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[Institutiones Theologicae Ex Optimis Autoribus Concinatae (ex officinâ Francisci Moyardi, 1658)]
Johannes Hoornbeek (4 November 1617, Haarlem – 23 August 1666, Leiden), was a Dutch Reformed theologian. He was a student and a follower of Gisbertus Voetius, writing with him on spiritual desertion. Like his teacher Voetieus, he was also later a professor of theology at the University of Leiden and University of Utrecht. The two universities were closely related in the 17th century, and both the teacher and his students participated in the intellectual “Utrecht Circle.” Another member of the circle was Hornbeek's student colleague Andreas Essenius. The circle was also known as De Voetiaanse Kring (The Voetian Circle), and it was one of the most influential intellectual circles of the Dutch second Reformation.
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The actions of God are some internal, others external, immanent, transient: of those it hath been spoken, whether personal or essential: these are common, of creation and governance; or special, of grace and redemption in Christ.
Junius saith: As the philosophers have observed a twofold kind of actions in men: one, which besides the action leaveth no work after it, pertaining unto the perfection of the agent: the other, which leaveth a work after it, and is rather the perfection of the thing made than of the agent: of which this they signified by the name of external work, that of internal: so also both may be contemplated in God, since Jehovah is, and pure act, who from eternity always understandeth, willeth, loveth, and is the creator and prince of all things. Concerning the first of which, since it hath been treated in the superior theses, the instituted order seemeth to require that we pass unto the contemplation of the external works of God, by which He hath exhibited Himself and His nature unto us to be known. Of the external works of God there are two first and chief kinds: each of which is distributed into various species. Of the former kind are those works which are called of the creation and conservation of the world in the nature of things: of the latter, the works of redemption and grace pertaining unto the Church.
Maccovius saith: It hath been treated of God, considered absolutely: it remaineth that we treat of God related unto creatures. And thus God considered is either Creator, or Redeemer, or Sanctifier, or Glorifier. But the names which indicate relation between God and the creature, as is the name of Creator, Lord, Savior, Redeemer, and the like, are predicated of God in time, not from eternity, yet so that nothing new accrueth unto Him, or mutation is made in Him, but only in the creatures themselves. The reason is, because creatures have a real relation unto God; but God undergoeth no real relation unto creatures, but only of reason, always remaining the same, and existing always outside the order of creatures: therefore God is referred unto no creature, but all creatures are referred unto God, and unto Him as unto their cause, He also hath His own order.
Creation is the most powerful and wisest action of God, whereby according to His free goodness, He produced all things out of nothing.
Junius saith: Creation is that whereby God immediately, heaven and earth, according to His eternal decree, wisely, freely, and powerfully, in the beginning, in a moment of time, out of nothing, by His word produced: and then out of them, and in them, all other things in the most fitting order, for His own glory, and the utility of man, He founded very good, Genesis 1:1, etc. The internal causes follow, namely, the matter and the form. There was no pre-existing matter, out of which God created this world, and that by the word of creating (which in its proper signification noteth production from not being unto being); for since God alone is eternal, without beginning, without end, and without succession, and immortal, 1 Timothy 6:16, and hath founded all things without exception, it followeth that not out of any eternal matter, much less out of the essence of God, but out of nothing as from a term, by the power of God they came forth, Psalm 33:9; Romans 4:17; Hebrews 11:3. And so, whatsoever is, that either immediately, as heaven, earth, angels, souls; or mediately, as others, by reason of the first matter, emanate out of nothing. For the matter of corporeal things (which Moses calleth tohu and bohu, others chaos, the Septuagint akataskeuaston, and Philosophy amorphon, aneideon, aschēmatistin, apoion have said it to have been) God first in time founded out of nothing, that out of it He might produce all visible things from privation into natural form: whence better in Scripture God is called poiētēs, who maketh something out of nothing, than by Plato and the Philosophers dēmiourgos, who only ordereth and constituteth another out of the unordered: Justin Martyr in his book of exhortation to the Gentiles. But that physical axiom, out of nothing nothing is made, because it is only physical, and agreeth with the constituted order of natural things, but not with the constituting, here it obtaineth not, where the discourse is of creation and the divine power (which the Philosophers were ignorant of). Now let us see concerning the form. Therefore, as there are two parts of this creation, the production of things, and their most wise disposition, both proper unto God, Job 9:8; Isaiah 40:22; 44:24. So also the form comprehendeth these two, and is considered internally and externally: internally, in the hidden power and nature of this universe; externally, in the manner, multitude, diversity, and beauty of all things founded, not so much for the fair face of heaven and of the rest sublunary, as for the most apt entaxion, philia, and koinōnia of all among themselves, freely proceeding from that one first and most perfect being out of His wisdom, goodness, and power: whence the world is called by the Latins mundus, from purity and neatness, Pliny book 2, chapter 3, as also by the Greeks kosmos, Etymologicon Magnum, Aristotle De Mundo, chapter 6, a to kosmein, ho ta panta en heautō echōn kekosmēmethra. Thus far concerning the causes. But the effect produced from these causes is the world, which is nothing else than the frame and system of things superior and inferior, out of heaven, earth, and the other things which exist in them, most beautifully ordered and distributed among themselves, by God, and for God compacted and conserved.
Trelcatius saith: The matter of creation ought to be distinguished in two ways: according as creation is other primary and immediate, other secondary and mediate. Nothing is said either privatively or negatively: negatively, of primary creation; privatively, of secondary.
Gomarus saith: For some creatures simply out of nothing (as from a term) and as the Apostle speaketh, Hebrews 11:3, out of things which do not appear: or, out of no matter, by reason of their whole essence, were founded by God, of which kind chiefly are heaven, earth, waters, Genesis 1:1-2; Psalm 24:2, and the primeval light, Genesis 1:3-4; 2 Corinthians 4:6. But others, in a certain respect, or by reason of their form only: as those which, not from the inbred and efficacious potency of matter, and by a certain succession (as happeneth in natural generation) but by the power of God’s omnipotence alone, and that in a moment, were produced. Such is reckoned the creation of herbs, trees, and of the human body, out of the earth, Genesis 1:11; 2:5,7, and of fishes out of the waters, Genesis 1:21.
Ames saith: Active creation is conceived by way of transient action, in which always an object is presupposed, about which the agent is conversant: yet it is not formally transient, but only virtually, since it presupposeth not the object, but effecteth it. Passive creation is conceived by way of change, which is properly called change. Creation respecteth the whole world, that is, whatsoever existeth outside God. Hence also all things which exist outside God are created, and are altogether created, that is, as well according to matter as according to form, Revelation 4:11—“For Thou hast created all things.” Colossians 1:16—“For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible.”
God alone is the Creator, and can create, nor is the power of creating attributed unto any other.
Junius saith: Therefore, the efficient cause is God Elohim, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Genesis 1:1,26; Psalm 102:26; 124:8; Colossians 1:16; Acts 17:24; 1 Peter 4:19, and that also the plural name joined with a singular verb, Genesis 1:1, we think denoteth, since creation is the work of the Trinity ad extra (as they call it), it pertaineth also unto the three Persons, yet with the manner and order in operating preserved, so that the Father through the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Son from the Father, through the Holy Spirit, John 1:3; Colossians 1:16, the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son created, Genesis 1:2; Job 33:4; Psalm 33:6. Creation is indeed attributed unto the Father alone in the Symbol of our faith; as also redemption unto the Son; and sanctification unto the Holy Spirit, but this is because those actions are terminated most nearly in their Persons.