What Are the Decrees of God?
Answ. The decrees of God are, bis eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass.
Q. What are these acts of God which we must know and believe? A. His decree, and the execution of it.
Q. Wherein do these differ? A. His decree is his
agency within himself before time; but the execution of it is his work without himself, begun in time.
Q. What is a decree? A. Foreordaining what,
and in manner, things shall come to pass.
Q. What hath God decreed and foreordained?
A. All things that come to pass, Acts xv. 18.
Q. When did God decree all things?
A. From all eternity, Acts xv. 18. Eph. i. 4.
Q. According to what rule hath God decreed all things?
A. According to the counsel of his own will.
Q. For what end hath God decreed all things?
A. For his own glory, and his people’s good.
Qj Are the decrees of God one or many?
A. The decreeing act of God is one, but the things decreed are many.
Q. How is God’s decree called in scripture?
A. A counsel, purpose, appointment, or determination.
Q. Why is it called a counsel? A. Not as if
God needed to deliberate; but because of the great wisdom that is in it, Rom. xi. 33, 34. Eph. i. 11.
Q. Why is the decree called a purpose? A. Because God is fully resolved to execute it, Isa. xlv. 10.
Q. Why is it called an appointment or determination?
A. Because it is fixed by the highest authority.
Q. What are the properties of the decrees of God?
A. They are eternal, holy, wise, absolute, and unchangeable.
Q. How do you prove that God’s decrees are eternal
A. The decree of our salvation was before the foundation of the world; all the works of God were then known to him, and are connected with our salvation, Eph. i. 4.
Q. How do you prove that God’s decrees are holy and wise? A. Because the holy and .wise God is the author of them and holiness and wisdom shine in the execution of them, Mark vii. 37. Psalm cxlv. 17.
Q. What do you mean by the decrees of God being ab solute? A. That they are fixed by the will of God,
without any dependence on the creature, Isa. lv. 9.
Q. How do you prove God’s decrees are absolute?
A. Because God cannot but foreknow all events, cannot want power, to perform his designs nor can he subject his own will to a dependence on that of his creature.
Q. Though the decreeing act depend not on any thing done by the creature, yet has not God in the decree fixed an inseparable dependence of the end upon the means, in the execution of the decrees? A. Yes j he at once
so fixeth.the end, and the means ofobtaining.it, that if men neglect the means, they must come short of the end, Acts xxvii. 24, 31. Mark xvi. 16. John iii. 36.
Q. Ought we then to be as diligent in using the means of happiness for our seul«s and bodies, as if there were no decree? A. Yes, Deut. xxix. 29. Phil. ii. 12,13.
£). What mean you by God’s decree being unchangeable? A. That nothing can fall out, either as to means or end, otherwise than as settled in the decree.
Q. How prove you that God’s decree is unchangeable?
A. Because God himself is unchangeable; and has said bis counsel shall stand, Isa. xlvi. 10. Psal. xxxiii. 9, 11.
£). Doth not this force the will of creatures, and cause them to act contrary to it? A. No; the decree is so
wisely laid as it cannot be frustrated, and yet as full scope allowed to the will of the creature, as if there were no decree, Acts xxvii. 27, 28. John vi. 37, 44, 45.
Q^ Are the most casual events, and the precise term of every man’s life, immutably decreed? A. Yes.
Q. How prove ycu that?
A. Because such events have been often foretold; and man’s days and number of his months, are determined by God, and his bounds appointed that he cannot pss, 1 Kings xxii. 34. Job xiv. 5.
Q. How then is God said to shorten men V lives?
A. Not by taking them away sooner than the appointed time, but by cutting them off sooner than the constitution of their bodies seemed to presage, Psalm lv. 23.
O. Did not God add to Hezekiah’s life after the appointed time of his death was come? A. No j he <^nly added fifteen years to his life after he was struck with a disease that threatened sudden death, Isa. xxxviii.
Q. Plow may the decrees of God as to their objects be distinguished? A.’ Into common and special.
Qj. What is God’s common decree? A. That
which equally extends to all things, Eph. i. 11.
Qj. What did God decree about creatures themselves? A. To create, uphold, and govern them. Q. What did he decree about the matter and goodness of actions?
A. To effect that matter and goodness. Q. What did he decree with regard to the sinfulness of actions? A. To permit, bound, and overrule
it to his own glory, Acts iv. 27, 28. and xiv. 16.
Q; What is predestination, or God’s great and special decree? A. It is the decree which unalterably settles
the eternal state of angels and men, and the means thereof, Rom. ix. 22, 23. 1 Tim. v. 21.
Q. If the eternal state of every man and angel be unalterably settled, why need we pray, read, hear, &x. to make sure our eternal happiness?
A. Because the right use of these means is the decreed way of receiving Christ, in whom we obtain happiness; even as eating and drinking are the necessary means of our living a natural life.
Q^ What are the two branches of predestination A. Election and reprobation, Rom. ix. 22, 23. Q^ What is the election of angels? A. God’s decree to continue and establish such particular angels in eternal holiness and happiness, 1 Tim. v. 21.
Q. What is God’s election of men? A. His chusing certain persons of mankind from among the rest, and giving them to Christ to be redeemed from wrath, 1 Thess. v. 9. Q. Who are the elect of mankind? A. Those
that were chosen by God from all eternity to everlasting life, 1 Thess. i. 4. and v. 9. 2 Thess. ii. 13.
Q. For what end were they chosen? A. For the
praise of the glory of God’s free grace, Rom. ix. 23.
Q. What reason or motive made God to cliiise any?
A. His own free love, Deut. vii. 7, 8. Eph. i. 4, — T
Q. What made him chuse some rather than others?
A. His mere good pleasure, Exod. xxxiii. 19.
£). How prove you that we were not elected upon account of our foreseen faith and holiness? A. Because *’/ is not in him that willeth, or of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy; and faith and holiness are the fruits of election ‘, and so cannot be the cause of God’s chusing us, Rom. ix. 16. 2 Thess. iL 13.
Q. Is Christ as mediator the cause of election, or electing love? A. No; the Father himself loved us.
Q. What relation then hath Christ to our election?
A. He is the head of it, in whom we are chosen, and the great mean of accomplishing that purpose, Eph. i. 4,
Q. How do you prove that men are elected?
A. The scripture speaks of some vessels of mercy, a* fore prepared to glory, ordained to eterna/lk, appointed 2lV>& chosen to salvation, Rom. ix. 23.
Q^ How prove you that particular persons are elected $
A. Because otherwise Christ as an head might have for ever been wholly without members, Rom. ix. 13, 23.
Q. How ought we to improve the decree of election?
A. By taking encouragement to believe from the sovereignty of God’s love, and studying to have our election evidenced by our effectual calling and sanctification.
Q^ What is reprobation? A. It is Gods decree
to permit unelected angels and men to fall into, and continue in sin, and to punish for the same.
Q^ Is sin the cause of reprobation?
A. Sin is the cause of damnation j but God’s sovereign “Will is the cause of reprobation, Ronuix. 11, — 23.
Q. Is not God partial, in appointing some to wrath, and others to happiness? A. No*, for though he
give the elect what they deserve not, yet he inflicts nothing upon reprobates, but what they well deserve. - Q. Doth reprobation oblige any to sin? A. No j sin is wholly the creature’s voluntary choice, Jarru i. 13.
Q. What is the end of reprobation? A, The
glory of God’s sovereignty and justice, Rom. ix, 22„
Q. How should we improve this awful decree of repro* bation? A. By flying speedily to Christ, that
we may see that we are not included in it, Isa. lv. 1, — 3> D3