Page 81 - Absolute Predestination With Observations On The Divine Attributes

FATE (says Apuleius), according to Plato, is that, "Per quod, inevitabiles
cogitationes Dei atque incepta complentur," whereby the purposes and designs

of God are accomplished. Hence the Platonics considered providence under a
threefold distinction: (1) The providentia prima, or that which gave birth to all

effects, and is defined, by them, to be tou prwtou qeou nohsiV the intention
or will of the supreme God. (2) The providentia secunda, or actual agency of
the secondary or inferior beings, who were supposed to pervade the heavens,
and from thence, by their influence, to regulate and dispose of all sublunary

things, and especially to prevent the extinction of any one species below. (3)
The providentia tertia, supposed to be exerted by the genii, whose office it was
to exercise a particular care over mankind: to guard our persons and direct our

actions.

But the stoical view of providence, or fate, was abundantly more simple, and

required no such nicety of distinction. These philosophers did, at once, derive
all the chain of causes and effects from their true and undoubted source, the will
of the one living and true God. Hence, with these sages, the words Deity, Fate,

and Providence were frequently reciprocated as terms synonymous. Thus
Seneca, speaking of God: "Will you call Him fate? You will call Him rightly,
for all things are suspended on Him. Himself is causa causarum, the cause of all
causes beside." The laws of the universe are from God, whence the same

philosopher elsewhere observes, "Omnia certa et in æternum dicta lege
decurrere": "all things go on according to a certain rule or decree, ordained for

ever," meaning the law of fate. So Cicero, "All things come to pass according to
the sovereignty of the eternal law," and Pindar, probably, had an eye to this
where he says, "Nomou pantwn basilea, Jnatwn te kia aqanatwn, einai."

"That the law ruleth all, whether gods or mortals." Manlius most certainly had:

Sed nihil in tota magis est mirabile mole,
Quam ratio et certis quod legibus omnia parent.

Where by ratio is evidently meant the decreeing mind of God, and by leges is
meant fate, or that series of causes and effects which is the offspring of His

decree.

Homer cannot begin his "Iliad" without asserting this grand truth, DioV

deteleieto Boulh: "The counsel or decree of Jupiter was fulfilled." The