HKB
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Often appears with: fate, destiny, and necessity · the nature and attributes of God · will, choice, and freedom · sin, guilt, and repentance · justice as a virtue · equity, mercy, and pardon · the problem of evil and theodicy · the problem of evil · the fear of death · remonstrants · religious persecution and toleration · punishment and rewards
Usually: detachment (6) · argument (4) · reflection (3) · crisis of belief (2) · commentary or gloss (1) · confronting death (1) · injustice endured (1) · the fall of the great (1) · censure (1) · curiosity (1)
“Yet it is better to permit their crime than to act in a way which would render God himself blameworthy, and provide the criminals with some justification for the complaint that it was not possible for them to do better.” Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Freiherr von, Theodicy · observation
“Thus it is the result of all the inclinations together that makes his will complete and decretory, as I have already explained.” Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Freiherr von, Theodicy · insight
“There is no room for merit; because it is impossible to find in man any excellence which can merit the favour of God; nay, as Augustine most truly observes, “The brightest illustration of predestination and grace is the Saviour himself, the man Christ Jesus, who has acquired this character in his human nature, without any previous merit either of works or of faith.” Jean Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Vol. 1 of 2) · insight
“Providence is the Divine reason itself, seated in the Supreme Being, which disposes all things; fate is the disposition inherent in all things which move, through which providence joins all things in their proper order.” Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy · insight
After discussing providence, the text sets out an eightfold treatment of predestination and argues that God suitably predestines men to eternal life, directing rational creatures to their end.
*On the contrary,* It is written (Rom. 8:30): "Whom He predestined, them He also called." *I answer that,* It is fitting that God should predestine men. For all things are subject to His providence, as was shown above (Q. 22, A. 2). Now it belongs to providence to direct things towards their end, as was also said (Q. 22, AA. 1, 2). The end towards which created things are directed by God is twofold; one which exceed…
He responds that punishments remain just and rewards remain gracious even if human choices are not “free”; he uses Augustine and Paul to argue God crowns his gifts, not human merits.
transition from what is voluntary to what is free; but we have before evinced, that a thing may be done voluntarily, which yet is not the subject of free choice. II. They add, that unless both virtues and vices proceed from the free choice of the will, it is not reasonable either that punishments should be inflicted, or that rewards should be conferred on man. This argument, though first advanced by Aristotle, yet I…
Calvin argues that the term “merit” for Christ does not obscure God’s grace, because Christ’s merit depends on God’s predestination and serves God’s mercy by intervening in human justification.
God And Salvation For Us. We must devote an additional Chapter to the solution of this question. For there are some men, more subtle than orthodox, who, though they confess that Christ obtained salvation for us, yet cannot bear the word *merit*, by which they suppose the grace of God is obscured. So they maintain that Christ is only the instrument or minister, not, as he is called by Peter, the Author, or Leader, an…
Shifting to predestination and grace, he contrasts natural theology with human appearances and outlines major parties’ views, stressing God’s independence and creatures’ dependence, and proposes reconciliation over God’s aims.
For a wise person in laying his plans cannot separate the end from the means; he does not contemplate any end without knowing if there are means of attaining thereto. 79. I know not whether there are also perchance persons who imagine that, God being the absolute master of all things, one can thence infer that everything outside him is indifferent to him, that he considers himself alone, without concern for others, …
Leibniz replies to Bayle’s charge that God offers grace to those destined to refuse, arguing God permits resultant crime within an overall plan to preserve justice and avoid making God blameworthy.
that God could produce in each human soul all the thoughts that he approves: but this would be to act by miracles, more than his most perfectly conceived plan admits. 115. VII. 'He offers grace to people that he knows are destined not to accept it, and so destined by this refusal to make themselves more criminal than they would be if he had not offered them that grace; he assures them that it is his ardent wish that…
He describes a satire, “Fur praedestinatus,” against the Gomarists, explains its plot and polemical targets, and then states his view that election implies holiness through God’s grace.
the children of God, and that all hope of election one can have can only be founded upon the good will infused into one's heart by the grace of God. 168. *Metaphysical considerations* also are brought up against my explanation of the moral cause of moral evil; but they will trouble me less since I have dismissed the objections derived from moral reasons, which were more impressive. These metaphysical considerations …
He rejects the idea of a despotic, reasonless decree of election and reprobation, citing Luther’s hope and Calvin’s claim that God has just but hidden causes for reprobation.
to do, and that for causes concealed from us.... It is evident therefore that he had just causes for the reprobation of some of mankind, but causes to us UNKNOWN.' 339. This truth, that all God does is reasonable and cannot be better done, strikes at the outset every man of good sense, and extorts, so to speak, his approbation. And yet the most subtle of philosophers have a fatal propensity for offending sometimes w…
Philosophy explains providence and fate: God’s providence forms an unchanging order in the Divine mind, while fate unfolds it over time through causal sequences.
principles veiled in darkness, inform me, I pray thee, of thine own conclusions in this matter, since the marvel of it is what more than aught else disturbs my mind.' A smile played one moment upon her lips as she replied: 'Thou callest me to the greatest of all subjects of inquiry, a task for which the most exhaustive treatment barely suffices. Such is its nature that, as fast as one doubt is cut away, innumerable …