Logical order of God's decrees: Difference between revisions

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It may seem that Twisse was performing double-talk at this point as a supralapsarian, but Twisse himself maintained that “not one of our divines, that I know, doth maintaine that God did ever purpose to inflict damnation, but for sin."<ref>{{harvnb|Twisse|1653|loc=i. 14}}</ref> What needs to be made clear at this point is that Twisse did not separate the object decreed from how it is that it comes to pass (modus res) and, that the one divine decree had several elements each with its own integrity. The decree is unconditional and will be fulfilled accordingly, but fulfillment does not carry the same means in each object within the one decree: differing objects within the decree have differing modes of agency and thus differing modes of fulfillment.
 
Election and reprobation are within the decree intended for the final end, but the means through which this final end is brought about is not immediately present within the eternal decree itself. This is manifested within history. Reprobation is thus not an ordination to damnation nakedly considered. It is a decree to deny saving grace within time. In such a state, an individual sinner would receive punishment for their sins. The decree does not necessitate them to sin (as choices the creature makes are contingent and belong to them) nor does it directly prevent them from saving faith and repentance. Reprobation is not an act of divine justice, but a decree that divine justice will be given to some createable and fallible persons who in time will be fallen. Election for Twisse, unlike that of the infralapsarians, is itself not an act of grace, but an election for some createable and fallible persons to receive grace leading to saving faith and repentance while fallen in time. Equally then, election thus was not an act of mercy, as it is with infralapsarians, but a determination that some will receive mercy in time. Election, reprobation, the Fall, mercy, and justice are coordinate elements within the one divine decree. Election and reprobation do not occasion the Fall, nor does the Fall occasion election and reprobation, but they are coordinate elements logically ordered for purpose of manifesting divine glory.{{efn|Twisse, concerning both how supralapsarians have been understood historically and just how consistent Twisse was in relating the decree to the object decreed, was a supralapsarian and a [[hypothetical universalist]].
 
{{blockquote|For he hath not wished, but ordained, and made it a positive law, that whosoever believeth shall be saved, and herehence it followeth that if all and every one, from the beginning of the World to the end, shall believe in Christ, all and every one of them shall be saved.<ref>{{harvnb|Twisse|1653|loc=i. 184}}</ref>}}}}
Note that Twisse, concerning both how supralapsarians have been understood historically and just how consistent Twisse was in relating the decree to the object decreed, was a supralapsarian and a hypothetical universalist.
 
{{blockquote|For he hath not wished, but ordained, and made it a positive law, that whosoever believeth shall be saved, and herehence it followeth that if all and every one, from the beginning of the World to the end, shall believe in Christ, all and every one of them shall be saved.<ref>{{harvnb|Twisse|1653|loc=i. 184}}</ref>}}
 
== Notes ==