[Doctrina foederum, sive systema theologica didacticae et elencticae (Amstelodami , 1691)]

Johannes Braunius (1628–1708), a venerable divine of the Dutch Reformed tradition, was born at Kaiserslautern in the year of our Lord 1628, and was trained in sacred learning at the illustrious University of Leiden, where he sat under the eminent Johannes Coccejus. Nurtured in the federal and covenantal theology of the Reformation, Braunius gave himself to the laborious study of the Hebrew tongue and the Levitical institutions of the Old Testament, wherein he discerned types and shadows of gospel mysteries. He ministered as a faithful pastor and was later appointed to the chair of theology at the University of Groningen in 1681, a post he held unto his death nearly three decades thereafter. His life was adorned not only with erudition, but with devotion, uniting the careful exposition of Scripture with reverence for the covenant mercies of God. Among his chief works stands Vestitus Sacerdotum Hebraeorum, a deep and learned commentary upon the vestments and ordinances of the Aaronic priesthood, drawn from the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth chapters of Exodus and the sixteenth of Leviticus, showing forth the typological beauty of the ceremonial law as fulfilled in Christ. Likewise, his Doctrina Foedorum offered a comprehensive system of didactic and elenctic theology, built upon the foundation of federal theology, expounding the covenant of works and grace with scholastic clarity. In all his writings, Braunius exhibited that rare balance of penetrating intellect and humble piety, ever seeking the edification of the church and the glory of the Redeemer, whose garments of righteousness he found prefigured in those of the ancient priesthood. He fell asleep in the Lord in the year 1708, full of days and full of faith.

Johannes Braunius (1628–1708), a venerable divine of the Dutch Reformed tradition, was born at Kaiserslautern in the year of our Lord 1628, and was trained in sacred learning at the illustrious University of Leiden, where he sat under the eminent Johannes Coccejus. Nurtured in the federal and covenantal theology of the Reformation, Braunius gave himself to the laborious study of the Hebrew tongue and the Levitical institutions of the Old Testament, wherein he discerned types and shadows of gospel mysteries. He ministered as a faithful pastor and was later appointed to the chair of theology at the University of Groningen in 1681, a post he held unto his death nearly three decades thereafter. His life was adorned not only with erudition, but with devotion, uniting the careful exposition of Scripture with reverence for the covenant mercies of God. Among his chief works stands Vestitus Sacerdotum Hebraeorum, a deep and learned commentary upon the vestments and ordinances of the Aaronic priesthood, drawn from the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth chapters of Exodus and the sixteenth of Leviticus, showing forth the typological beauty of the ceremonial law as fulfilled in Christ. Likewise, his Doctrina Foedorum offered a comprehensive system of didactic and elenctic theology, built upon the foundation of federal theology, expounding the covenant of works and grace with scholastic clarity. In all his writings, Braunius exhibited that rare balance of penetrating intellect and humble piety, ever seeking the edification of the church and the glory of the Redeemer, whose garments of righteousness he found prefigured in those of the ancient priesthood. He fell asleep in the Lord in the year 1708, full of days and full of faith.

Table of Contents:

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Chapter IX: On the Internal Works of God

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I. Introduction: From God’s Essence to His Works

Having treated of God theologically and hypostatically, we must now speak of His works. As the actions of men are said to be some immanent, others transient, so also the works of God are some internal, others external. The internal works are His counsels and decrees. The external works, in turn, are some works of nature, such as creation and preservation; others are works of redemption, concerning which the whole doctrine of the covenant of grace treateth.

II. The Decree of God in Scripture

The decree of God is called in Holy Scripture athorismos (determination), Romans 8:29-30, Ephesians 1:5; prognosis (foreknowledge), 1 Peter 1:2, Romans 11:2; prothesis (purpose), Romans 8:29, Ephesians 1:11, 2 Timothy 1:9; eudokia (good pleasure), Ephesians 1:5, Matthew 11:26. Although in man counsels are distinguished from decrees, inasmuch as counsels are wont to precede decrees, and wise men are accustomed first to deliberate what is to be done, and at length, having accurately weighed the matter, proceeding from the more known to the less known, they decree; nevertheless, since such deliberation and inquiry implieth imperfection and noteth a preceding ignorance, properly speaking, counsels in God do not precede His decrees. Nor are His decrees distinguished from His counsels, since He hath the ideas of all things present at once and together, knoweth all things with a single intuition, and with one act of will decreeth all things by reason of His supreme perfection.

III. What Is Required in Human Decrees

In every decree of men, these three things are required:

  1. The idea or concept of the thing in the mind.
  2. The will approving or disapproving.
  3. The end or purpose proposed.

These necessarily imply some dependency and imperfection in us, since we cannot have the idea of a thing unless the thing first existeth outside our mind; wherefore our intellect suffereth from the thing that presenteth itself externally, and so also our will. Properly speaking, therefore, these three cannot be attributed unto God. Yet, according to our manner of conceiving, it may be said that the idea or concept of God is His supreme wisdom; the will approving or disapproving, and the end, is the very will of God.

IV. No Idea in God, Strictly Speaking

Strictly speaking, therefore, there is no idea in God, unless His will be called an idea. And thus there will be but one idea, as there is but one will of God. But since the will of God is His very essence, as we have shown where we treated of the will of God, it followeth that His counsels and decrees ought not to be distinguished from His essence, except according to our ways of conceiving. Whence it followeth that, strictly speaking, the decrees of God are not to be reckoned among His works:

  1. For thus we should conceive in God various modes of thinking distinct from His essence, as in men, in whom decrees are truly distinguished from their essence, since they operate not by their essence; wherefore men are also said to be composed of act and potency, as the metaphysicians speak. But since such composition falleth not in God, because in Him nothing is brought from potency into act, nor doth any mode, much less a mode of thinking, have place in Him, it followeth that God operateth by His will alone, and therefore by His essence; for God is the purest act.
  2. Therefore, since God decreeth by His absolute will, and since His will differeth not from His essence, it followeth that His decrees are not works distinct from His essence. Hence also it floweth that the decrees are not in God by way of accident or inherence, which are changed from hour to hour, as the Socinians, Vorstius, and Arminians madly assert, but in some most perfect manner, attributively and denominatively, like the attributes of God, which differ not really from His essence itself. Thus, the decrees in God imply nothing but an extrinsic denomination, which bringeth no change in His nature itself.

V. How We Conceive God’s Decrees

Although the decrees of God differ not really from His will, and therefore from His essence, nevertheless, since we can scarcely conceive them otherwise than after a human manner, we are wont to contemplate in God:

  1. The act of will, by way of a vital act, to wit, intellection and volition, which, though they be the very essence of God (since God knoweth and willeth all things by His essence), yet we consider the intellect and will as still indifferent toward creatures.
  2. The tendency and relation outward toward creatures, which, with respect to God, is nothing else than a new extrinsic denomination, which implieth nothing in reality, and therefore denoteth no new perfection or change in God.
  3. The thing itself decreed, as the object of God’s decree.

In the former manner, the decree of God considered is necessary, since the intellect and will are essential, nay, the very essence itself. In the second manner, it is free, since God could, with the same will and the same decree, not decree the thing, or decree it otherwise.

VI. God’s Decrees Have No Cause