Page 84 - Absolute Predestination With Observations On The Divine Attributes

who is savingly taught by the Word and Spirit of God, must be pained and
disgusted, not to say shocked, when he reads such an assertion as this: Thn
peprwmenhn moiran adunaton estin apofugein kai Qew. "God Himself

cannot possibly avoid His destiny" (Herodot. 1), or that of the poet Philemon:

Douloi basilewn eisin, oi basileiV Qewn,

O QeoV anagkhV.

"Common men are servants to kings, kings are servants to the gods, and God is

a servant to necessity." So Seneca: "Eadem necessitas et Deos alligat:
irrevocabilis Divina pariter atque humana cursus vehit. Ille ipse, omnium
conditor ac rector, scripsit quidem Fata, sed sequitur. Semper paret: Semel
jussit." "The self-same necessity binds the gods themselves. All things, Divine

as well as human, are carried forward by one identical and overpowering
rapidity. The supreme Author and Governor of the universe hath indeed written

and ordained the fates, but, having once ordained them, He ever after obeys
them. He commanded them at first, for once, but His conformity to them is
perpetual." This is, without doubt, very irreverently and very incautiously
expressed. Whence it has been common with many Christian writers to tax the

Stoics with setting up a first cause superior to God Himself, and on which He is
dependant.

But I apprehend these philosophers meant, in reality, no such thing. All they
designed to inculcate was that the will of God and His decrees are
unchangeable: that there can be no alteration in the Divine intention, no new act

arise in His mind, no reversion of His eternal plan, all being founded in adorable
sovereignty, ordered by infallible wisdom, ratified by omnipotence,' and
cemented with immutability. Thus Lucan:

Finxit in æternum causas; qua cuncta coercet,
Se quoque lege tenens.

And this, not through any imbecility in God or as if He was subject to fate, of

which (on the contrary) Himself was the Ordainer, but because it is His pleasure
to abide by His own decree. For, as Seneca observes, "Imminutio majestatis sit,
et confessio erroris, mutanda fecisse. Necesse est ei eadem placere, cui nisi

optima placere non possunt":"It would detract from the greatness of God, and