How The Whole Doctrine Of Predestination Is Corrupted By The Arminians
Chapter 6
HOW THE WHOLE DOCTRINE
OF PREDESTINATION IS
CORRUPTED BY THE
ARMINIANS
The cause of all these quarrels, with which the Arminians and their abettors have troubled the church of Christ, comes to our consideration next. The chief endeavor of all the patrons of human self-sufficiency has been the demolishing of this rock of our salvation: the eternal predestination of Almighty God – that fountain of all spiritual blessings – which predestines all the effects of God's love derived for us through Christ. It has been done to vindicate for themselves a power and independent ability to do good, to make themselves differ from others, and to attain everlasting happiness, without taking one step outside themselves. And this is their first attempt to attain their second proposed end – to build a tower from the top of which they may mount into heaven, but whose foundation is nothing but the sand of their own free-will and endeavors. Quite suddenly, what they tried to do in effect was to take away this divine predestination, both name and thing. It has been a notorious attempt, as noted, and would not likely attain the least success among men professing to believe the gospel of Christ. Therefore, allowing the name to remain, they have abolished the thing itself, and substituted
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another so unlike it in its place, that anyone may see they have gotten a bleary-eyed Leah instead of Rachel, and they hug a cloud instead of a Deity. The true doctrine itself has been so excellently delivered by various learned divines, and so freed from all objections, that I will only briefly and plainly lay it down, and do so with special reference to the seventeenth article of our church, where it is clearly avowed. I will show, as my chief intention, how this article is thwarted, opposed, and overthrown by the Arminians.
Predestination, in the usual sense in which it is taken, is a part of God's providence concerning his creatures, distinguished from it by a double restriction:
First. In respect to their objects; for where the decree of providence comprehends God's intentions towards all the works of his hands, predestination respects only rational creatures.
Secondly. In regard to their ends; for where God's providence directs all creatures in general to those several ends to which at length they are brought – whether they are proportional to their nature or exceeding the sphere of their natural activity – predestination is exercised only in directing rational creatures to supernatural ends. So that, in general, predestination is the counsel, decree, or purpose of Almighty God concerning the last and supernatural end of his rational creatures, to be accomplished for the praise of his glory. But this also must receive a double restriction before we come precisely to what we aim at in this place. And these restrictions again are in regard to the objects or the ends of predestination.
The object of predestination is all rational creatures. Now, these are either angels or men. I will not address angels. Secondly. The end provided by predestination for these rational creatures, is either eternal happiness or eternal misery. I speak only of the former – the act of God's predestination transmitting men to everlasting happiness. And in this restrained sense, it does not differ at all from election, and we may use them synonymously as terms of the same importance. Though, when some affirm that God predestines to faith those whom he has
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chosen, these terms seem to be distinguished as to the decrees of the end, which is election, and the means that are conducive to it, which is predestination. But this exact distinction does not appear directly in the Scripture.
The word of God proposes election as the gracious, immutable decree of Almighty God, whereby, before the foundation of the world, out of his own good pleasure, he chose certain men, determining to free them from sin and misery, to bestow upon them grace and faith, to give them to Christ, to bring them to everlasting blessedness, for the praise of his glorious grace; or, as it is expressed in our church articles,
"Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby, before the foundations of the world were laid, he has constantly decreed by his counsel, secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he has chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made for honor; wherefore, those who are endued with so excellent a benefit from God, are called according to God's purpose," etc.
Now, to avoid prolixity,151 I will annex only such annotations as may clarify the sense and confirm the truth of the article by the Scriptures. And I will show briefly how it is overthrown by the Arminians in every particular of it:
First. The article, agreeable to the Scripture, affirms that it is an eternal decree, made before the foundations of the world were laid; so that by this decree we must be chosen before we were born, before we have done either good or evil. The words of the article are clear, and so also is the Scripture: "He has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world," Eph 1:4; "The children not yet being born, neither having done any good or evil," etc., Rom 9:11-12; "We are called with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began," 2 Tim 1:9. Now, from this it would undoubtedly follow that no good thing in us can be the cause of our election, for every cause must precede its effect; but all things of which we are partakers by any
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means, inasmuch as they are ours, they are temporary; and so they cannot be the cause of what is eternal. Things with that qualification must have reference to the sole will and good pleasure of God; this reference would break the neck of Arminian election. This is why, to prevent such a fatal ruin, they deny the principle that election is eternal.152 So the Remonstrants say in their Apology, "Complete election refers only to one who is dying; for this peremptory election decrees the whole accomplishment and consummation of salvation; therefore it requires the finished course of faith and obedience in the object," says Grevinchovius.153 This makes God's election nothing but an act of his justice, approving our obedience. Such an act is incidental to any weak man, who does not know what will happen in the next hour that is yet to come. Is this post-destination what is proposed in the Scripture as the unsearchable fountain of all God's love towards us in Christ? "Yes," they say, "we acknowledge no other predestination to be revealed in the gospel besides that by which God decrees to save those who persevere in faith."154 That is, God's determination concerning their salvation is pending, until he finds by experience that they will persevere in obedience. But seeing that election is confessedly one of the great expressions of God's infinite goodness, love, and mercy towards us, I wonder why we do not have it if it follows our obedience, like all other blessings and mercies that are promised to us.
Is it not because such propositions as these, "Believe, Peter, and continue in the faith to the end, and I will choose you before the foundation of the world," are more fit for the writings of the Arminians than for the word of God? Nor will we be their rivals in such an election, because no fruit, no effect, and no consolation can be derived from this for any mortal man while he lives in this world.155
Secondly. The article affirms that it is constant decree – that is, one immutable decree; this also is agreeable to the Scriptures, teaching only one purpose, only one foreknowledge, one good pleasure, one decree of God, concerning the infallible ordination of his elect to glory.
Although it may be said there are two acts of this decree – one
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concerning the means, the other concerning the end; but both knit up in the "immutability of God's counsel," Heb 6:17. "The foundation of God stands sure, having this seal: The Lord knows those who are his,"
2 Tim 2:19; "His gifts and calling are irrevocable;" Rom 11:29. Now, what do our Arminians say to this? Why, they have invented a whole multitude of notions and terms to obscure the doctrine. "Election," they say, "is either legal or evangelical, general or particular, complete or incomplete, revocable or irrevocable, peremptory or not peremptory," 156 along with I do not know how many more distinctions of this single eternal act of Almighty God. There is neither sign nor token of it in the whole Bible, nor by any approved author. Yet they accommodate their doctrine to these quavering divisions; or rather they purposely invented them to make their errors unintelligible. In accord with this, they dictate: "There is a complete election, belonging to none but those who are dying; and there is another election, incomplete, which is common to all who believe. Just as the good things of salvation are incomplete and continue only while faith is continued – but are revoked when that is denied – so election is incomplete in this life; and it is revocable." 157 Again: "There are," they say in their Confession, "three orders of believers and repenters in the Scripture, of which some are beginners, others continue for a time, and some persevere [to the end]. The first two orders are chosen vere, truly, but not prorsus absolute, absolutely; it is only for a time – so long as they will remain as they are. The third order are chosen finally and peremptorily. For this act of God's election is either continued or interrupted, according to whether we fulfill the condition."158 But where did the Arminians learn this doctrine from? Not one word of it is from the word of truth. There is no mention of any such desultory159 election, no speech about faith but one that it is consequent to one, eternal, irrevocable, decree of predestination: They
"believed" who were "ordained to eternal life," Acts 13:48. There is no distinction between half and wholly elected men where Scripture affirms that it is impossible for the elect to be seduced, Mat 24:24 –
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and that none can snatch Christ's sheep out of his Father's hand, John 10:28-29. Would they have more examples? God's purpose of election is sealed up, 2 Tim 2:19, and therefore it cannot be revoked; it must stand firm, Rom 9:11, in spite of all opposition. Nor will reason allow us to think that any immanent act of God is incomplete or revocable, because of the bounded alliance that it has with God's very nature. But reason, Scripture, God himself, must all give way to any absurdities that may stand in the Arminians' way. They bring in their idol with shouts, and they prepare his throne by claiming that the cause of their predestination is in themselves.
Thirdly. The article is clear that the object of this predestination is some particular men chosen out of mankind; that is, it is an act of God that concerns some men in particular. It is taking them aside, as it were, from the midst of their brothers, and designing them for some special end and purpose. The Scripture also abounds in asserting this truth, calling those who are so chosen a "few," Mat 20:16 – which must denote some certain persons; and the "remnant according to election,"
Rom 11:5; those whom "the Lord knows to be his," 2 Tim 2:19; men "ordained to eternal life," Acts 13:48; "us," Rom 8:39; those whose names are "written in the Lamb's book of life," Rev 21:27. All of these verses and various others, clearly prove that the number of the elect is certain – not only materially, as the Arminians say, that there are only so many [unspecified persons], but formally also: they are these particular persons and no others, which cannot be altered.160 The very nature of the thing itself so demonstrably evinces it, that I wonder that it could possibly be conceived of under any other notion. To apprehend an election of men that is not circumscribed to particular persons, is such a conceited, Platonical abstraction, that it seems strange for anyone to dare profess to understand that there can be predestination, and yet none are predestined; an election, and yet none are elected; a choice among many, and yet none are left or taken; a decree to save men, and yet salvation by that decree is destined for no one man – either in deed or in expectation.161 In a word, asserting that
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there can be a purpose of God to bring men to glory, which stands inviolable, even though no one ever attained the purposed end, is such a riddle that no Oedipus can unfold it.162
Now, the Arminians have substituted such an election, and such a predestination, in place of God's everlasting decree. "We deny," they say, "that God's election extends itself to any singular persons as singular persons;"163 that is, that any particular persons, such as Peter,
Paul, and John, are elected by it. No? How then? Corvinus says, "God has appointed to dispense the means of faith indiscriminately;164 and when he sees these persons believing or not believing by the use of those means of faith, then at length he determines about them."165
Well, then, God chooses no particular man to salvation, but only a man he sees believing by his own power, using the same means afforded to others who never believe. And just as such a man makes himself differ from others by a good use of his own abilities, so that man may also be reduced again to the same predicament as the others – and then his election, which does not respect him in his person, but only in his qualification, quite vanishes. But is this God's decree of election? "Yes," they say, and they dolefully complain that any other doctrine should ever be taught in the church.166 "It is imposed upon the church," say the true-born sons of Arminius, "as a most holy doctrine, that God, by an absolute, immutable decree, from all eternity, out of his own good pleasure, has chosen certain persons, and those but few in comparison, without any respect to their faith and obedience, and has predestined them to everlasting life." But what great exception is this doctrine liable to, what wickedness does it include, that it should not be accounted most holy? Not only the matter, but the very terms of it are contained in the Scripture. Does it not say that the elect are few, (Mat 22:14) and that they were chosen before the foundation of the world, (Eph 1:4) without any respect to their obedience or anything they had done? (Rom 9:11) Was this not done out of God's mere gracious good pleasure, (Eph 1:9-10) so that his free purpose according to election might stand (Rom 9:11) – and
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because it pleased him? (Gal 1:15) And was this not done so that they might be holy, believe, and be sanctified, so that they might come to Christ, and be preserved by him to everlasting life? This is indeed what galls them. "No such will can be ascribed to God, whereby he wills anyone to be saved such that, from this, their salvation should be sure and infallible," says the father of those children.167
Well, then, let St. Austin's definition be quite rejected, "Predestination is a preparation of such benefits whereby some are most certainly freed and delivered from sin and brought to glory."168
And also that definition of St. Paul, "That (by reason of this) nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ." What is this election in your judgment? "Nothing but a decree whereby God has appointed to save those who believe in Christ," says Corvinus, whoever they may be;169 or a general purpose of God, whereby God has ordained faith in Christ to be the means of salvation. Indeed – but this belongs to Judas as well as to Peter. Such a decree, then, equally to those who are damned and to those who are saved. Salvation, under the condition of faith in Christ, was also proposed to them; but was
Judas and all his company elected? How did they come, then, to be seduced and perish? That any of God's elect should go to hell, is still a strange assertion in Christianity. To say that notwithstanding this decree, none may believe, or all who do believe may fall away (and so none at all are saved), is a strange kind of predestination; or to say that all may believe, continue in faith, and be saved, is an even stranger kind of election.170
We poor souls thought up to now that we might have believed (according to Scripture), that by this purpose some were in a special way made the Father's ("Yours they were"), (Joh 17:6) and given by him to Christ, that he might bring them to glory; and that these men were so certain and unchangeable a number, that not only does God
"know them" as being "his," but also that Christ "calls them by name,"
John 10:3, and sees that none takes them out of his hand. (Joh 10:28) We never before imagined that Christ has been the mediator of an
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uncertain covenant, there being no certain persons covenanted with, but only those who may or may not fulfill the condition. We always thought that some had been separated beforehand by God's purpose from the rest of the perishing world, so that Christ might lay down his life for his "friends," (Joh 15:15) for his "sheep," (Joh 10:27) for those
"given to him" by his Father. (Joh 17:6) But now it seems that he was ordained to be a king when it was completely uncertain whether he would ever have any subjects, to be a head without a body, to a church whose collection and continuance depended wholly and solely on the will of men.
These are doctrines that I believe searchers of the Scripture would scarely be acquainted with, if they had not lighted on those expositors who teach that, "The only reason why God loves" (or chooses) "any person, is because the honesty, faith, and piety with which that person is endued, according to God's command and his own duty, are acceptable to God."171 Though we grant that this is true of God's consequent or approving love, yet surely there is a divine love with which he looks upon us differently when he gives us to Christ.
Otherwise, either giving us to Christ is not done out of love, or else we are pious, just, and faithful before we come to Christ – that is, we have no need of him at all. Against either of these, though we may try to blot these testimonies out of our hearts, yet they will still stand as recorded in holy Scripture – namely, that God so loved us when we were his "enemies," Rom 5:10, "sinners," verse 8, without "strength," verse 6; that "he gave his only-begotten Son" to die, "that we should not perish, but have everlasting life," John 3:16. But enough of this.
Fourthly. Another thing that the article asserts according to the Scripture, is that there is no other cause of our election but God's own counsel. It recounts no motives in us, nothing impelling the will of God to choose some out of mankind and rejecting others, except his own decree – that is, his absolute will and good pleasure. So there is no cause in anything outside himself why God would create the world, or elect anyone at all. For he does all these things for himself, to the praise
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of his own glory. Thus there is nothing in singular elected persons causing God to choose them rather than others. He looked upon all mankind as being in the same condition, vested with the same qualifications, or rather without any qualifications at all. For it is the children not yet born that are chosen or rejected, before they do either good or evil; his free grace embraces the one and passes over the other.
Yet here we must observe that, although God freely, without any deserving of theirs, chooses some men to partake both of the end
(salvation) and the means (faith), yet he bestows faith, or the means, on no one but for the merit of Christ. Nor do any attain the end
(salvation) except by their own faith, through Christ's righteousness.
The free grace of God notwithstanding, choosing Jacob while Esau is rejected, means the only antecedent cause of any difference between the elect and reprobates remains firm and unshaken. Surely, unless men were resolved to trust wholly in their own merit, and to take nothing gratis 172 from the hands of God, they would not endeavor to rob God of his glory, of having mercy on whom he will have mercy, of loving us without deserving it, before the world began. If we must claim an interest in obtaining the temporal acts of God's favor by our own endeavors, then let us grant God the glory of being good to us only for his own sake – for we were in his hand as the clay is in the hand of the potter. What made this piece of clay fit for pleasing service, and not a vessel in which there is no pleasure, except the power and will of the Framer? It is enough, indeed too much, for those who are vessels fitted for wrath, to complain and say, "Why have you made us this way?" Do not let those who are prepared for honor, exalt themselves against God, and sacrifice to their own nets as the sole providers of their glory.173 But so it is: human vileness still displays itself by claiming to have a worth that is not due it. If the Arminians are not guilty of furthering this claim, let the following declaration of their opinions determine it:
"We confess roundly," they say, "that faith, in the consideration of God choosing us for salvation, precedes and does not follow as a fruit
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of election."174 So that whereas Christians have up to now believed that God bestows faith on those who are chosen, it seems that it is no such thing, but God chooses afterward those whom he finds that believe, on the stock of their own abilities. Nor is faith, in the judgment of the Arminians, only required as a necessary condition in the one that is to be chosen, but as a cause that moves the will of God to elect the one that has it. "Just as the will of the judge is moved to bestow a reward on the one who deserves it according to the law,"as Grevinchovius says.175 Corvinus strives to temper these words, but all in vain, though he twists them contrary to the intention of the author; for all his fellows agree with him. "The one and only absolute cause of election is not the will of God, but the regard of our obedience," says
Episcopius.176 At first they required nothing but faith, and that faith was a condition, not a cause; then they required perseverance in faith, which at length they began to call obedience, comprehending in it our entire duty to the precepts of Christ. For the cause of this love toward any person, they say, is the righteousness, faith, and piety with which he is endued.177 These being all the good works of a Christian, in effect they affirm that a man is chosen for them – that our good works are the cause of our election; I somewhat doubt whether this was ever so grossly taught, either by Pelagians or the Papists.
Observe that this does not thwart my former assertion that they deny the election of any particular persons – which here they seem to grant upon a foresight of a particular person's faith and good works.
For there is not one person, as a person, notwithstanding all this, that in their judgment is elected in this life, unless he has the qualifications of faith and good works, of which he may divest himself at any time, and so again become no more elected than Judas.
The sum of their doctrine in this particular is laid down by one of ours in a tract entitled "God's Love to Mankind,"178 etc. It is a book full of palpable ignorance, gross sophistry, and abominable blasphemy.
Its author seems to have proposed nothing himself, but rakes all the dunghills of a few of the most invective Arminians, and collects the
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most filthy scum and pollution of their railings to cast upon the truth of God. And under I know not what self-coined pretences, he belches out odious blasphemies against God's holy name.
The sum, he says, of all these speeches (which he cited to his purpose) is that, "There is no decree of saving men except what is built on God's foreknowledge of the good actions of men."179 No decree?
No, not even that by which God determines to give some to Christ, to ingraft them in him by faith, and bring them to glory by him. This illumines that place of Arminius where he affirms that, "God loves none specifically to eternal life unless they are considered just, either with legal or evangelical 180 righteousness."181 Now, to love one to eternal life is to destine one to obtain eternal life by Christ; and so it is coincident with the former assertion that our election, or choosing to grace and glory, is based on the foresight of our good works. This contains a doctrine so contradictory to the words and meaning of the apostle in Rom 9:11,182 that it was condemned in so many councils, suppressed by so many edicts and decrees of emperors and governors, and opposed as a pestilent heresy, ever since it was first hatched by so many orthodox fathers and learned schoolmen. It is so directly contrary to the doctrine of this church, so injurious to the grace and supreme power of Almighty God, that I wonder greatly that anyone, in this light of the gospel and flourishing time of learning, should be so boldly ignorant or impudent so as to broach it among Christians. To prove this is a heresy, rejected by all orthodox and catholic antiquity, would be to light a candle in the sun; for it must surely be known to all and every one who ever heard or read anything of the state of Christ's church after the rising of the Pelagian tumults.183
To accumulate testimonies of the ancients is quite beside my purpose. I will only add the confession of Bellarmine, a man otherwise not overly affected to truth. "Predestination," he says, "from the foresight of works, cannot be maintained unless we suppose there is something in the righteous man which would make him differ from the wicked man, something that he does not receive from God; which
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truly all the fathers reject with unanimous consent." 184 But we have a more sure testimony to which we will take heed: the holy Scripture, pleading strongly for God's free and undeserved grace.
First, our Savior Christ, Mat 11:26, declaring how God reveals the gospel to some, but it is hidden from others (it is a special fruit of election). This rests in God's will and good pleasure as the only cause of it: "Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in your sight." So, comforting his "little flock," Luke 12:32, he bids them not to fear, "for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom;" That is,
"His good pleasure is the only reason why his kingdom is prepared for you rather than others." But is there no other reason for this discrimination? No; he does it all "so that his purpose according to election might stand" firm, Rom 9:11; for we are "predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own will," Eph 1:11. But did this counsel of God not direct him to choose us rather than others because we had something to commend us more than they? No; "The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; but because the LORD loved you," Deut 7:7-8. "He has mercy on whom he will have mercy;" indeed, "the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calls.
It was said to her, 'The elder shall serve the younger: as it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated,'" Rom 9:11-13. In brief, wherever there is any mention of election or predestination, it is accompanied with the purpose, love, or will of God; his foreknowledge, whereby he knows those who are his; and with his free power and supreme dominion over all things. There is not one syllable, no mention of our faith, obedience, or anything importing so much, unless it is the fruit and effect of election. It is the sole act of God's free grace and good pleasure that "he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy," Rom 9:23. For this end only, has he
"saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works,
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but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began," 2 Tim 1:9. Even our calling is free and undeserved, because it flows from that most free grace of election, which we were partakers of before we existed. It would be needless to heap up more testimonies in a thing so clear and evident.
When God and man stand in competition as to who will be accounted the cause of an eternal good, we may be sure that the Scripture will pass the verdict on the part of the Most High. And the sentence, in this case, may be derived from this by the following reasons:
First. If final perseverance in faith and obedience is the cause of, or a condition required for election, then none can be said to be elected in this life; for no man finally perseveres until he is dead, until he has finished his course and consummated the faith. But it is certain that it is spoken of some in the Scripture that they are elected even in this life:
"Few are chosen," Mat 20:16; "For the elect's sake those days shall be shortened," chapter 24:22; "And shall, if it were possible, deceive the very elect," verse 24 – where it is evident that election is required to make one persevere in the faith; but nowhere is perseverance in the faith required for election. Indeed, Peter gives us all a command that we should give all diligence to get an assurance of our "election," even in this life, 2 Peter 1:10. Therefore, surely it cannot be a decree presupposing consummated faith and obedience.
Secondly. Consider two things of our estate, before the first temporal act of God's free grace comprehends us (for grace is not grace if it is not free), which is the first effect of our predestination. First,
"Were we better than others?" No, in no way: both Jews and Gentiles were all under sin," Rom 3:9. "There is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," verse 23 – being all "dead in trespasses and sins," Eph 2:1; being "by nature the children of wrath, even as others," verse 3; "far off," until we are "made near by the blood of Christ," verse 13. We were "enemies" against God, Rom 5:10;
Titus 3:3. And look what desert185 there is in us with these qualifications, when our vocation separates us from the world of
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unbelievers. It is the first effect of our predestination, as St. Paul shows, Rom 8:30, and as I shall prove later. There is so much in regard to predestination itself, that if we have in any way deserved it, it is by being sinners, enemies, children of wrath, and dead in trespasses. These are our deserts; this is the glory of which we ought to be ashamed. But, secondly, When they are in the same state of actual alienation from God, yet then, in respect to his purpose to save them by Christ, some are said to be his: "Yours they were, and you gave them to me," John
17:6 – they were his before they came to Christ by faith; the sheep of Christ before they were called, for he "calls his sheep by name," chapter
10:3; before they came into the flock or congregation, for "I have other sheep," he says, "which are not of this fold, I must also bring them," chapter 10:16 – to be beloved by God before they love him: "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us," 1 John 4:10. Now, all this must be with reference to God's purpose of bringing them to Christ, and by Christ bringing them to glory; which we see goes before all their faith and obedience.
Thirdly. Election is an eternal act of God's will: "He has chosen us before the foundation of the world," Eph 1:4; consummated antecedently to all our duty, Rom 9:11. Now, every cause must, in order of nature, precede its effect; nothing has an activity which causes something before it even has a being. Operation in every kind is a second act, flowing from the essence of a thing which is the first act.
But all our graces and works, our faith, obedience, piety and charity, are all temporal, of yesterday, having the same standing with ourselves, and no longer than that. Therefore these cannot be the cause of or so much as a condition required for, the accomplishment of an eternal act of God, irrevocably established before we exist.
Fourthly. If predestination is for faith that is foreseen, then these three things, with various absurdities, will necessarily follow: First.
Such an election is not from "him that calls," as the apostle says in Rom 9:11 – that is, it is not of the good pleasure of God, who calls us with a holy calling, but of the one who is called. For, if election
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depends on faith, then it must be his whose faith exists, and that believes. Secondly. God cannot have mercy on whom he will have mercy, for the very purpose of it is thus tied to the qualities of faith and obedience in the person, so that God must have mercy only on believers antecedently to his decree. Thirdly. This hinders him from being an absolute free agent, and doing what he will with his own – and from having such a power over us as the potter has over his clay; for he finds us made of different matter, one clay and another gold, when he comes to appoint us to different uses and ends.
Fifthly. God sees no faith, no obedience or perseverance, nothing but sin and wickedness in any man, except what he himself intends graciously and freely to bestow on him. For "faith is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God;" (Eph 2:8) it is "the work of God, that we believe,"
John 6:29; he "blesses us with all spiritual blessings in Christ," Eph 1:3.
Now, all these gifts and graces God bestows only upon those whom he has antecedently ordained to everlasting life: for "the elect obtained it, and the rest were blinded," Rom 11:7; "The Lord added to the church daily those who should be saved"' Acts 2:47. Therefore, surely, God chooses us not because he foresees those things in us; he bestows those graces because he has chosen us. "Which is why," says Austin, "Christ says, 'You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.' They did not choose him so that he should choose them. Rather, he chose them so that they might choose him."186 We choose Christ by faith; God chooses us by his decree of election. The question is whether we choose him because he has chosen us, or he chooses us because we have chosen him, which in effect is choosing ourselves. We affirm the former, because our choice of God is a gift that he himself bestows only on those whom he has chosen.
Sixthly, and principally. The effects of election, infallibly following it, cannot be the causes of election, certainly preceding it. This is evident, for nothing can be the cause and the effect of the same thing, before and after itself. But all our faith, our obedience, repentance, and good works are the effects of election, flowing from it as their proper
Chapter 6: HOW THE DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION IS CORRUPTED
fountain, erected on it as the foundation of this spiritual building; and for this, the article of our church is evident and clear. "Those," it says,
"who are endued with this excellent benefit of God, are called according to God's purpose, are justified freely, are made the sons of God by adoption; they are made like the image of Christ; they walk religiously in good works," etc. Where, first, they are said to be partakers of this benefit of election, and then by virtue of it to be entitled to the fruition of all those graces. Secondly, it says, "Those who are endued with this benefit enjoy those blessings;" intimating that election is the rule whereby God proceeds to bestow those graces, restraining the objects of the temporal acts of God's special favor only to those whom his eternal decree embraces. Both these, indeed, are denied by the Arminians; which makes further reveals their heterodoxies in this particular. "You say," says Arminius to Perkins,187
"that election is the rule of giving or not giving faith; and therefore, election is not of the faithful, but the faith of the elect: but by your leave I must deny this."188 Yet, whatever it is that the sophistical189 heretic denies here, either antecedent or conclusion, he falls foul on the word of God. "They 'believed,"' says the Holy Ghost, "who were
'ordained to eternal life,'" Acts 13:48; and, "The Lord added to the church daily those who should be saved," chapter 2:47. From both these passages it is evident that God bestows faith only on those whom he has pre-ordained to eternal life; but most clearly, Rom 8:29-30, "For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. Moreover whom he predestined, he also called: and whom he called, he also justified: and whom he justified, he also glorified." St.
Austin interpreted this place by adding in every link of the chain, "Only those." However, the words directly import a precedency of predestination before the bestowing of other graces, and also a restraint of those graces to those only that are so predestined. Now, the inference from this is not only for the logical form, but for the matter also; it contains the very words of Scripture, "Faith is of God's elect,"
Titus 1:1.
Chapter 6: HOW THE DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION IS CORRUPTED
For the other part of the proposition, that faith and obedience are the fruits of our election, they cannot be more peremptory in its denial than the Scripture is plentiful in its confirmation: "He has chosen us in Christ, so that we should be holy," Eph 1:4; not because we were holy, but that we should be holy. Holiness, of which faith is the root and obedience is the body, is that to which, and not for which, we are elected. The end and the meritorious cause of any one act cannot be the same; they have diverse respects, and require repugnant conditions.
Again; we are "predestined to the adoption as children by Jesus Christ," Eph 1:5. Adoption is that whereby we are assumed into the family of God, when before we were "foreigners, aliens, strangers, and far off;" we see this is a fruit of our predestination, though it is the very entrance into that estate in which we begin first to please God in the least measure. Of the same nature are all those places of holy writ which speak of God's giving some to Christ, of Christ's sheep hearing his voice and others not hearing because they are not of his sheep; all of which, and various other invincible reasons, I willingly omit, with sundry other false assertions and heretical positions of the Arminians about this fundamental article of our religion, concluding this chapter with the following scheme:
S.S.
Lib. Arbit.
"Those whom he foreknew, he also did predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Moreover, those whom he predestined, he also called: and whom he called, he also justified: and whom he justified, he also glorified." So that "nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus," Rom 8:29-30, 39.
"No such will can be ascribed to God, whereby he so would have anyone to be saved, that from this his salvation should be sure and infallible,"
Armin. "I acknowledge no sense, no perception of any such election in this life,"
Grevinch. "We deny that God's election to salvation extends itself to singular persons,"
Rem. Coll. Hag.
Chapter 6: HOW THE DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION IS CORRUPTED
"He has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy," Eph 1:4.
"As we are justified by faith, so we are not elected but by faith," Grevinch.
"Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began," 2 Tim 1:9.
"We profess roundly that faith is considered by God as a condition preceding election, and not following as a fruit of it," Rem. Coll. Hag.
"For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calls," etc., Rom 9:11. "All that the Father gives me shall come to me," John 6:37
"The sole and only cause of election is not the will of God, but the respect of our obedience,"
Episcop. "For the cause of this love to any person is that the goodness, faith, and piety with which he is endued, according to God's command and his own duty, are pleasing to God," Rem. Apol.
"Many are called, but few are chosen," Mat 22:14. "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom," Luke 12:82.
"God has determined to grant the means of salvation to all indiscrimiately; and according as he foresees men will use those means, so he determines of them," Corr.
"What do you have that you did not receive?" 1 Cor 4:7. "Are we better than they? No, in no way,"
Rom 3:9. But we are "predestined to adoption as children by Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will," Eph 1:5; John 6:37-39, 10:3, 13:18, 17:6; Acts 13:48; Titus 1:1; 2 Tim 2:19; James 1:17-18, etc.
The sum of their doctrine is: God has appointed the obedience of faith to be the means of salvation. If men fulfill this condition, he determines to save them, which is their election; but if after they have entered the way of godliness, they fall from it, they also lose their predestination. If they will return again, they are chosen anew; and if they can hold out to the end, then, and for that continuance, they are peremptorily elected, or post-destined, after they are saved. Now, whether these positions may be gathered from those places of Scripture which deliver this doctrine, let any man judge.