Chapter 7. Of Predestination and Creation.
WILLIAM PERKINS
Chapter 7. Of Predestination and Creation.
God's decree, in as much as it concerns man, is called Predestination: which is the decree of God by which he has ordained all men to a certain and everlasting estate — that is, either to salvation or condemnation. 1Th 5.9, For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by the means of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Rom 9.13, As it is written, I have loved Jacob and hated Esau; and verse 22, What if God would, to show his wrath and to make his power known, suffer with long patience the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might declare the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared for glory?
The means of accomplishing God's Predestination are twofold:
The creation, and the fall [chap. 10].
The creation is that by which God made all things very good, out of nothing — that is, of no matter which existed before the creation. Gen 1.1, In the beginning
God created the heaven, etc. to the end of the chapter.
God's manner of creating, and also of governing, is such that by his word alone he produced all sorts of things without any instruments, means, assistance, or motion. For, to will anything with God, is both to be able, and to perform it. Heb 11.3, By faith we understand that the world was ordained by the word of God, so that the things which we see, are not made of things which appear.
Psa 148.5, Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded, and they were created.
The goodness of the creature is a kind of excellence by which it was void of all sin; that is, free from punishment and transgression. The creation is of the world, or inhabitants in the world. The world is a most
A GOLDEN CHAIN
beautiful palace, framed out of deformed substance, and fit to be inhabited.
The parts of the world are the heavens and earth.
The heavens are threefold: the first is the air; the second is the sky; the third is an invisible and incorporeal essence, created to be the seat of all the blessed, both men and Angels. This third heaven is called Paradise, 2Cor 12.4.
The inhabitants of the world are reasonable creatures made according to God's own image. They are either Angels, or men. Gen 1.26, Furthermore, God said, Let us make man in our own image, according to our likeness. Job 1.6, When the children of God came and stood before the Lord, Satan also came among them.
The image of God is the integrity of the reasonable creature, resembling God in holiness. Eph 4.24, And put on the new man which is created after God, in righteousness and true holiness.