- Mar 9, 2019
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"I. God the great Creator of all things does uphold,96 direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things,97 from the greatest even to the least,98 by His most wise and holy providence,99 according to His infallible foreknowledge,100 and the free and immutable counsel of His own will,101 to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.102 II. Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly;103 yet, by the same providence, He orders them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.104
III. God, in His ordinary providence, makes use of means,105 yet is free to work without,106 above,107 and against them,108 at His pleasure. IV. The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in His providence, that it extends itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men;109 and that not by a bare permission,110 but such as has joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding,111 and otherwise ordering, and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to His own holy ends;112 yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceeds only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.113 V. The most wise, righteous, and gracious God does oftentimes leave, for a season, His own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled;114 and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends.115 VI. As for those wicked and ungodly men whom God, as a righteous Judge, for former sins, does blind and harden,116 from them He not only withholds His grace whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings, and wrought upon in their hearts;117 but sometimes also withdraws the gifts which they had,118 and exposes them to such objects as their corruption makes occasion of sin;119 and, withal, gives them over to their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power of Satan,120 whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves, even under those means which God uses for the softening of others.121"
Notice: "II. Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God"
"IV. The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in His providence, that it extends itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men;109 and that not by a bare permission,110 but such as has joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding,111 and otherwise ordering, and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to His own holy ends"
The decree of God not only brought about the first sin, but, "it extends itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men;109 and that not by a bare permission,110 but such as has joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding,111 and otherwise ordering, and governing of them".
You need to read this for yourself ...
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