A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion/Chapter 43
XLIII. The Laws of Divine Order, by which all the Divine Operations are conducted.
NOTHING is more important for man to know, than that all the divine operations towards him are under the regulation of laws, which can never be transgressed. For otherwise he might imagine, that the divine mercy being infinite, and the divine power unlimited, whatsoever the Supreme Being might will, his omnipotence can effect, without any regard to the fitness or unfitness of the subject, in and towards whom he would display them. And hence too many have concluded, that as his love wills the salvation of all his creatures, and his wisdom knows how to accomplish it, therefore his omnipotence is engaged to complete the work, if not at one period, yet at another; if not in this life, yet in some future stage of existence, when evil itself shall be abolished, and every intelligent being made completely happy.
Again, there are others, who, in like manner believing God to be omnipotent, according to the vulgar notion of omnipotence, and yet reading in the Sacred Scriptures, that some few, called the elect, will be saved, and the rest totally lost, conclude in their own minds, and even assert in their doctrine, that the one class is unconditionally predestinated to heaven, while the other class, consisting of a great majority of the human race, is consigned to eternal damnation without hope or means of redemption.
It is also a prevailing opinion, not only among the simple and illiterate, but even among the learned and wise, (if they can be called such, who know nothing of the laws of divine order,) that God, being omnipotent, created the world out of nothing by the mere utterance of a word; that he governs it also in an arbitrary manner, by a power resembling the absolute power of an earthly monarch; that, if he please, he can at any time change the respective qualities and tendencies of his creatures; that he can purge every sinner upon earth, in a moment, from his sins; that he can renew, sanctify, regenerate, and make him a child of grace instead of a child of wrath, that is, justify him merely by the application and imputation of the righteousness and merits of his Son. In short, it is almost universally believed, that the divine omnipotence is regulated by no laws whatever, but that it can accomplish any thing or everything that can be proposed, however absurd or contradictory in itself; consequently that salvation may be effected on the part of God, without any regard to the freedom and rationality of man, or the necessity of his co-operation in appropriating to himself those principles of spiritual life, which, when so received, can alone prepare him for a state of future happiness.
But the groundless surmises, above stated, vanish from the mind, when it is known, that all the divine operations towards man are conducted by laws of order, in themselves immutable, because of the same essence with him, from whom they proceed. These laws are the divine truths of the Holy Word, which together constitute that order, whereby man is to be formed anew, and from which even omnipotence itself cannot swerve. Nay, the divine omnipotence, so far from acting contrary to, or independent of, the Word, uniformly exerts itself by and according to it's laws: and it is this very circumstance, that causes it to be what it really is. The reason why the angels of heaven so far excel the spirits of hell in respect to power, is, because the former act agreeably to order, while the latter are in opposition to it: and in proportion to their love of, and agreement with order, such invariably is their power. Were they to depart from order, their power would depart from them at the same time. Just so, God, being infinite and essential order, is in consequence thereof possessed of infinite and essential power. Were he in any measure to depart from his own order, he would in the same proportion immediately lose his omnipotence. But as to depart from order would be the same thing as to depart from himself, it is evident, that the divine omnipotence can perform nothing but what is consistent with the laws of order, and that every supposition to the contrary is both irrational and absurd.
Every particular thing in nature was created according to it's proper order; and each is formed upon such a principle, as to unite with the common order of the universe. For example; man was created according to his order, and likewise every particular part of man according to it's order; as the head and body according to their orders; the heart, the lungs, the stomach, and other viscera, according to their orders; every organ of motion, every muscle, fibre, and vessel, according to it's order; and every organ of sense, as the eye, the ear, and the tongue, according to it's order; all of which are so connected and interlinked with the general order of the whole, as to constitute together only one human system. The case is similar in other instances, as in every beast of the earth, every bird of the air, every fish of the sea, every worm and creeping thing, even to the minutest insect; all of which were in like manner created according to their respective orders. It is the same with every tree, shrub, herb, and plant; and lastly with every stone and mineral, even to the smallest grain of sand, and with every drop of water in the ocean; all of which were created and still subsist according to the order originally inscribed on each.
Now in the various cases above mentioned, it is easy to see, that the perfection of the creature depends upon the preservation of it's proper order: and this would have been especially the case with man, had he continued in the order of his creation, with respect to the exercise of those faculties, which were placed under his control. Yet even as he is now circumstanced, his perfection and power depend entirely on his acting according to those principles of right order, in which he was at first created, and to which he may again in a great degree be restored, by the use of the means provided for that purpose.
Such then being the case with the natural subjects of creation, and particularly with man, whose powers both of mind and body can rise to their highest state of perfection solely by his return to, and perseverance in, the proper order of his life; how much more justly and truly may it be said of Him, who is divine order itself, that his omnipotence arises from his invariable observance of those divine laws, which his own infinite perfections have prescribed! For the divine will and the divine power are one: and since God wills nothing but what is good, it follows, that he can do nothing but what is good also, and this in the way and manner dictated by his own infinite wisdom in the Sacred Scriptures of divine truth. He cannot condemn, cast into hell, or predestinate the soul of any person to eternal death. He cannot avenge injuries; neither can he be angry, or punish. He cannot even turn away his face from any one, or regard him with the least severity of countenance; these and the like acts being totally contrary to his essence, and consequently contrary to himself. Wheresoever, therefore, expressions of the kind are found in the Sacred Scriptures, they are to be interpreted solely in reference to the wickedness of man, who judges of the Lord according to the evil state of his own mind. And as it appears to the wicked, when they suffer the punishment due to their crimes, that it is inflicted upon them by the Lord, whom they suppose to be then angry with them, because he does not immediately remove it, therefore, in agreement with such appearance, anger, wrath, and fury, are frequently ascribed to him in the Word, when yet, as before observed, nothing can in reality be more foreign to the divine nature; since, as the Psalmist says, "Jehovah is good to all; and his tender mercies are over all his works," Ps. cxlv. 9.
On the other hand, it is equally true, that God cannot, by any mere act of mercy and omnipotence, convert evil into good, hell into heaven, a devil into an angel, or an impenitent sinner, who obstinately refuses the terms of salvation, into an heir of eternal life. These things are not within the limits of divine order, and therefore cannot be performed by any sovereign or absolute act even of omnipotence itself. The only way, as already stated, whereby the divine operations can effectually change a man, is that laid down in the Holy Word, which is, that he suffer himself to be brought into order, and reciprocally on his part endeavour to enter into conjunction with the Lord, while the Lord on his part enters into conjunction with him, agreeably to these words in the Gospel, "Abide in me, and I in you," John xv. 4.
