowledge, such as the fore-
knowledge of God, is rounded upon some certain and
immutable cause; which can be no other than the divine
will; God foreknows, certainly, that such and such things
will be; because he has determined in his will they shall
be. To set this affair in the best light, it will be proper
to consider, what is in sin, and relative to it: there is the
act of sin, and there is the guilt of sin, which is an oh-.
ligation to punishment, and the pumshtnent itself. Con-
cerning the two last titere can be no difficulty; that God
should will that men that sin should become guilty; be
reckoned, accounted, and treated as such; or lie tutder
obligation to punishment; nor that he should will the
punishment of them, and appoint and foreordain them to
it for it, Prov. xvi. 4. Jude v 4. The only difficulty is,
about the act of sin ;. and this may be considered either
as natural or moral; or the act, and the ataxy, disorder,
irregularity, and vitiosity of it: as an action, barely con-
sidered, it is of God, and according to his will; without
which, and the conconrse of his providence, none can be
performed; he is the fountain and source,of all action
and motion; in him all live, move, and have their being,

Vide Maccoy. Loc. Commun. c. 24. p. 195.