“Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him: on the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him: He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him: but He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”
Job 23:8-10
“Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass.”
Ps. 37:5
“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”
Gen. 50:20
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Order of Contents
Historical Theology 3
Rutherford’s Propositions
Romanist Views 2
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Articles
Medieval
Aquinas, Thomas – A Compendium of Theology
ch. 129, ‘Movement of Man’s Will by God’
ch. 131, ‘Immediate Disposing of All Things by God’
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1500’s
Calvin, John & Theodore Beza – ‘Calvin & Beza on Providence: Translations by Knox’ trans. John Knox (1545, 1558, 1560; 2021)
These two valuable pieces on Providence by Calvin and Beza, though previously available in English, have lain in obscurity, so much so that most people likely do not know that they exist. They originally appeared, translated by John Knox from the French and Latin respectively, in the midst of Knox’s massive treatise on predestination. That treatise remains in old English, which is old enough and difficult enough that to many it is unreadable.
The Libertines, having such a high view of God’s eternal decree, held to what is known in philosophy as a form of Occasionalism, that all events that occur are directly and immediately worked by God. True secondary causation is eliminated. One main problem with this is that it makes God the Author of Sin, something that the Libertines expressly affirmed. Calvin here not only repudiates this blasphemy, but he also lays out three ways (and only three ways) in which God brings all things to pass through his providence, herein establishing true secondary causation.
Beza provides 29 propositions on providence from his work against Sebastian Castellio, touching upon similar themes as Calvin. Both Calvin and Beza’s pieces, while making some basic distinctions, expound the Lord’s providence in a way that is easy to grasp with illustrations from Scripture and human life.
Zanchi, Jerome – Of God’s Providence, Year 1576 in H. Zanchius his Confession of Christian Religion… (1599), pp. 384-6
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1900’s
Berkhof, Louis – ‘Providence’ in Systematic Theology (1949) 32 paragraphs
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Book
1600’s
Flavel, John – Divine Conduct, or the Mystery of Providence, wherein the Being & Efficacy of Providence is Asserted & Vindicated: the Methods of Providence as it Passes through the Several Stages of our Lives Opened: & the Proper Course of Improving All Providences, Directed in a Treatise upon Psalm 57:2 (London, 1678) Index This is also in Flavel’s Works, vol. 4
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Latin Article
1700’s
Hottinger, Johann J. – A Theological Exercitation on the Immediate Operation of God in the Soul of Man (Zurich, 1714) 54 pp.
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Latin Book
1600’s
Rutherford, Samuel – A Scholastic Disputation on Divine Providence… (Edinburgh, 1649) 620 pp. ToC English ToC
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Historical Theology
On the 1500’s-1600’s
ed. Ballor, Gaetano & Sytsma – Beyond Dordt & de Auxiliis: The Dynamics of Protestant & Catholic Soteriology in the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries in Studies in the History of Christian Traditions Buy (Brill, 2019) 368 pp.
de Auxillis means ‘on helps’, referring to certain gracious gifts or helps of God with respect to certain abilities of man in salvation according to the Roman Catholic tradition.
Blurb: “An exploration of post-Reformation inter-confessional theological exchange between Reformed, Dominican, Arminian, and Jesuit theologians on controversial soteriological topics. These essays bring theological works into meaningful points of contact in a European-wide struggle with the legacy of Augustine.”
“The title of the book mentions two of the most important events among Protestants and Roman Catholics in the early modern period dealing with the nature of divine grace: The Synod of Dordt [1618-19] and the Congregatio de Auxiliis [1582-1611]… to view them… as snapshots of the history of dogma which represent a larger conversation in these Western traditions… Beyond Dordt and De Auxiliis reminds us that just as the early modern theologians read outside their own tradition to understand it more fully, so contemporary Protestants and Roman Catholics will best understand our own traditions by reading earnestly outside of them.” – Michael Lynch
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On the 1600’s-1700’s
Goudriaan, Aza – Ch. 3, ‘The Providence of God, Secondary Causality, & Related Topics’ in Reformed Orthodoxy & Philosophy, 1625-1750… Pre Buy (2006)
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On the 1600’s
Sturdy, Robert C. – Freedom from Fatalism: Samuel Rutherford’s (1600-1661) Doctrine of Divine Providence Pre (V&R, 2021) This is a book version of his dissertation Ref.
For a glimpse into the work, see the popular survey given in this blog review, pt. 1, 2 et al.
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Rutherford’s 4 Propositions
Influences of the Life of Grace… (London, 1659), pt. 2, ch. 1, pp. 122-27
Proposition 1. God by order of nature first acts upon the creature and gives his stirring-up influence to it. We cannot, in genere causae physicae [in the genera of a physical cause], first breath upon God; He prevenes the sun, and the Sun rises or rises not, as the Lord pleases to act upon it; but no second causes do prevene the first or universal cause… the host of creatures in Heaven and in earth, and the sea are all dead, passive sleepy cyphers and can do nothing, if the Lord do not stir them.
2. Though the Lord’s promise and his free decree has tied Himself (in a manner) to be prevented by a moral cause, yet that moral cause, even the praying man, stirs not until God first prevent him to pray. Hence the Lord moves and wheels about the heart and will of the man, who is most free…
3. Because God only is Lord and Master of free-will and of the actings of all creatures, we are not to be idle and upon that account to act nothing, for then should not the husbandman plow, sow and labor; for God only is Lord and Master of the actings of the husband-man, and without the influences and blessing from on high, the husband-man’s labors from the beginning of the year to the end, were no better than to plant vine-trees in the bottom of the river Euphrates, or to sow barley or wheat in the ocean sea.
4. Hence to have, or not to have the influence of God, is not commanded in the Word, nor have we any physical power over the Lord’s acts of omnipotency; for we do not formally love God and keep his commandments in a way commendable (if we speak of the moral cause of obedience), because He works in us both to will and to do, but because He has commanded us to love Him and to keep his commandments, Jn. 14:15; Ps. 119:4-6.
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Romanist Views
On the 1500’s
Article
Aichele, Alexander – Pt. 1, ‘Freedom of Will & God’s Providence’ in A Companion to Louis de Molina Pre (Brill, 2014), pp. 3-54
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On the 1600’s
Article
Freddoso, Alfred J. – ‘Suarez on God’s Causal Involvement in Sinful Acts’ 86 paragraphs
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“O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil… Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few…
Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria… For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent… Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it?… or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.”
Isa. 10:5-15
“I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.”
Ps. 57:2
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Related Pages