Foreknowledge by Joel Hayes - Library of Theology

power not to perform. As a free act, it originates, or has its real beginning, with the agent. It is not
indissolubly bound to any action, influence, or motive preceding; not even to the agent himself before he
calls it into being; for, if any bond exists, he has the power to dissolve it, that is, he has the power not to
perform the act. This is not the case with any acts of the material world, nor with any other acts of the mind.
They are acts, it may be true, but they have their origin elsewhere. They are acts in one sense of the term,
but they are indissolubly bound to their respective causes. Matter may be said to act or operate; yet, from
the very nature of matter, it is only passive in its operations, merely transmitting the power derived from its
constitution and surroundings. The sun may be said to act when it sends forth its light and heat to beautify
and fructify the earth, but these acts are not free; they are indissolubly bound up in the very nature of the
sun, or in the conditions by which it is surrounded, so that the sun, the conditions remaining the same,
cannot refuse or fail to perform them. They may be called acts of the sun, but they do not originate, or have
their beginning, therewith; that is, the sun is not their original cause. Their origin is to be found in the One
who made the sun and surrounded it with the existing conditions. In a sense, it is true, the sun is the cause
of its own light and heat, but their original cause is He who called the sun into being and communicated to
it its light-giving property. They may be called acts of the sun, but the sun is evidently purely passive in their
production, merely transmitting the power derived from its great Author. The wind may be said to act when
in its "madcap, galloping chase" it uproots trees, tears down houses, and commits devastation on every side;
but these acts, though terrible in their results, do not possess the property of freedom. On the other hand,
they are indissolubly bound up in the influences by which the wind is set in motion, and which give to it its
terrible power. Neither is the wind their original cause. They are evidently produced by the power of God,
who simply uses the wind as his instrument. They may be called acts of the wind, but they are evidently
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merely passive acts. And so it is with all the operations of the material world. They are indissolubly bound
to their respective causes, which, under the same conditions, cannot operate otherwise than as they do.
Consequently the material world is not the real origin of these operations. Their great Original is he who
made them and centered in them their wondrous powers. He it is that
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Dr. Bledsoe and others contend that such acts, being merely passive, are, strictly speaking, not
acts at all.
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"Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees."
The same things are true of all the operations of the mind except free volitions. The operations of
the intellect and sensibilities are universally felt and acknowledged to be under the dominion of necessity.
Present the object before the perceptive power, and the perception necessarily follows. The eye cannot
refuse or fail to see that which lies within its range, nor the ear to be respondent to the sounds which break
upon the tympanum. These perceptions are indissolubly bound up in the perceptive powers subjected to
their proper conditions. They do not, therefore, possess the property of freedom. So with the operations of
the sensitive part of our nature. Present nutritious food before a hungry man, and appetite necessarily
asserts itself. Let a sublime object be properly perceived by a well-balanced mind, and an emotion of
sublimity cannot fail to spring into being. And we are aware that these things have not their origin in the
intellectual and sensitive parts of our being. Except as they are the indirect effects of our own volitions, we
know, indeed, that they are due to some extraneous power as their original cause.
But acts of choice, on which holiness or sin depends, are free. They have their origin in the mind
itself. They do not owe their existence to any extraneous power, action, influence, or motive; they spring into
being only at the will of him who originates them. Neither are they indissolubly bound to the will itself before
it originates them, for at the time of their production it can refuse to produce them. My sins are peculiarly my
own. I originate them. They are not indissolubly bound up in my nature and surroundings. They cannot, like
the operations of matter, be traced back to God as their original cause. They are not merely passive acts. 22
That is, acts whose agent is passive. The act itself always lies passive in the hands of its agent.
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