Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org
Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org
cunning, strength, or malice can prevail against his wisdom, power, and goodness? None. Therefore we are safe who love God, and not only shall sustain no essential damage by the persecutions of ungodly men, but even these things work together for our good. The person whom Christ terms "happy" is one who is not under the influence of fate or chance, but is governed by an all-wise providence, having every step directed to the attainment of immortal glory, being transformed by the power into the likeness of the ever blessed God. The belief of an all-wise, all-directing providence, is a powerful support under the most grievous accidents of life. Let man, who is made for God and eternity, learn from a flower of the field how low the care of Providence stoops. It is the property of a wise and tender father to provide necessaries, and not superfluities, for his children. Not to expect the former is an offence to his goodness; to expect the latter is injurious to his wisdom. The passage from distrust to apostasy is very short and easy; and a man is not far from murmuring against providence who is dissatisfied with its conduct. We should depend as fully upon God for preservation of his gifts as for the gifts themselves. To rely so much upon Providence as not to use the very powers and faculties with which the divine Being has endowed us, is to tempt God. That God has promised to protect and support his servants admits of no dispute; but, as the path of duty is the way of safety, they are entitled to no good when they walk out of it.
CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. Adam Clarke XXX.—APOSTACY. THERE has been much spoken against the doctrine of what is called free will by persons who seem not to have understood the term. Will is a free principle. Free will is as absurd as bound will: it is not will if it be not free; and if it be bound, it is no will. Volition is essential to the being of the soul, and to all rational and intellectual beings. This is the most essential discrimination between matter and spirit. Matter can have no choice, spirit has. Ratiocination is essential to intellect; and from these volition is inseparable. God uniformly treats man as a free agent; and on this principle the whole of divine revelation is constructed, as is also the doctrine of future rewards and punishments. If a man be forced to believe, he believes not at all: it is the forcing power that believes, not the machine forced. If he be forced to obey, it is the forcing power that obeys; and he, as a machine, shows only the effect of this irresistible force. If a man be incapable of willing good and willing evil, he is incapable of being saved as a rational being; and if he acts only under an overwhelming compulsion, he is as incapable of being damned. In short, this doctrine reduces him either to a punctum stans, which by the vis inertiae is incapable of being moved, but as acted upon by foreign influence; or, as an intellectual being, to nonentity. The power to will and the power to act must necessarily come from God, who is the Author both of the soul and the body, and of all their powers and energies; but the act of volition and the act of working come from the man. God gives power to will: man wills through that power; God gives power to act, and man acts through that power. Without the power to will man can will nothing; without the power to work, man can do nothing. God neither wills for man, nor works in man's stead, but he furnishes him with power to do both; he is, therefore, accountable to God for these powers.
- Page 331 and 332: to use a familiar expression, there
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cunning, strength, or malice can prevail against his wisdom, power, and<br />
goodness? None. Therefore we are safe who love God, and not only shall<br />
sustain no essential damage by the persecutions of ungodly men, but even<br />
these things work together for our good.<br />
The person whom Christ terms "happy" is one who is not under the<br />
influence of fate or chance, but is governed by an all-wise providence,<br />
having every step directed to the attainment of immortal glory, being<br />
transformed by the power into the likeness of the ever blessed God.<br />
The belief of an all-wise, all-directing providence, is a powerful<br />
support under the most grievous accidents of life.<br />
Let man, who is made for God and eternity, learn from a flower of the<br />
field how low the care of Providence stoops.<br />
It is the property of a wise and tender father to provide necessaries, and<br />
not superfluities, for his children. Not to expect the former is an offence<br />
to his goodness; to expect the latter is injurious to his wisdom.<br />
The passage from distrust to apostasy is very short and easy; and a man<br />
is not far from murmuring against providence who is dissatisfied with its<br />
conduct. We should depend as fully upon God for preservation of his<br />
gifts as for the gifts themselves.<br />
To rely so much upon Providence as not to use the very powers and<br />
faculties with which the divine Being has endowed us, is to tempt God.<br />
That God has promised to protect and support his servants admits of<br />
no dispute; but, as the path of duty is the way of safety, they are entitled<br />
to no good when they walk out of it.
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