[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.
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From the highest perfection of God, His spirituality, and His life, it necessarily followeth that He also hath intellect, or knowledge, and will. And since He is most blessed, it is evident that He hath knowledge and will; for without knowledge or will, no blessedness can be conceived, so that not only impiously but also absurdly doth Spinoza assert that neither intellect nor will pertaineth to the nature of God. With the same absurdity, Pliny and others will that the world itself be God: for since this machine lacketh intellect and will, it also lacketh joy, and where there is no joy, what blessedness, what perfection? The knowledge of God is proclaimed by these places: Psalm 139:2, “Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off”; Psalm 7:9, “He searcheth the hearts and reins”. Therefore, He is called אֵל דֵּעוֹת (God of knowledges), 1 Samuel 2:3; Hebrews 4:13, “All things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him”; and He knoweth our hearts, 1 John 3:20; Revelation 2:23.
But knowledge and will are not in God by way of habit or faculty: for not even in man himself is knowledge distinguished really from will, nor from the mind itself; but only as a diverse mode of thinking ought it to be conceived. Therefore, in God, they are by way of a most simple act: because in God there is only one most simple idea, by which He perfectly contemplateth and knoweth His own perfections and all things present and future, necessary, contingent, and possible, with one glance, at once and simultaneously, through His essence. Hence it is clear that the knowledge of God is noetic only, not dianoetic or discursive; and thus God knoweth all things through His essence, since His knowledge is nothing other than His most simple essence, with some connotation to knowable things. Therefore, He knoweth not as man, who by much and laborious reasoning deduceth from the more known that which is less known: but He knoweth all things with one glance and act, which ever were, are, and shall be forever.
Therefore, God knoweth whatsoever can be known. And first, He knoweth Himself; for no creatures can limit the knowledge of God. Therefore, He knoweth His essence, His decrees, and all the actions which He worketh according to His decree. For all His works are known unto Him from eternity, Acts 15:18. He knoweth angels, the human mind, and all the thoughts of men. For He searcheth the hearts and reins, Psalm 7:9. He knoweth the mind of the sons of men, 1 Kings 8:39. Our tears and wanderings, Psalm 56:8. The least things, dust, trifles, and the hairs of the head, sparrows, grass, and lilies of the field, Matthew 6:26; 10:29. Universals and beings of reason, particular things, good and evil. He knoweth the wickedness of man on earth, Genesis 6:5; Jeremiah 16:17. Our iniquity is not hid from His face. And although He knoweth not universals, feigned things, and beings of reason with the same act of knowing as men, yet He knoweth them by knowing the thoughts of men and whatsoever falleth under their thoughts. So also, though sins be not things, yet He knoweth sins, since they are aberrations from His will, which will He most certainly knoweth, and thus sins, which are opposed unto it. He knew the wickedness of man, Genesis 6:5. Nor is their iniquity hid from my face, Jeremiah 16:17. Hence also He knoweth possibles and futures by knowing His power; and thus He knoweth those which neither are, nor were, nor ever shall be, but which, certain conditions being posited, could have existed. So He knoweth that the Tyrians, Sidonians, and Sodomites would have converted themselves, if the mighty works had been done which were done in Chorazin and Bethsaida, Matthew 11:22-23. That the Keilites would have delivered David if he had gone up thither, 1 Samuel 23:12. But although the knowledge of God be infinite, yet it cannot be said that He knoweth things actually infinite in number, since things infinite in number cannot actually exist, and since the works of God are determinate. But of the infinite, we who are finite ought not to dispute much: since it surpasseth our capacity.
Hence also He knoweth future contingents: for although some things are called contingent, which have no natural and necessary cause, and connection with their cause, and thus could not have existed; so that they are contingent only with respect to the acting secondary cause by which they are produced, since that cause could not have acted; nevertheless, with respect to the decree of God, nothing is contingent, but all things are necessary: because God decreed the cause and the event, to wit, that the secondary cause should exist, that that cause should operate, and that it should operate in this manner. But since all these things which are called contingent unto us are decreed by God Himself, it followeth that God also knoweth them all. So that impiously do Socinus and Vorstius deny that God certainly foreknoweth future contingents. For it followeth not, as they contend, that if God knoweth and decreed all things, then man, angel, and all secondary causes act coerced, and free will is taken away, and thus God is the author of sin. For although necessarily, from the necessity of the decree, man acteth, yet not coerced, but with the freest will he acteth, because God decreed not only that man should act, but also that he should act freely. For we never experience any coercion in our will. Therefore, although future contingents are not knowable unto men, yet they are knowable unto God, because He decreed them, and with respect to God they are not contingent.
Although in God there is only one knowledge, as also one will, nevertheless, according to our manner of conceiving, the knowledge of God is wont to be variously divided. Some is wont to be called theoretical, by which, to wit, He knoweth Himself, and in that knowledge He resteth. Other practical, by which He knoweth the things subject to His power; not only as He contemplateth things in His idea, but as He produceth them in their time, doing and promoting good, but permitting and ordering evil.
It is also divided into the knowledge of simple intelligence and the knowledge of vision. The knowledge of simple intelligence is said to be that by which God knoweth Himself and all things which are subject to His power. This is also called indeterminate, necessary, coessential, and natural. God cannot be conceived without this knowledge, since it is natural unto Him. The knowledge of vision, otherwise also called intuitive, is that by which He intuiteth all future things, or representatively past things. This is also called determinate, because God from eternity determined what He willed to be done; and free, because it dependeth on the free will of God, that a thing should exist in this manner, and that He should know them in this manner, since He could have ordered them in another manner, and thus know them.