Ii. Of The Eternal Counsell Of God Hidde In Himself, The Vvhiche Aftervvards Is Knovvn By The Effects Thereof
Of the eternal counsell of God hidde in himself, the vvhiche aftervvards is knovven by the effects thereof.
GOD, whose judgments no man can comprehend, whose ways can not be found out, and whose will (1) ought to stop all men's mouths (2), according to the determinate and unchangeable purpose of his will, by the virtue whereof all things are made (3), yea even those things which are evil and execrable (not in that they be wrought by his Divine counsel, but forasmuch as they proceed of the prince of the air, and that spirit which worketh in the children (4) of disobedience) hath determined (5) from before all beginning with himself, to create all things in their time, for his glory, and (6) namely men: whom he hath made after two sorts, clean contrary one to the other.
Whereof he maketh the one sort (which it pleased him to choose by his secret will and purpose) partakers of his glory through his mercy (7), and these we call according to the word of God, the vessels of honor, the elect, the children of promise, and predestinate to salvation (8): and the others, whom likewise it pleased him to ordain to damnation (that he might shew forth his wrath and power, to be glorified also in them) we do call the vessels of dishonor and wrath, the Reprobate & cast off from all good works (9).
This Election or Predestination to everlasting life, being considered in the will of God (that is to say) this selfsame determination, or purpose to Elect, is the first fountain and chief original of the salvation of God's children: neither is it thereon grounded, as some say, because God did foresee their faith, or good works: but only of his own good will (10,) from whence afterwards the Election, the faith, and the good works spring forth. Therefore, when the scripture will confirm the children of God in full and perfect hope, it doth not stay in alleging the testimonies of the second causes, that is to say, in the fruits of faith, nor in the second causes themselves, as faith, and calling by the Gospel, neither yet sometimes in Christ himself, in whom notwithstanding we are, as in our head Elected & adopted, but ascendeth higher, even unto that eternal purpose which God hath determined only in himself (11.) Likewise, when mention is made of the damnation of the Reprobate, although the whole fault thereof be in themselves (12): yet notwithstanding, sometimes when need requireth, the Scripture to make more manifest by this comparison the great power of God's patience, and the riches of his glory towards the
vessels of mercy (13), leadeth us unto this high secret, which by order is the first cause of their damnation, of the which secret, no other cause is known to men, but only his just will, which we must with all reverence obey, as coming from him, who is only just, and can not by any means, nor of any man, in any sort be comprehended (14). For we must put difference betwixt the purpose or ordinance of reprobation, & reprobation itself. Because God would that the secret of this his purpose should be kept close from us: & again we have the causes or Reprobation, & damnation, which dependeth thereof, expressed in God's word, that is to say, corruption, lack of faith, & iniquity, which as they be necessary, so are they also voluntary in the vessels made to dishonour
(15): like as on the other part when we describe orderly the causes of the salvation of the elect, we put difference betwixt the purpose of electing, which God hath determined in himself, and the election which is appointed in Christ in such sort, that this his purpose or ordinance, doth not only go before election in the degree of causes, but also before all other things that follow the same. (16.) The place & testimonies of the Scriptures, which are alleged in this Treatise,
& marked by numbers, it seemed good to place apart at the end of every Chapter, partly that being separate they might be better weighed and understood: and partly because they could not for the multitude thereof be contained in the margin of the book. And here we have compassed every number within these two lines ( ) to the intent they might the more easily be found out.
Notes of the second chapter.
(1) Rom. 11.33. (2) Job 9.10-12; Rom 9.20. (3) Eph. 1.9,11; Gen. 27.20; Exod. 21.13; John 22.13; Prov. 16.33; 20.24; 21.1; Isa. 14.27; 46.4,10; Jer.
10.23; Dan. 4.32; Matt. 10.29; Gal. 1.4. (4) Eph. 2.2. (5) Gen. 45.8; 50.19, 20; Exod. 4.21; 7.3; & 9.12; & 10.1, 20, 27; & 11.10; 14.4, 8, 17; Deut. 2.30;
Josh. 11.19, 20; 1 Sam. 2.25; 2 Sam. 12.11; 16.11; & 24.1; 1 Kings 12.15; 22.22, 23; 2 Kings 18.25; 2 Chron. 10.15; 11.4; 22.7; 25.20; Neh. 9.36, 37;
Job 1.12,21; 23.14; 34.30; 37.13; Psalm 105.25; Isa. 10.15; 54.16; 63.17; John 12.40; Acts 2.23; 4.28; Rom. 9.18, 19; 11.32 with Gal 3.22; 1 Thes. 3.3
(6) Prov. 16.4. (7) Isa. 43.7; Eph. 1.5,6; Rom. 9.23; (8) Rom. 8.29,30; 9.8, 21;
1 Cor. 2.7; Eph. 1.4; 2 Thes. 2.13; 1 Pet. 1.2. (9) Exod. 9.16; Prov. 16.4;
Rom. 3.5; 9.22; Isa. 54:16. (10) Deut. 4.37; 7.7,8; Josh. 24.2; Psalm 44.3; Ezek. 16.6, 60; John 15.16, 19; Acts 13:48; 22.14; Rom. 5.6; 9.11-16,18, 23;
11.7, 35; 1 Cor. 4.7; Eph. 1.4, 5, 11; 2.10; Col. 1.12; 2 Tim. 1.9. (11) Matt.
25.34; John 6.40,45; Acts 13.48; Rom. 8.29,30; 9.8,11,12,16,23; 11.7; Eph.
1.4,5, 9, 11; 2 Tim. 2.19; 1 Cor. 2.7, 10. (12) Hos. 13.9; John 3.19. (13) Rom.
9.23. (14) Exod. 9.16; Psalm 33.15; Prov. 16.4; Rom. 9.11, 12, 13, where he saith not onl that Esau was ordained to be hated before he did any evil (for in so saying he should not seem to exclude any thing but actual sin and incredulity) but saith expressly, before he was born, whereby he excludeth the original sin, & all that which might be considered in the person of Esau by his birth, from the cause of the hate. Therefore anon after, when he sheweth how the Reprobate murmur, and reply, he doth not say, that they speak in this sort: Why doth not God hate others alike, seeing they are also born in the same corruption that we be? The Apostle speaketh no such words, but he saith their reason is in this sort: who can resist his will? For hereof man's reason gathereth, that they are unjustly condemned. And yet Paul doth not answer, that God would so, because he saw that they would be corrupt, and so consequently that the cause of his decree should be grounded on their corruption (the which answer had been clear and resolute, if it had been true) but forasmuch as he saith plainly, it so pleased God, and it was not in their power to change this his good pleasure, he bridleth man's wisdom, that it might reverence and wonder at God's mysteries, as it is most just to do. And also encourageth the Elect to honor the grace of God, which is declared and made famous by such a corruption. In this sort then the other places of the Scripture which conduct and lift us up to behold the sovereign will of God, which is the only rule of justice ought to be expounded. Isa. 54.16; 1 Sam.
2.25; John 6.44,45,64,65; 10.26; 12.39,40; 1 Pet. 2.8; and in divers other places. (15) 2 Thes. 2.10-12; Rom. 11.20; 2 Cor. 4.3,4; Heb. 12.17. (16) Rom.
8.30; Eph. 1.4, 5.