Divine Predestination (Octavius Winslow, 1808-1878)

Romans 8:29

“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” 

Guided by the latter clause of the preceding verse, we were led to advert to the settled purpose and plan of God as it related to the conversion of His people. The passage under present consideration carries forward the same argument another step, and shows that the doctrine thus clearly enunciated is not a crude and speculative dogma of the schools, which some suppose, but is a truth of distinct revelation, divine in its origin, experimental in its nature, and sanctifying and comforting in its effects. Let us, then, divesting our minds of all prejudice, address ourselves to its consideration, in prayerful reliance upon the teaching of the Spirit, and with the earnest simplicity of children desiring to come to a knowledge of the truth, and to stand complete in all the will of God.

"Whom he did foreknow." In this place the word "foreknow" assumes a particular and explicit meaning. In its wider and more general application it must be regarded as referring not simply to the divine prescience, but more especially to the divine prearrangement. For God to foreknow is, in the strict meaning of the phrase, for God to foreordain. There are no guesses, conjectures, or contingencies with God as to the future. Not only does He know all, but He has fixed, appointed, and ordered "all things after the counsel of his own will." In this view there exists not a creature, and there transpires not an event, which was not as real and palpable to the divine mind from eternity as it is at the present moment. Indeed, it would seem that there were no future with God. An eternal Being, there can be nothing prospective in His looking on all things. There must be an eternity of perception, and constitution, and presence; and the mightiest feature of His character—that which conveys to a finite mind the most vivid conception of His grandeur and greatness—is the simultaneousness of all succession, variety, and events to His eye. "He is of one mind; and who can turn him?"

But the word "foreknow," as it occurs in the text, adds to this yet another, a more definite, and, to the saints, a more precious signification. The foreknowledge here spoken of, it will be observed, is limited to a particular class of people who are said to be "conformed to the image of God’s Son." Now this cannot, with truth, be predicated of all creatures. The term, therefore, assumes a particular and impressive signification. It includes the everlasting love of God to, and His most free choice of, His people, to be His special and peculiar treasure. We find some examples of this—"God has not cast away his people which he foreknew" (Rom. 11:2). Here the word is expressive of the two ideas of love and choice. Again, "Who verily was foreordained (Greek, foreknown) before the foundation of the world" (1 Pet. 1:20). "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). Clearly, then, we are justified in interpreting the phrase as expressive of God’s special choice of, and His intelligent love to, His church—His own peculiar people. It is a foreknowledge of choice, of love, of eternal grace and faithfulness.

"He also did predestinate." This word admits of but one natural signification. Predestination, in its lowest sense, is understood to mean the exclusive agency of God in producing every event. But it includes more than this: it takes in God’s pre-determinate appointment and fore-arrangement of a thing beforehand, according to His divine and supreme will. The Greek is so rendered—"For to do whatever your hand and your counsel determined before to be done" (Acts 4:28). Again, "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will" (Eph. 1:5). It is here affirmed of God, that the same prearrangement and predetermination that men in general are agreed to ascribe to Him in the government of matter, extends equally, and with yet stronger force, to the concerns of His moral administration. It would seem impossible to form any correct idea of God, disassociated from the idea of predestination. As a divine wrote, "The sole basis of predestination is the practical belief that God is eternal and infinite in and over all. And the sole aim of its assertion should be, as the sole legitimate effect of that assertion is, to settle down the wavering and rebel soul from the vague, skeptical, and superstitious inapplicabilities of chance as to this world’s history, unto the living, overwhelming, and humbling practicality of conviction, that, just because God sees all things, provides all things, and has power over all things, therefore man must act as if he believed this to be true. The first and the last conviction of every honest inquirer must be, that God is, and is Lord over all—and the whole of Scripture bears testimony to the fact of His infinitude."

And yet how marvelously difficult it is to win the mind to a full, unwavering acquiescence in a truth which, in a different application, is received with unquestioning readiness! And what is there in the application of this law of the divine government to the world of matter, which is not equally reasonable and fit in its application to the world of mind? If it is necessary and proper in the material, why should it not be equally, or more so, in the spiritual empire? If God is allowed the full exercise of a sovereignty in the one, why should He be excluded from an unlimited sovereignty in the other? Surely it were even more worthy of Him that He should prearrange, predetermine, and supremely rule in the concerns of a world over which His more dignified and glorious empire extends, than that in the inferior world of matter He should fix a constellation in the heavens, guide the gyrations of a bird in the air, direct the falling of an autumn leaf in the pathless desert, or convey the seed, borne upon the wind, to the spot where it should fall. Surely if no fortuitous ordering is admitted in the one case, on infinitely stronger grounds it should be excluded from the other. Upon no other basis could divine foreknowledge and providence take their stand than upon this. Disconnected from the will and purpose of God there could be nothing certain as to the future, and consequently there could be nothing certainly foreknown. And were not providence to regulate and control people, things, and events—every dispensation, in fact—by the same preconstructed plan, it would follow that God would be exposed to a thousand unforeseen contingencies, or else that He acts ignorantly or contrary to His will.

But it is not so much our province to establish the truth of this doctrine, and explain its reasonableness and the harmony of its relations, as to trace its sanctifying tendency and effect. Predestination must be a divine verity, since it stands essentially connected with our conformity to the divine image. "Predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son." Addressing ourselves to this deeply interesting and important branch of our subject, let us first contemplate the believer’s model.

"The image of his Son." No standard short of this will meet the case. How conspicuous appears the wisdom and how glorious the goodness of God in this—that in making us holy, the model or standard of that holiness should be Deity itself! God would make us holy, and in doing so He would make us like Himself.

But with what pen—dipped though it were in heaven’s brightest hues—can we portray the image of Jesus? The perfection of our Lord was the perfection of holiness. His Deity, essential holiness—His humanity without sin, the impersonation of holiness, all that He was, said, and did, was as flashes of holiness emanating from the fountain of essential purity, and kindling their dazzling and undying radiance around each step He trod. How lowly, too, His character! How holy the thoughts He breathed, how pure the words He spoke, how humble the spirit He exemplified, how tender and sympathizing the outgoings of His compassion and love to man. He is "the chief among ten thousand, the altogether lovely."

Such is the believer’s model. To this he is predestinated to be conformed. And is not this predestination in its highest form? Would it seem possible for God to have preordained us to a greater blessing, to have chosen us to a higher distinction? In choosing us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, He has advanced us to the loftiest degree of honor and happiness to which a creature can be promoted—assimilation to His own moral image. And this forms the highest ambition of the believer. To transcribe those beauteous lineaments which, in such perfect harmony and beautiful expression, blended and shone in the life of Jesus, is the great study of all His true disciples. But in what does this conformity consist?

The first feature is, a conformity of nature. And this is reciprocal. The Son of God, by an act of divine power, became human; the saints of God, by an act of sovereign grace, partake "of the divine nature," 2 Peter 1:4 says. This harmony of nature forms the basis of all conformity. Thus grafted into Christ, we grow up into Him in all holy resemblance. The meekness, the holiness, the patience, the self-denial, the zeal, the love, traceable in us—though faint and imperfect—are transfers of Christ’s beauteous and faultless lineaments to our renewed soul. Thus the mind that was in Him is in some measure in us. And in our moral conflict, battling as we do with sin, Satan, and the world, we come to know a little of fellowship with His sufferings and conformity to His death.

We are here supplied with a test of Christian character. It is an anxious question with many professors of Christ, "How may I arrive at a correct conclusion that I am among the predestinated of God —that I am included in His purpose of grace and love—that I have a saving interest in the Lord’s salvation?" The passage under consideration supplies the answer—conformity to the image of God’s Son. Nothing short of this can justify the belief that we are saved. No evidence less strong can authenticate the fact of our predestination. The determination of God to save men is not so fixed as to save no matter what their character may be. Christ’s work is a salvation from sin, not in sin. "According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy" (Eph. 1:4). In other words, that we should be conformed to the divine image. That we should be like Christ in His divine nature, in the purity of His human nature, in the humility He exemplified, in the self-denial He practiced, and in the heavenly life He lived. In a word, in all that this expressive sentence comprehends—"conformed to the image of his Son."

As we grow day by day more holy, more spiritually minded, more closely resembling Jesus, we are placing the truth of our predestination to eternal life in a clearer, stronger light, and consequently the fact of our salvation beyond a misgiving and a doubt. In view of this precious truth, what spiritual heart will not breathe the prayer, "O Lord! I cannot be satisfied merely to profess and call myself Yours. I want more of the power of vital religion in my soul. I pant for Your image. My deepest grief springs from the discovery of the little real resemblance which I bear to a model so peerless, so divine—that I exemplify so little of Your patience in suffering; Your meekness in opposition; Your forgiving spirit in injury; Your gentleness in reproving; Your firmness in temptation; Your singleness of eye in all that I do. Oh, transfer Yourself wholly to me. What were this world, yes, what were heaven itself, without You? A universe of creatures, the fondest, the holiest, could not be Your substitute to my yearning, longing soul, O Lord! Come, and occupy Your own place in my heart. Awaken it to Your love. Sweep its chords with Your gentle hand, and it shall breathe sweet music to Your dear name

I love You, Savior, for my soul craves joy!
I need You, without hope I cannot live!
I look for You; my nature pants to give
Its every power a rapture and employ;
And there are things which I would sincerely destroy
Within my bosom; things that make me grieve;
Sin, and her child, Distrust, that often weave
About my spirit darkness and annoy:
And none but You can these dissolve in light;
And so I long for You, as those who stay
In the deep waters long for dawning day!
Nor would I only have my being bright,
But peaceful, too; so ask You if I might
My head on Your dear bosom lean always.
—Townshend

"That he might be the firstborn among many brethren." The Son of God sustains to us the relation of the Elder Brother. He is emphatically the "Firstborn." In another place we read, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also likewise took part of the same." He is the "Brother born for adversity." Our relation to Him as our Brother is evidenced by our conformity to Him as our model. We have no valid claim to relationship which springs not from a resemblance to His image. The features may be indistinctly visible, yet one line of holiness, one true lineament, drawn upon the heart by the Holy Spirit, proves our fraternal relationship to Him, the "Firstborn."

And how large the brotherhood—"many brethren!" What the relative proportion of the church is to the world—how many will be saved—is a question speculative and profitless. But this we know, the number will be vast, countless. The one family of God is composed of "many brethren." They are not all of the same judgment in all matters, but they are all of the same spirit. The unity of the family of God is not ecclesiastical, nor geographical; it is spiritual and essential. It is the "unity of the Spirit." Begotten of one Father, in the nature of the Elder Brother, and through the regenerating grace of the one Spirit, all the saints of God constitute one church, one family, one brotherhood—essentially and indivisibly one. Nor is this relationship difficult to recognize.

Consider an illustration: Two brethren in the Lord of widely different sections of the church, and of much dissonance of sentiment on some points of truth, meet and converse together. With the Word of God in hand, each is surprised that the other does not read it as he reads it and interpret it as he interprets it. But they drop the points of difference and take up the points of agreement. They speak of Christ—the Christ who loves them both, and whom they both love. They talk of the one Master whom they serve; of their common labors, infirmities, trials, temptations, discouragements, failures, and successes. They talk of the heaven where they are journeying; of their Father’s house, in which they will dwell together forever. They kneel in prayer; they cast themselves before the cross; the oil of gladness anoints them; their hearts are broken, their spirits are humbled, their souls are blended; they rise and feel more deeply and more strongly than ever that they both belong to the same family, are both of the "many brethren," of whom the Son of God is the "Firstborn," the Elder Brother. Oh, blessed unity! What perfect harmony of creed, what strict conformity of ritual, what sameness of denominational relation, is for a moment to be compared with this? Have you, my reader, this evidence that you belong to the "many brethren?"

It is our purpose to conclude by briefly showing how encouraging the doctrine of predestination is to the soul in sincere and earnest seeking of Christ, and by tracing some of the peculiar blessings which flow from it to the saints of God. There is a class of individuals, unhappily a large one, over whose spiritual feelings the doctrine of divine predestination would seem to have cast a deep and settled gloom. We refer to those who are apt to regard this truth with deep antipathy, if not with absolute horror, as constituting, in their view, one of the most formidable and insurmountable obstacles to their salvation. But the validity of this objection we by no means admit. There can be nothing in the Bible adverse to the salvation of a sinner. The doctrine of predestination is a revealed doctrine of the Bible; therefore, predestination cannot be opposed to the salvation of the sinner. So far from this being true, we don’t hesitate most strongly and emphatically to affirm that we know of no doctrine of God’s Word more replete with encouragement to the awakened, sin-burdened, Christ-seeking soul than this.

What stronger evidence can we have of our election of God than the Spirit’s work in the heart? Are you really in earnest for the salvation of your soul? Do you feel the plague of sin? Are you sensible of the condemnation of the law? Do you come under the denomination of the "weary and heavy laden?" If so, then the fact that you are a subject of divine drawings—that you have a felt conviction of your sinfulness—and that you are seeking for a place of refuge, affords the strongest ground for believing that you are one of those whom God has predestinated to eternal life. The very work thus begun is the Spirit’s first outline of the divine image upon your soul—that very image to which the saints are predestinated to be conformed.

But while we thus vindicate this doctrine as being inimical to the salvation of the anxious soul, we must, with all distinctness and earnestness declare that in this stage of your Christian course, you have primarily and mainly to do with another and a different doctrine. We refer to the doctrine of the atonement. If you could look into the book of the divine decrees, and read your name inscribed upon its pages, it would not impart the joy and peace which one believing view of Christ crucified will convey. It is not essential to your salvation that you believe in election; but it is essential to your salvation that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. In your case, as an individual debating the momentous question, "how a sinner may be justified before God," your first business is with Christ, and Christ exclusively. You are to feel that you are a lost sinner, not that you are an elect saint. The doctrine which meets the present phase of your spiritual condition is not the doctrine of predestination, but the doctrine of an atoning Savior. The truth to which you are to give the first consideration, and the most simple and unquestioning credence is, that "Christ died for the ungodly," that He came into the world to save sinners, that He came to call, not the righteous, but sinners to repentance, that in all respects, in the great business of our salvation, He stands before us in the relation of a Savior, while we stand before Him in the character of a sinner.

The mental conflict into which you have been brought touching this doctrine, is but a subtle and dexterous stroke of the enemy to divert your thoughts from Christ. Your soul is at this moment in what may be termed a transitional state. A crisis in your history has been reached. How momentous the result! Shall we portray your present feelings? You are sensible of your sinfulness, are oppressed by its guilt, and are in dread of its condemnation. You have no peace of mind, no joy of heart, no hope of heaven. Life with you has lost its charm, society its attractions, and pleasure its sweetness. A somber hue paints every object, and insipidity marks every engagement. Where this marvellous revolution, this essential and wondrous change? We answer, it is the Spirit of God moving upon your soul. And what truth, do you think, meets the case? Predestination? Election? Oh, no! These are hidden links in the great chain of your salvation, upon which in your present state, you are not called to lay your hand in grasping that chain.

But there are other and intermediate links, visible, near, and within your reach. Take hold of them, and you are saved: "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin." "Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "Him that comes unto me I will in no wise cast out." "Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." "Ho, every one that thirsts, come you to the waters." "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." "By grace are you saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved."

Grasp, in simple faith, each or any one of these golden links, and from that moment for you there is no condemnation. But what is the real difficulty? It is not predestination. Travel into the inmost recesses of your heart and ascertain. May there not be some defect in your actual conviction of sin? Were you thoroughly convinced of your lost and ruined condition as a sinner, would you cavil and demur at any one revealed doctrine of Scripture? Would this, of all doctrines, prove a real stumbling block in your way? Would the question of election give you a moment’s serious thought? Would it interpose a true and valid objection to your coming to Christ to be saved by Him? Suppose, to illustrate the idea, you were roused from sleep in the dead hour of night by the approach of flames kindling fiercely around you. One avenue of escape presented itself. Would you pause for an instant upon its threshold to debate the question of your predestinated safety? Would you not at once decide the question in your favor, by an instant retreat from the devouring element, through the only door that proffered you deliverance? Most assuredly. To a matter so momentous as your salvation apply the same reasoning. Were it not folly, yes, insanity itself, to hesitate for a moment to consider whether you are predestinated to escape the wrath to come, when, if you do not escape, that wrath will assuredly overwhelm you? One refuge alone presents itself. One avenue only invites your escape. Let no other doctrine but faith in the Lord Jesus Christ occupy your thoughts at this juncture of your religious course. Diverging from this path, you will be plunged into a sea of perplexities, you know not how inextricable, which may land you, you know not where. For they who have

Reasoned high
Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate,
Fixed fate, freewill, foreknowledge absolute,
Have found no end in wandering mazes lost.

O let one object fix your eye and one theme fill your mind—Christ and His salvation. Absorbed in the contemplation and study of these two points, you may safely defer all further inquiry to another and a more advanced stage of your Christian course. Remember that the fact of your predestination, the certainty of your election, can only be inferred from your conversion. We must hold you firmly to this truth. It is the subtle and fatal reasoning of Satan, a species of atheistical fatalism, to argue, "If I am elected I shall be saved whether I am regenerated or not." The path to eternal woe is paved with arguments like this. Men have cajoled their souls with such vain excuses until they have found themselves beyond the region of hope!

But we must rise to the fountain by pursuing the stream. Conversion and not predestination, is the end of the chain we are to grasp. We must ascend from ourselves to God, and not descend from God to ourselves, in settling this great question. We must judge of God’s objective purpose of love concerning us, by His subjective work of grace within us. One of the martyr Reformers has wisely remarked, "We need not go about to trouble ourselves with curious questions of the predestination of God; but let us rather endeavor ourselves that we may be in Christ. For, when we are in Him, then are we well: and then we may be sure that we are ordained to everlasting life. When you find these three things in your hearts, repentance, faith, and a desire to leave sin, then you may be sure your names are written in the book, and you may be sure also, that you are elected and predestinated to eternal life." Again he observes, "If you are desiring to know whether you are chosen to everlasting life, you may not begin with God, for God is too high, you can not comprehend Him. Begin with Christ, and learn to know Christ, and wherefore He came; namely, that He came to save sinners, and made Himself subject to the law, and a fulfiller of the law, to deliver us from the wrath and danger thereof. If you know Christ, then you may know further of your election." And illustrating his idea by his own personal experience, he says, "If I believe in Christ alone for salvation, I am certainly interested in Christ; and interested in Christ I could not be, if I were not chosen and elected of God."

In conclusion, we earnestly entreat you to lay aside all fruitless speculations, and to give yourself to prayer. Let reason bow to faith, and faith shut you up to Christ, and Christ be all in all to you. Once more we solemnly affirm that, conversion, and not predestination, is the doctrine with which, in your present state of inquiry, you have to do. Beware that you come not short of true conversion—a changed heart, and a renewed mind, so that you become "a new creature in Christ Jesus." And if as a poor lost sinner you repair to the Savior, all vile, guilty, unworthy, and weak as you are, He will receive you, and shelter you within the bosom that bled on the cross, to provide an atonement and an asylum for the very chief of sinners. Intermeddle not, therefore, with a state which you can only ascertain to be yours by the Spirit’s work upon your heart. "Your election will be known by your interest in Christ; and your interest in Christ by the sanctification of the Spirit. Here is a chain of salvation; the beginning of it is from the Father; the dispensation of it through the Son; the application of it by the Spirit. In looking after the comfort of election, you must look inward to the work of the Spirit in your heart; then outward to the work of Christ on the cross; then upward to the heart of the Father in heaven." Oh, let your prayer be "God be merciful to me a sinner," until that prayer is answered in the assurance of full pardon sealed upon your conscience by the Holy Spirit. Thus knocking at mercy’s door, the heart of God will fly open, and admit you to all the hidden treasures of its love.

We can but group some of the great blessings which flow from this truth to the saints of God. The doctrine of predestination is well calculated to confirm and strengthen the true believer in the fact and certainty of his salvation through Christ. Feeling, as he does, the plague of his own heart, experiencing the preciousness of the Savior, looking up through the cross to God as his Father, exulting in a hope that makes not ashamed, and remembering that God the Eternal Spirit only renews those who are chosen by God the Father, and are redeemed by God the Son, this doctrine is found to be most comforting and confirming to his faith. The faintest lineaments of resemblance to God, and the feeblest breathing of the Spirit of adoption he discovers in his soul, is to him an indisputable evidence of his predestination to divine sonship and holiness.

Another blessing accruing from the doctrine is the sweet and holy submission into which it brings the mind under all afflictive dispensations. Each step of his pilgrimage, and each incident of his history, the believer sees appointed in the everlasting covenant of grace. He recognizes the discipline of the covenant to be as much a part of the original plan as any positive mercy that it contains. That all the hairs of his head are numbered; that affliction springs not out of the earth, and therefore is not the result of accident or chance, but is in harmony with God’s purposes of love; and, thus ordained and permitted, must work together for good.

Not the least blessing resulting from this truth (2 Thess. 2:13) is its tendency to promote personal godliness. The believer feels that God has "chosen us to salvation through sanctification and belief of the truth;" that He has "chosen us that we should be holy and without blame before him in love" (Eph. 1:4); that we are "his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). Thus the believer desires to "give all diligence to make his calling and election sure," or undoubted, by walking in all the ordinances and commandments of the Lord blameless, and standing complete in all the will of God.

And what doctrine is more emptying, humbling, and therefore sanctifying, than this? It lays the axe at the root of all human boasting. In the light of this truth, the most holy believer sees that there is no difference between him and the vilest sinner that crawls the earth, but what the mere grace of God has made. Such are some of the many blessings flowing to the Christian from this truth. The radiance which it reflects upon the entire history of the child of God, and the calm repose which it diffuses over the mind in all the perplexing, painful, and mysterious events of that history, can only be understood by those whose hearts have fully received the doctrine of predestination. Whatever betides him; inexplicable in its character, enshrouded in the deepest gloom, as may be the circumstance; the believer in this truth can "stand still," and, calmly surveying the scene, exclaim: "This also comes forth from the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. He who works all things after the counsel of His own will has done it, and I am satisfied that it is well done."

In conclusion, saints of God, have close relations and intimate dealings with your Elder Brother. Repose in Him your confidence, yield to Him your affections, consecrate to Him your service. He regards you with ineffable delight. With all your interests He is identified, and with all your sorrows He sympathizes. He may, like Joseph, at times speak roughly to His brethren, in the trying dispensations of His providence; yet, like Joseph, He veils beneath that apparent harshness a brother’s deep and yearning love. Seek a closer resemblance to His image, to which, ever remember, you are predestinated to be conformed. In order to this, study His beauty, His precepts, His example, that with "open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, you may be changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

Octavius Winslow, "No Condemnation in Christ Jesus" 

https://gracegems.org/

Predestination and Calling (Charles H. Spurgeon, 1859)

Romans 8:30

“Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” 

THE GREAT BOOK OF GOD'S DECREES is fast closed against the curiosity of man. 
Vain man would be wise; he would break the seven seals thereof, and read the 
mysteries of eternity. But this cannot be; the time has not yet come when the 
book shall be opened, and even then the seals shall not be broken by mortal 
hand, but it shall be said, "The lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to 
open the book and break the seven seals thereof."

                       Eternal Father, who shall look
                            Into thy secret will?
                   None but the Lamb shall take the book,
                            And open every seal.

None but he shall ever unroll that sacred record and read it to the 
assembled world. How then am I to know whether I am predestinated 
by God unto eternal life or not? It is a question in which my eternal 
interests are involved; am I among that unhappy number who shall be 
left to live in sin and reap the due reward of their iniquity; or do I 
belong to that goodly company, who albeit that they have sinned shall 
nevertheless be washed in the blood of Christ, and shall in white robes 
walk the golden streets of paradise? Until this question be answered 
my heart cannot rest, for I am intensely anxious about it. My eternal 
destiny infinitely more concerns me than all the affairs of time. Tell me, 
oh, tell me, if ye know, seers and prophets, is my name recorded in that 
book of life? Am I one of those who are ordained unto eternal life, or 
am I to be left to follow my own lusts and passions, and to destroy my 
own soul? Oh! man, there is an answer to thy inquiry; the book cannot 
be opened, but God himself hath published many a page thereof. He 
hath not published the page whereon the actual names of the redeemed 
are written; but that page of the sacred decree whereon their character 
is recorded is published in his Word, and shall be proclaimed to thee 
this day. The sacred record of God's hand is this day published 
everywhere under heaven, and he that hath an ear let him hear what the 
Spirit saith unto him. O my hearer, by thy name I know thee not, and 
by thy name God's Word doth not declare thee, but by thy character 
thou mayest read thy name; and if thou hast been a partaker of the 
calling which is mentioned in the text, then mayest thou conclude 
beyond a doubt that thou art among the predestinated--"For whom he 
did predestinate, them he also called." And if thou be called, it follows 
as a natural inference thou art predestinated.

Now, in considering this solemn subject, let me remark that there are 
two kinds of callings mentioned in the Word of God. The first is the 
general call, which is in the gospel sincerely given to everyone that 
heareth the word. The duty of the minister is to call souls to Christ, he 
is to make no distinction whatever--"Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the gospel to every creature." The trumpet of the gospel sounds 
aloud to every man in our congregations--"Ho, everyone that thirsteth, 
come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and 
eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." 
"Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man" (Prov. 
8:4). This call is sincere on God's part; but man by nature is so opposed 
to God, that this call is never effectual, for man disregards it, turns his 
back upon it, and goes his way, caring for none of these things. But 
mark, although this call be rejected, man is without excuse in the 
rejection; the universal call has in it such authority, that the man who 
will not obey it shall be without excuse in the day of judgment. When 
thou art commanded to believe and repent, when thou art exhorted to 
flee from the wrath to come, the sin lies on thy own head if thou dost 
despise the exhortation, and reject the commandment. And this solemn 
text drops an awful warning: "How shall ye escape, if ye neglect so 
great salvation." But I repeat it, this universal call is rejected by man; it 
is a call, but it is not a attended with divine force and energy of the 
Holy Spirit in such a degree as to make it an unconquerable call, 
consequently men perish, even though they have the universal call of 
the gospel ringing in their ears. The bell of God's house rings every 
day, sinners hear it, but they put their fingers in their ears, and go their 
way, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise, and though they 
are bidden and are called to the wedding (Luke 14:16,17,18), yet they 
will not come, and by not coming they incur God's wrath, and he 
declareth of such,--"None of those men which were bidden shall taste 
of my supper" (Luke 14:24). The call of our text is of a different kind; 
it is not a universal call, it is a special, particular, personal, 
discriminating, efficacious, unconquerable, call. This call is sent to the 
predestinated, and to them only; they by grace hear the call, obey it, 
and receive it. These are they who can now say, "Draw us, and we will 
run after thee."

In preaching of this call this morning, I shall divide my sermon into 
three brief parts.--First, I shall give illustrations of the call; second, we 
shall come to examine whether we have been called; and then third, 
what delightful consequences flow therefrom. Illustration, examination, 
consolation.

I. First, then, for ILLUSTRATION. In illustrating the effectual call of 
grace, which is given to the predestinated ones, I must first use the 
picture of Lazarus. See you that stone rolled at the mouth of the 
sepulchre? Much need is there for the stone that it should be well 
secured, for within the sepulchre there is a putrid corpse. The sister of 
that corrupt body stands at the side of the tomb, and she says, "Lord, 
by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days." This is the 
voice of reason and of nature. Martha is correct; but by Martha's side 
there stands a man who, despite all his lowliness, is very God of very 
God. "Roll ye away the stone," saith he, and it is done; and now, listen 
to him; he cries, "Lazarus, come forth!" that cry is directed to a mass of 
putridity, to a body that has been dead four days, and in which the 
worms have already held carnival; but, strange to say, from that tomb 
there comes a living man; that mass of corruption has been quickened 
into life, and out he comes, wrapped about with graveclothes, and 
having a napkin about his head. "Loose him and let him go," saith the 
Redeemer; and then he walks in all the liberty of life. The effectual call 
of grace is precisely similar; the sinner is dead in sin; he is not only in 
sin but dead in sin, without any power whatever to give to himself the 
life of grace. Nay, he is not only dead, but he is corrupt; his lusts, like 
the worms, have crept into him, a foul stench riseth up into the nostrils 
of justice, God abhorreth him, and justice crieth, "Bury the dead out of 
my sight, cast it into the fire, let it be consumed." Sovereign Mercy 
comes, and there lies this unconscious, lifeless mass of sin; Sovereign 
Grace cries, either by the minister, or else directly without any agency, 
by the Spirit of God, "come forth!" and that man lives. Does he 
contribute anything to his new life? Not he; his life is given solely by 
God. He was dead, absolutely dead, rotten in his sin; the life is given 
when the call comes, and, in obedience to the call, the sinner comes 
forth from the grave of his lust, begins to live a new life, even the life 
eternal, which Christ gives to his sheep.

"Well," cries one, "but what are the words which Christ uses when he 
calls a sinner from death?" Why the Lord may use any words. It was 
not long ago there came unto this hall, a man who was without God 
and without Christ, and the simple reading of the hymn--

                          "Jesus lover of my soul,"

was the means of his quickening. He said within himself, "Does Jesus 
love me? then I must love him," and he was quickened in that selfsame 
hour. The words which Jesus uses are various in different cases. I trust 
that even while I am speaking this morning, Christ may speak with me, 
and some word that may fall from my lips, unpremeditated and almost 
without design, shall be sent of God as a message of life unto some 
dead and corrupt heart here, and some man who has lived in sin 
hitherto, shall now live to righteousness, and live to Christ. That is the 
first illustration I will give you of what is meant by effectual calling. It 
finds the sinner dead, it gives him life, and he obeys the call of life and 
lives.

But let us consider a second phase of it. You will remember while the 
sinner is dead in sin, he is alive enough so far as any opposition to God 
may be concerned. He is powerless to obey, but he is mighty enough to 
resist the call of divine grace. I may illustrate it in the case of Saul of 
Tarsus: this proud Pharisee abhors the Lord Jesus Christ; he has seized 
upon every follower of Jesus who comes within his grasp; he has haled 
men and women to prison; with the avidity of a miser who hunts after 
gold, he has hunted after the precious life of Christ's disciple, and 
having exhausted his prey in Jerusalem, he seeks letters and goes off to 
Damascus upon the same bloody errand. Speak to him on the road, 
send out the apostle Peter to him, let Peter say, "Saul, why dost thou 
oppose Christ? The time shall come when thou shalt yet be his 
disciple." Paul would turn round and laugh him to scorn--"Get thee 
gone thou fisherman, get thee gone--I a disciple of that imposter Jesus 
of Nazareth! Look here, this is my confession of faith; here will I hale 
thy brothers and thy sisters to prison, and beat them in the synagogue 
and compel them to blaspheme and even hunt them to death, for my 
breath is threatening, and my heart is as fire against Christ." Such a 
scene did not occur, but had there been any remonstrance given by men 
you may easily conceive that such would have been Saul's answer. But 
Christ determined that he would call the man. Oh, what an enterprise! 
Stop HIM? Why he is going fast onward in his mad career. But lo, a 
light shines round about him and he falls to the ground, and he hears a 
voice crying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me; it is hard for thee 
to kick against the pricks." Saul's eyes are filled with tears, and then 
again with scales of darkness, and he cries, "Who art thou?" and a 
voice calls, "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." It is not many 
minutes before he begins to feel his sin in having persecuted Jesus, nor 
many hours ere he receives the assurance of his pardon, and not many 
days ere he who persecuted Christ stands up to preach with vehemence 
and eloquence unparalleled, the very cause which he once trod beneath 
his feet. See what effectual calling can do. If God should choose this 
morning to call the hardest-hearted wretch within hearing of the gospel, 
he must obey. Let God call--a man may resist, but he cannot resist 
effectually. Down thou shalt come, sinner, if God cries down; there is 
no standing when he would have thee fall. And mark, every man that is 
saved, is always saved by an overcoming call which he cannot 
withstand; he may resist it for a time, but he cannot resist so as to 
overcome it, he must give way, he must yield when God speaks. If he 
says, "Let there be light," the impenetrable darkness gives way to light; 
if he says, "Let there be grace," unutterable sin gives way, and the 
hardest-hearted sinner melts before the fire of effectual calling.

I have thus illustrated the call in two ways, by the state of the sinner in 
his sin, and by the omnipotence which overwhelms the resistance 
which he offers. And now another case. The effectual call may be 
illustrated in its sovereignty by the case of Zaccheus. Christ is entering 
into Jericho to preach. There is a publican living in it, who is a hard, 
griping, grasping, miserly extortioner. Jesus Christ is coming in to call 
some one, for it is written he must abide in some man's house. Would 
you believe it, that the man whom Christ intends to call is the worst 
man in Jericho--the extortioner? He is a little short fellow, and he 
cannot see Christ, though he has a great curiosity to look at him; so he 
runs before the crowd and climbs up a sycamore tree, and thinking 
himself quite safe amid the thick foliage, he waits with eager 
expectation to see this wonderful man who had turned the world upside 
down. Little did he think that he was to turn him also. The Saviour 
walks along preaching and talking with the people until he comes under 
the sycamore tree, then lifting up his eyes, he cries--"Zaccheus, make 
haste and come down, for today I must abide in thy house." The shot 
took effect, the bird fell, down came Zaccheus, invited the Saviour to 
his house, and proved that he was really called not by the voice merely 
but by grace itself, for he said, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I 
give unto the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false 
accusation, I restore unto him fourfold;" and Jesus said, "This day is 
salvation come unto thy house." Now why call Zaccheus? There were 
many better men in the city than he. Why call him? Simply because the 
call of God comes to unworthy sinners. There is nothing in man that 
can deserve this call; nothing in the best of men that can invite it; but 
God quickeneth whom he will, and when he sends that call, though it 
come to the vilest of the vile, down they come speedily and swiftly; 
they come down from the tree of their sin, and fall prostrate in 
penitence at the feet of Jesus Christ.

But now to illustrate this call in its effects, we remind you that 
Abraham is another remarkable instance of effectual calling. "Now the 
Lord had said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country, and from thy 
kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee," 
and "by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into place which 
he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not 
knowing whither he went." Ah! poor Abraham, as the world would 
have had it, what a trial his call cost him! He was happy enough in the 
bosom of his father's household, but idolatry crept into it, and when 
God called Abraham, he called him alone and blessed him out of Ur of 
the Chaldees, and said to him, "Go forth, Abraham!" and he went forth, 
not knowing whither he went. Now, when effectual calling comes into 
a house and singles out a man, that man will be compelled to go forth 
without the camp, bearing Christ's reproach. He must come out from 
his very dearest friends, from all his old acquaintances, from those 
friends with whom he used to drink, and swear, and take pleasure; he 
must go straight away from them all, to follow the Lamb whithersoever 
he goeth. What a trial to Abraham's faith, when he had to leave all that 
was so dear to him, and go he knew not whither! And yet God had a 
goodly land for him, and intended greatly to bless him. Man! if thou art 
called, if thou art called truly, there will be a going out, and a going out 
alone. Perhaps some of God's professed people will leave you; you will 
have to go without a solitary friend,--maybe you will even be deserted 
by Sarah herself, and you may be a stranger in a strange land, a solitary 
wanderer, as all your fathers were. Ah! but if it be an effectual call, and 
if salvation shall be the result thereof, what matters it though thou dost 
go to heaven alone? Better to be a solitary pilgrim to bliss, than one of 
the thousands who throng the road to hell.

I will have one more illustration. When effectual calling comes to a 
man, at first he may not know that it is effectual calling. You remember 
the case of Samuel; the Lord called Samuel, and he arose and went to 
Eli, and he said, "Here am I, for thou calledst me." Eli said, "I called 
not, lie down again. And he went and lay down." The second time the 
Lord called him, and said, "Samuel, Samuel," and he arose again, and 
went to Eli, and said, "Here am I, for thou didst call me," and then it 
was that Eli, not Samuel, first of all perceived that the Lord had called 
the child. And when Samuel knew it was the Lord, he said, "Speak; for 
thy servant heareth." When the work of grace begins in the heart, the 
man is not always clear that it is God's work; he is impressed under the 
minister, and perhaps he is rather more occupied with the impression 
than with the agent of the impression; he says, "I know not how it is, 
but I have been called; Eli, the minister has called me." And perhaps he 
goes to Eli to ask what he wants with him. "Surely," said he, "the 
minister knew me, and spoke something personally to me, because he 
knew my case." And he goes to Eli, and it is not till afterwards, 
perhaps, that he finds that Eli had nothing to do with the impression, 
but that the Lord had called him. I know this--I believe God was at 
work with my heart for years before I knew anything about him. I knew 
there was a work; I knew I prayed, and cried, and groaned for mercy, 
but I did not know that was the Lord's work; I half thought it was my 
own. I did not know till afterwards, when I was led to know Christ as 
all my salvation, and all my desire, that the Lord had called the child, 
for this could not have been the result of nature, it must have been the 
effect of grace. I think I may say to those who are the beginners in the 
divine life, so long as your call is real, rest assured it is divine. If it 
is a call that will suit the remarks which I about to give you in the second 
part of the discourse, even though you may have thought that God's 
hand is not in it, rest assured that it is, for nature could never produce 
effectual calling. If the call be effectual, and you are brought out and 
brought in--brought out of sin and brought to Christ, brought out of 
death into life, and out of slavery into liberty, then, though thou canst 
not see God's hand in it, yet it is there.

II. I have thus illustrated effectual calling. And now as a matter of 
EXAMINATION let each man judge himself by certain characteristics 
of heavenly calling which I am about to mention. If in your Bible you 
turn to 2 Timothy 1:9, you will read these words--"Who hath saved us, 
and called us with an holy calling." Now here is the first touchstone by 
which we may try our calling--many are called but few are chosen, 
because there are many kinds of call, but the true call, and that only, 
answers to the description of the text. It is "an 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." This 
calling forbids all trust in our own doings and conducts us to Christ 
alone for salvation, but it afterwards purges us from dead works to 
serve the living and true God. If you are living in sin, you are not 
called; if you can still continue as you were before your pretended 
conversion, then it is no conversion at all; that man who is called in his 
drunkenness, will forsake his drunkenness; men may be called in the 
midst of sin, but they will not continue in it any longer. Saul was 
anointed to be king when he was seeking his father's asses; and many a 
man has been called when he has been seeking his own lust, but he will 
leave the asses, and leave the lust, when once he is called. Now, by 
this shall ye know whether ye be called of God or not. If ye continue in 
sin, if ye walk according to the course of this world, according to the 
spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, then are ye still 
dead in your trespasses and your sins; but as he that hath called you is 
holy, so must ye be holy. Can ye say, "Lord, thou knowest all things, 
thou knowest that I desire to keep all thy commandments, and to walk 
blamelessly in thy sight. I know that my obedience cannot save me, but 
I long to obey. There is nothing that pains me so much as sin; I desire 
to be quit and rid of it; Lord help me to be holy"? Is that the panting of 
thy heart? Is that the tenor of thy life towards God, and towards his 
law? Then, beloved, I have reason to hope that thou hast been called of 
God, for it is a holy calling wherewith God doth call his people.

Another text. In Philippians 3:13 and 14 you find these words. 
"Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto 
those which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the 
high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Is then your calling a high calling, 
has it lifted up your heart, and set it upon heavenly things? Has it lifted 
up your hopes, to hope no longer for things that are on earth, but for 
things that are above? Has it lifted up your tastes, so that they are no 
longer grovelling, but you choose the things that are of God? Has it 
lifted up the constant tenor of your life, so that you spend your life with 
God in prayer, in praise, and in thanksgiving, and can no longer be 
satisfied with the low and mean pursuits which you followed in the 
days of your ignorance? Recollect, if you are truly called it is a high 
calling, a calling from on high, and a calling that lifts up your heart, and 
raises it to the high things of God, eternity, heaven, and holiness. In 
Hebrews 3:1, you find this sentence. "Holy brethren partakers of the 
heavenly calling." Here is another test. Heavenly calling means a call 
from heaven. Have you been called, not of man but of God? Can you 
now detect in your calling, the hand of God, and the voice of God? If 
man alone call thee, thou art uncalled. Is thy calling of God? and is it a 
call to heaven as well as from heaven? Can you heartily say that you 
can never rest satisfied till you

                             --"behold his face
                            And never, never sin,
                      But from the rivers of his grace,
                        Drink endless pleasures in."

Man, unless thou art a stranger here, and heaven is thy home, thou hast 
not been called with a heavenly calling, for those who have been so 
called, declare that they look for a city which hath foundations, whose 
builder and maker is God, and they themselves are strangers and 
pilgrims upon the earth.

There is another test. Let me remind you, that there is a passage in 
scripture which may tend very much to your edification, and help you 
in your examination. Those who are called, are men who before the 
calling, groaned in sin. What says Christ?--"I came not to call the 
righteous, but sinners to repentance." Now, if I cannot say the first 
things because of diffidence, though they be true, yet can I say this, 
that I feel myself to be a sinner, that I loathe my sinnership, that I 
detest my iniquity, that I feel I deserve the wrath of God on account of 
my transgressions? If so, then I have a hope that I may be among the 
called host whom God has predestinated. He has called not the 
righteous but sinners to repentance. Self-righteous man, I can tell thee 
in the tick of a clock, whether thou hast any evidence of election. I tell 
thee--No; Christ never called the righteous; and if he has not called 
thee, and if he never does call thee, thou art not elect, and thou and thy 
self-righteousness must be subject to the wrath of God, and cast away 
eternally. Only the sinner, the awakened sinner, can be at all assured 
that he has been called; and even he, as he gets older in grace, must 
look for those higher marks of the high heavenly and holy calling in 
Christ Jesus.

As a further test,--keeping close to scripture this morning, for when we 
are dealing with our own state before God there is nothing like giving 
the very words of scripture,--we are told in the first epistle of Peter, the 
second chapter, and the ninth verse, that God hath called us out of 
darkness into marvelous light. Is that your call? Were you once 
darkness in regard to Christ; and has marvelous light manifested to you 
a marvelous Redeemer, marvelously strong to save? Say soul, canst 
thou honestly declare that they past life was darkness and that thy 
present state is light in the Lord? "For ye were sometime darkness, but 
now are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of the light." That man is 
not called who cannot look back upon darkness, ignorance, and sin, 
and who cannot now say, that he knows more than he did know, and 
enjoys at times the light of knowledge, and the comfortable light of 
God's countenance.

Yet again. Another test of calling is to be found in Galatians, the fifth 
chapter, and the fifteenth verse. "Brethren, ye have been called into 
liberty." Let me ask myself again this question, Have the fetters of my 
sin been broken off, and am I God's free man? Have the manacles of 
justice been snapped, and am I delivered--set free by him who is the 
great ransomer of spirits? The slave is not called. It is the free man that 
has been brought out of Egypt, who proves that he has been called of 
God and is precious to the heart of the Most High.

And yet once more, another precious means of test in the first of 
Corinthians, the first chapter, and the ninth verse. "He is faithful by 
whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our 
Lord." Do I have fellowship with Christ? do I converse with him, 
commune with him? Do I suffer with him, suffer for him? Do I 
sympathize with him in his objects and aims? Do I love what he loves; 
do I hate what he hates? Can I bear his reproach; can I carry his cross; 
do I tread in his steps; do I serve his cause, and is it my grandest hope 
that I shall see his kingdom come, that I shall sit upon his throne, and 
reign with him? If so, then am I called with the effectual calling, which 
is the work of God's grace, and is the sure sign of my predestination.

Let me say now, before I turn from this point, that it is possible for a 
man to know whether God has called him or not, and he may know it 
too beyond a doubt. He may know it as surely as if he read it with his 
own eyes; nay, he may know it more surely than that, for if I read a 
thing with my eyes, even my eyes may deceive me, the testimony of 
sense may be false, but the testimony of the Spirit must be true. We 
have the witness of the Spirit within, bearing witness with our spirits 
that we are born of God. There is such a thing on earth as an infallible 
assurance of our election. Let a man once get that, and it will anoint his 
head with fresh oil, it will clothe him with the white garment of praise, 
and put the song of the angel into his mouth. Happy, happy man! who 
is fully assured of his interest in the covenant of grace, in the blood of 
atonement, and in the glories of heaven! Such men there are here this 
very day. Let them "rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice."

What would some of you give if you could arrive at this assurance? 
Mark, if you anxiously desire to know, you may know. If your heart 
pants to read its title clear it shall do so ere long. No man ever desired 
Christ in his heart with a living and longing desire, who did not find 
him sooner or later. If thou hast a desire, God has given it thee. If thou 
pantest, and criest, and groanest after Christ, even this is his gift; bless 
him for it. Thank him for little grace, and ask him for great grace. He 
has given thee hope, ask for faith; and when he gives thee faith, ask for 
assurance; and when thou gettest assurance, ask for full assurance; and 
when thou hast obtained full assurance, ask for enjoyment; and when 
thou hast enjoyment, ask for glory itself; and he shall surely give it thee 
in his own appointed season.

III. I now come to finish up with CONSOLATION. Is there anything 
here that can console me? Oh, yes, rivers of consolation flow from my 
calling. For, first, if I am called then I am predestinated, there is no 
doubt about it. The great scheme of salvation is like those chains which 
we sometimes see at horse-ferries. There is a chain on this side of the 
river fixed into a staple, and the same chain is fixed into a staple at the 
other side, but the greater part of the chain is for the most part under 
water, and you cannot see it: you only see it as the boat moves on, and 
as the chain is drawn out of the water by the force that propels the 
boat. If today I am enabled to say I am called, then my boat is like the 
ferry-boat in the middle of the stream. I can see that part of the chain, 
which is named "calling," but blessed be God, that is joined to the side 
that is called "election," and I may be also quite clear that it is joined 
on to the other side, the glorious end of "glorification." If I be called I 
must have been elected, and I need not doubt that. God never 
tantalized a man by calling him by grace effectually, unless he had 
written that man's name in the Lamb's book of life. Oh, what a glorious 
doctrine is that of election, when a man can see himself to be elect. 
One of the reasons why many men kick against it is this, they are afraid 
it hurts them. I never knew a man yet, who had a reason to believe that 
he himself was chosen of God, who hated the doctrine of election. Men 
hate election just as thieves hate Chubb's patent locks; because they 
cannot get at the treasure themselves, they therefore hate the guard 
which protects it. Now election shuts up the precious treasury of God's 
covenant blessings for his children--for penitents, for seeking sinners. 
These men will not repent, will not believe; they will not go God's way, 
and then they grumble and growl, and fret, and fume, because God has 
locked the treasure up against them. Let a man once believe that all the 
treasure within is his, and then the stouter the bolt, and the surer the 
lock, the better for him. Oh, how sweet it is to believe our names were 
on Jehovah's heart, and graven on Jesus' hands before the universe had 
a being! May not this electrify a man of joy, and make him dance for 
very mirth? 

                        Chosen of God ere time began.

Come on, slanderers! rail on as pleases you. Come on thou world in 
arms! Cataracts of trouble descend if you will, and you, ye floods of 
affliction, roll if so it be ordained, for God has written my name in the 
book of life. Firm as this rock I stand, though nature reels and all things 
pass away. What consolation then to be called: for if I am called, then I 
am predestinated. Come let us at the sovereignty which has called us, 
and let us remember the words of the apostle, "For ye see your calling, 
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, 
not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of 
the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things 
of the world, to confound the things which are mighty; And base things 
of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and 
things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh 
should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of 
God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, 
and redemption: that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him 
glory in the Lord."

A second consolation is drawn from the grand truth, that if a man be 
called he will certainly be saved at last. To prove that, however, I will 
refer you to the express words of scripture: Romans 11:29--"The gifts 
and calling of God are without repentance." He never repents of what 
he gives, nor of what he calls. And indeed this is proved by the very 
chapter out of which we have taken our text. "Whom he did 
predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also 
justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified," everyone of 
them. Now, believer, thou mayest be very poor, and very sick, and 
very much unknown and despised, but sit thee down and review thy 
calling this morning, and the consequences that flow from it. As sure as 
thou art God's called child today, thy poverty shall soon be at an end, 
and thou shalt be rich to all the intents of bliss. Wait awhile; that weary 
head shall soon be girt with a crown. Stay awhile; that horny hand of 
labor shall soon grasp the palm branch. Wipe away that tear; God shall 
soon wipe away thy tears for ever. Take away that sigh--why sigh 
when the everlasting song is almost on thy lip? The portals of heaven 
stand wide open for thee. A few winged hours must fly; a few more 
billows must roll o'er thee, and thou wilt be safely landed on the golden 
shore. Do not say, "I shall be lost; I shall be cast away." Impossible.

                     Whom once he loves he never leaves,
                         But loves them to the end.

If he hath called thee, nothing can divide thee from his love. The wolf 
of famine cannot gnaw the bond; the fire of persecution cannot burn the 
link, the hammer of hell cannot break the chain; old time cannot devour 
it with rust, nor eternity dissolve it, with all its ages. Oh! believe that 
thou art secure; that voice which called thee, shall call thee yet again 
from earth to heaven, from death's dark gloom to immortality's 
unuttered splendours; Rest assured, the heart that called thee, beats 
with infinite love towards thee, a love undying, that many waters 
cannot quench, and that floods cannot drown. Sit thee down; rest in 
peace; lift up thine eye of hope, and sing thy song with fond 
anticipation. Thou shall soon be with the glorified, where thy portion 
is; thou art only waiting here to be made meet, for the inheritance, and 
that done, the wings of angels shall waft thee far away, to the mount of 
peace, and joy, and blessedness, where

                     Far from a world of grief and sin,
                         With God eternally shut in,

thou shall rest for ever and ever. Examine yourselves then whether you 
have been called.--And may the love of Jesus be with you. Amen.

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The Sovereignty of God in Reprobation (A.W. Pink, 1886-1952)

Romans 11:22

“Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.” 

In the last chapter when treating of the Sovereignty of God the Father in Salvation, we examined seven passages which represent Him as making a choice from among the children of men, and predestinating certain ones to be conformed to the image of His Son. The thoughtful reader will naturally ask, "And what of those who were not ordained to eternal life?" The answer which is usually returned to this question, even by those who profess to believe what the Scriptures teach concerning God's sovereignty, is, that God passes by the non-elect, leaves them alone to go their own way, and in the end casts them into the Lake of Fire because they refused His way, and rejected the Savior of His providing. But this is only a part of the truth; the other part--that which is most offensive to the carnal mind--is either ignored or denied.

In view of the great solemnity of the subject here before us, in view of the fact that today almost all--even those who profess to be Calvinists--reject and repudiate this doctrine, and in view of the fact that this is one of the points in our book which is calculated to raise the most controversy, we feel that an extended enquiry into this aspect of God's Truth is demanded. That this branch of the subject of God's sovereignty is profoundly mysterious we freely allow--yet, that is no reason why we should reject it. The trouble is that, nowadays, there are so many who receive the testimony of God--only so far as they can satisfactorily account for all the reasons and grounds of His conduct, which means they will accept nothing but that which can be measured in the petty scales of their own limited capacities!

Stating it in its baldest form, the point now to be considered is, Has God fore-ordained certain ones to damnation? That many will be eternally damned is clear from Scripture; that each one will be judged according to his works and reap as he has sown, and that in consequence his "damnation is just" (Romans 3:8), is equally sure; and that God decreed that the non-elect should choose the course they follow--we now undertake to prove.

From what has been before us in the previous chapter concerning the election of some to salvation, it would unavoidably follow, even if Scripture had been silent upon it, that there must be a rejection of others. Every choice, evidently and necessarily implies a refusal, for where there is no leaving out--there can be no choice. If there are some whom God has elected unto salvation (2 Thess. 2:13), there must be others who are not elected unto salvation. If there are some that the Father gave to Christ (John 6:37), there must be others whom He did not give unto Christ. If there are some whose names are written in the Lamb's book of Life (Revelation 21:27), there must be others whose names are not written there. That this is the case we shall fully prove below.

Now all will acknowledge that from the foundation of the world, God certainly fore-knew and fore-saw who would and who would not receive Christ as their Savior, therefore in giving being and birth to those He knew would reject Christ, He necessarily created them unto damnation. All that can be said in reply to this is, No--while God did foreknow these ones would reject Christ--yet He did not decree that they should. But this is a begging of the real question at issue. God had a definite reason why He created men, a specific purpose why He created this and that individual, and in view of the eternal destination of His creatures, He purposed either that this one should spend eternity in Heaven--or that this one should spend eternity in the Lake of Fire! If then He foresaw that in creating a certain person, that that person would despise and reject the Savior--yet knowing this beforehand He, nevertheless, brought that person into existence, then it is clear He designed and ordained that that person should be eternally lost.

Again--faith is God's gift, and the purpose to give it only to some, involves the purpose not to give it to others. Without faith there is no salvation, "He who believes not shall be damned." Hence if there were some of Adam's descendants to whom He purposed not to give faith, it must be because He ordained that they should be damned.

Not only is there no escape from these conclusions--but history confirms them. Before the Divine Incarnation, for almost two thousand years, the vast majority of mankind were left destitute of even the external means of grace, being favored with no preaching of God's Word and with no written revelation of His will. For many long centuries Israel was the only nation to whom the Deity vouchsafed any special discovery of Himself, "Who in times past allowed all nations to walk in their own ways" (Acts 14:16), "You only (Israel) have I known of all the families of the earth" (Amos 3:2). Consequently, as all other nations were deprived of the preaching of God's Word, they were strangers to the faith that comes thereby (Romans 10:17). These nations were not only ignorant of God Himself--but of the way to please Him, of the true manner of acceptance with Him, and the means of arriving at the everlasting enjoyment of Himself.

Now if God had willed their salvation--would He not have vouchsafed them the means of salvation? Would He not have given them all things necessary to that end? But it is an undeniable matter of fact--that He did not. If, then, Deity can, consistently, with His justice, mercy, and benevolence, deny to some the means of grace, and shut them up in gross darkness and unbelief (because of the sins of their forefathers, generations before), why should it be deemed incompatible with His perfections to exclude some persons, many, from grace itself, and from that eternal life which is connected with it? seeing that He is Lord and sovereign Disposer both of the end to which the means lead, and the means which lead to that end?

Coming down to our own day, and to those in our own country--leaving out the almost innumerable crowds of unevangelized heathen--is it not evident that there are many living in lands where the Gospel is preached, lands which are full of churches--who die strangers to God and His holiness? True, the means of grace were close to their hand--but many of them knew it not. Thousands are born into homes where they are taught from infancy to regard all Christians as hypocrites and preachers as arch-humbugs. Others, are instructed from the cradle in Roman Catholicism, and are trained to regard Evangelical Christianity as deadly heresy, and the Bible as a book highly dangerous for them to read! Others, reared in "Christian Science" families, know no more of the true Gospel of Christ than do the unevangelized heathen! The great majority of these, die in utter ignorance of the Way of Peace.

Now are we not obliged to conclude, that it was not God's will to communicate grace to them? Had His will been otherwise, would He not have actually communicated His grace to them? If, then, it was the will of God, in time, to refuse to them His grace--it must have been His will from all eternity, since His will is, as Himself, the same yesterday, and today and forever. Let it not be forgotten that God's providences are but the manifestations of His decrees. What God does in time--is only what He purposed in eternity--His own will being the sole cause of all His acts and works. Therefore from His actually leaving some men in final impenitency and unbelief--we assuredly gather it was His everlasting determination so to do; and consequently that He reprobated some from before the foundation of the world.

In the Westminster Confession it is said, "God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably foreordain whatever comes to pass". The late Mr. F. W. Grant--a most careful and cautious student and writer--commenting on these words said: "It is perfectly, divinely true, that God has ordained for His own glory whatever comes to pass." Now if these statements are true, is not the doctrine of Reprobation established by them? What, in human history, is the one thing which does come to pass every day? What--but that men and women die, pass out of this world into a hopeless eternity, an eternity of suffering and woe! If then God has foreordained whatever comes to pass--then He must have decreed that vast numbers of human beings should pass out of this world unsaved--to suffer eternally in the Lake of Fire! Admitting the general premise, is not the specific conclusion inevitable?

In reply to the preceding paragraphs the reader may say--All this is simply reasoning, logical no doubt--but yet mere inferences. Very well, we will now point out that in addition to the above conclusions, there are many passages in Holy Writ, which are most clear and definite in their teaching on this solemn subject; passages which are too plain to be misunderstood and too strong to be evaded. The marvel is that so many good men have denied their undeniable affirmations.

"Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long time. Except for the Hivites living in Gibeon, not one city made a treaty of peace with the Israelites, who took them all in battle. For it was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses." (Joshua 11:18-20). What could be plainer than this? Here was a large number of Canaanites whose hearts the Lord hardened, whom He had purposed to utterly destroy, to whom He showed "no favor". Granted that they were wicked, immoral, idolatrous; were they any worse than the immoral, idolatrous cannibals of the South Sea Islands (and many other places), to whom God gave the Gospel through John G. Paton! Assuredly not! Then why did not Jehovah command Israel to teach the Canaanites His laws and instruct them concerning sacrifices to the true God? Plainly, because He had marked them out for destruction, and if so, that from all eternity.

"The Lord works out everything for His own ends--even the wicked for a day of disaster." (Proverbs 16:4). That the Lord made all people--every reader of this book will allow. That He made all for His own ends--is not so widely believed. That God made us, not for our own sakes--but for Himself; not for our own happiness--but for His glory; is, nevertheless, repeatedly affirmed in Scripture, Revelation 4:11. But Proverbs 16:4 goes even farther: it expressly declares that the Lord made the wicked for the day of disaster: that was His design in giving them being. But why? Does not Romans 9:17 tell us, "For the Scripture says unto Pharaoh, Even for this purpose have I raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth!" God has made the wicked that, at the end, He may demonstrate "His power" --demonstrate it by showing what an easy matter it is for Him to subdue the stoutest rebel, and to overthrow His mightiest enemy.

"And then will I profess unto them--I never knew you! Depart from Me, you who work iniquity" (Matthew 7:23). In the previous chapter it has been shown that, the words "know" and "foreknowledge" when applied to God in the Scriptures, have reference not simply to His prescience (that is His bare knowledge beforehand), but to His knowledge of approbation. When God said to Israel, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth" (Amos 3:2), it is evident that He meant, "You only had I any favorable regard to." When we read in Romans 11:2 "God has not cast away His people (Israel) whom He foreknew," it is obvious that what was signified is, "God has not finally rejected that people whom He has chosen as the objects of His love. cf. Deuteronomy 7:7, 8. In the same way (and it is the only possible way) are we to understand Matthew 7:23. In the Day of Judgment the Lord will say unto many, "I never knew you". Note, it is more than simply "I know you not". His solemn declaration will be, "I never knew you"--you were never the objects of My approbation. Contrast this with "I know (love) My sheep, and am known (loved) of Mine" (John 10:14). The "sheep", His elect, the "few", He does "know"; but the reprobate, the non-elect, the "many" He knows not--no, not even before the foundation of the world did He know them--He "NEVER" knew them!

In Romans 9 the doctrine of God's sovereignty in its application to both the elect and the reprobate is treated of at length. A detailed exposition of this important chapter would be beyond our present scope; all that we can essay is to dwell upon the part of it which most clearly bears upon the aspect of the subject which we are now considering.

Verse 17: "For the Scripture says unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth." These words refer us back to verses 13 and 14. In verse 13 God's love to Jacob and His hatred to Esau are declared. In verse 14 it is asked "Is there unrighteousness with God?" and here in verse 17 the apostle continues his reply to the objection.

We cannot do better now than quote from Calvin's comments upon this verse. "There are here two things to be considered--the predestination of Pharaoh to ruin, which is to be referred to the past and yet the hidden counsel of God--and then, the design of this, which was to make known the name of God. As many interpreters, striving to modify this passage, pervert it, we must first observe, that for the word 'I have raised you up', or stirred up, in the Hebrew is, 'I have appointed', by which it appears, that God, designing to show that the contumacy of Pharaoh would not prevent Him to deliver His people, not only affirms that his fury had been foreseen by Him, and that He had prepared means for restraining it--but that He had also thus designedly ordained it and indeed for this end--that he might exhibit a more illustrious evidence of His own power." It will be observed that Calvin gives as the force of the Hebrew word which Paul renders "For this purpose have I raised you up,", "I have appointed". As this is the word on which the doctrine and argument of the verse turns we would further point out that in making this quotation from Exodus 9:16 the apostle significantly departs from the Septuagint--the version then in common use, and from which he most frequently quotes--and substitutes a clause for the first that is given by the Septuagint: instead of "On this account you have been preserved", he gives "For this very end have I raised you up!"

But we must now consider in more detail the case of Pharaoh which sums up in concrete example the great controversy between man and his Maker. "For now I will stretch out My hand, that I may smite you and your people with pestilence; and you shall be cut off from the earth. And in very deed for this cause have I raised you up, for to show in you My power; and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth" (Exodus 9:15, 16). Upon these words we offer the following comments:

First, we know from Exodus 14 and 15 that Pharaoh was "cut off", that he was cut off by God, that he was cut off in the very midst of his wickedness, that he was cut off not by sickness nor by the infirmities which are incident to old age, nor by what men term an accident--but cut off by the immediate hand of God in judgment.

Second, it is clear that God raised up Pharaoh for this very end--to "cut him off," which in the language of the New Testament means "destroyed." God never does anything without a previous design. In giving him being, in preserving him through infancy and childhood, in raising him to the throne of Egypt, God had one end in view. That such was God's purpose is clear from His words to Moses before he went down to Egypt, to demand of Pharaoh that Jehovah's people should be allowed to go a three days' journey into the wilderness to worship Him, "And the Lord said unto Moses, When you go to return into Egypt, see that you do all these wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in your hand--but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go" (Exodus 4:21). But not only so, God's design and purpose was declared long before this. Four hundred years previously God had said to Abraham, "Know of a surety that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge" (Genesis 15:13, 14). From these words it is evident (a nation and its king being looked at as one in the O. T.) that God's purpose was formed long before He gave Pharaoh being.

Third, an examination of God's dealings with Pharaoh makes it clear that Egypt's king was indeed a "vessel of wrath fitted to destruction." Placed on Egypt's throne, with the reins of government in his hands, he sat as head of the nation which occupied the first rank among the peoples of the world. There was no other monarch on earth able to control or dictate to Pharaoh. To such a dizzy height did God raise this reprobate, and such a course was a natural and necessary step to prepare him for his final fate, for it is a Divine axiom that "pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall." Further--and this is deeply important to note and highly significant--God removed from Pharaoh the one outward restraint which was calculated to act as a check upon him. The bestowing upon Pharaoh of the unlimited powers of a king was setting him above all legal influence and control. But besides this, God removed Moses from his presence and kingdom. Had Moses, who not only was skilled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians but also had been reared in Pharaoh's household, been suffered to remain in close proximity to the throne, there can be no doubt but that his example and influence had been a powerful check upon the king's wickedness and tyranny. This, though not the only cause, was plainly one reason why God sent Moses into Midian, for it was during his absence that Egypt's inhuman king framed his most cruel edicts. God designed, by removing this restraint, to give Pharaoh full opportunity to fill up the full measure of his sins, and ripen himself for his fully-deserved but predestined ruin.

Fourth, God "hardened" his heart as He declared He would (Exodus 4:21). This is in full accord with the declarations of Holy Scripture, "The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord" (Proverbs 16:1); "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water, He turns it wherever He will" (Proverbs 21:1). Like all other kings, Pharaoh's heart was in the hand of the Lord; and God had both the right and the power to turn it wherever He pleased. And it pleased Him to turn it against all good. God determined to hinder Pharaoh from granting his request through Moses to let Israel go, until He had fully prepared him for his final overthrow, and because nothing short of this would fully fit him, God hardened his heart.

Finally, it is worthy of careful consideration to note how the vindication of God in His dealings with Pharaoh has been fully attested. Most remarkable it is to discover that we have Pharaoh's own testimony in favor of God and against himself! In Exodus 9:15 and 16 we learn how God had told Pharaoh for what purpose He had raised him up, and in verse 27 of the same chapter we are told that Pharaoh said, "I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked." Mark that this was said by Pharaoh after he knew that God had raised him up in order to "cut him off", after his severe judgments had been sent upon him, after he had hardened his own heart. By this time Pharaoh was fairly ripened for judgment, and fully prepared to decide whether God had injured him, or whether he had sought to injure God; and he fully acknowledges that he had "sinned" and that God was "righteous". Again; we have the witness of Moses who was fully acquainted with God's conduct toward Pharaoh. He had heard at the beginning what was God's design in connection with Pharaoh; he had witnessed God's dealings with him; he had observed his "long-sufferance" toward this vessel of wrath fitted to destruction; and at last he had beheld him cut off in Divine judgment at the Red Sea. How then was Moses impressed?

Does he raise the cry of injustice? Does he dare to charge God with unrighteousness? Far from it. Instead, he says, "Who is like unto You, O Lord, among the gods? "Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders!" (Exodus 15:11).

Was Moses moved by a vindictive spirit as he saw Israel's arch-enemy "cut off" by the waters of the Red Sea? Surely not. But to remove forever all doubt upon this score, it remains to be pointed out how that saints in heaven, after they have witnessed the sore judgments of God, join in singing "the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb saying, Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Your ways, You King of Nations" (Revelation 15:3). Here then is the climax, and the full and final vindication of God's dealings with Pharaoh. Saints in heaven join in singing the Song of Moses, in which that servant of God celebrated Jehovah's praise in overthrowing Pharaoh and his hosts, declaring that in so acting God was not unrighteous but just and true. We must believe, therefore, that the Judge of all the earth did right in creating and destroying this vessel of wrath, Pharaoh.

The case of Pharaoh establishes the principle and illustrates the doctrine of Reprobation. If God actually reprobated Pharaoh, we may justly conclude that He reprobates all others whom He did not predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. This inference the apostle Paul manifestly draws from the fate of Pharaoh, for in Romans 9, after referring to God's purpose in raising up Pharaoh, he continues, "therefore". The case of Pharaoh is introduced to prove the doctrine of Reprobation as the counterpart of the doctrine of Election.

In conclusion, we would say that in forming Pharaoh, God displayed neither justice nor injustice--but only His bare sovereignty. As the potter is sovereign in forming vessels, so God is sovereign in forming moral agents.

Verse 18: "Therefore has He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardens". The "therefore" announces the general conclusion which the apostle draws from all he had said in the three preceding verses in denying that God was unrighteous in loving Jacob and hating Esau, and specifically it applies the principle exemplified in God's dealings with Pharaoh. It traces everything back to the sovereign will of the Creator. He loves one and hates another, He exercises mercy toward some and hardens others, without reference to anything--except His own sovereign will.

That which is most repellant to the carnal mind in the above verse is the reference to hardening, "Whom He will--He hardens", and it is just here that so many commentators and expositors have adulterated the truth. The most common view is that the apostle is speaking of nothing more than judicial hardening, that is, a forsaking by God because these subjects of His displeasure had first rejected His truth and forsaken Him. Those who contend for this interpretation appeal to such scriptures as Romans 1:19-26, "God gave them up", that is (see context) those who "knew God" yet glorified Him not as God (v. 21). Appeal is also made to 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12. But it is to be noted that the word "harden" does not occur in either of these passages. But further. We submit that Romans 9:18 has no reference whatever to judicial "hardening". The apostle is not there speaking of those who had already turned their backs on God's truth--but instead, he is dealing with God's sovereignty, God's sovereignty as seen not only in showing mercy to whom He wills--but also in hardening whom He pleases. The exact words are "Whom He will"--not "all who have rejected His truth", "He hardens", and this, coming immediately after the mention of Pharaoh, clearly fixes their meaning. The case of Pharaoh is plain enough, though man by his glosses has done his best to hide the truth.

Verse 18: "Therefore has He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardens". This affirmation of God's sovereign "hardening" of sinners' hearts--in contradistinction from judicial hardening--is not alone. Mark the language of John 12:37-40, "But though He had done so many miracles before them--yet they believed not on Him: that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe (why?), because that Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts (why? Because they had refused to believe on Christ? This is the popular belief--but mark the answer of Scripture) that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them." Now, reader, it is just a question as to whether or not you will believe what God has revealed in His Word. It is not a matter of prolonged searching or profound study--but a childlike spirit which is needed, in order to understand this doctrine.

Verse 19: "You will say then unto me, Why does He yet find fault? For who has resisted His will?" Is not this the very objection which is urged today? The force of the apostle's questions here seems to be this: Since everything is dependent on God's will, which is irreversible, and since this will of God, according to which He can do everything as sovereign--since He can have mercy on whom He wills to have mercy, and can refuse mercy and inflict punishment on whom He chooses to do so--why does He not will to have mercy on all, so as to make them obedient, and thus put finding of fault out of court? Now it should be particularly noted that the apostle does not repudiate the ground on which the objection rests. He does not say God does not find fault. Nor does he say, Men may resist His will. Furthermore; he does not explain away the objection by saying: You have altogether misapprehended my meaning when I said 'Whom He wills He treats kindly, and whom He wills He treats severely'. But he says, "first, this is an objection you have no right to make; and then, This is an objection you have no reason to make" (vide Dr. Brown). The objection was utterly inadmissible, for it was a replying against God. It was to complain about, argue against, what God had done!

Verse 19: "You will say then unto me, Why does He yet find fault? For who has resisted His will?" The language which the apostle here puts into the mouth of the objector is so plain and pointed, that misunderstanding ought to be impossible. Why does He yet find fault? Now, reader, what can these words mean? Formulate your own reply before considering ours. Can the force of the apostle's question be any other than this: If it is true that God has "mercy" on whom He wills, and also "hardens" whom He wills, then what becomes of human responsibility? In such a case men are nothing better than puppets, and if this be true then it would be unjust for God to "find fault" with His helpless creatures. Mark the word "then"--You will say then unto me--he states the (false) inference or conclusion which the objector draws from what the apostle had been saying. And mark, my reader, the apostle readily saw the doctrine he had formulated would raise this very objection, and unless what we have written throughout this book provokes, in some at least, (all whose carnal minds are not subdued by divine grace) the same objection, then it must be either because we have not presented the doctrine which is set forth in Romans 9, or else because human nature has changed since the apostle's day.

Consider now the remainder of the verse (19). The apostle repeats the same objection in a slightly different form--repeats it so that his meaning may not be misunderstood--namely, "For who has resisted His will?" It is clear then that the subject under immediate discussion relates to God's "will", that is, His sovereign ways, which confirms what we have said above upon verses 17 and 18, where we contended that it is not judicial hardening which is in view (that is, hardening because of previous rejection of the truth)--but sovereign "hardening", that is, the "hardening" of a fallen and sinful creature for no other reason than that which inheres in the sovereign will of God. And hence the question, "Who has resisted His will?" What then does the apostle say in reply to these objections?

Verse 20: "Nay but, O man, who are you that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?" The apostle, then, did not say the objection was pointless and groundless, instead, he rebukes the objector for his impiety. He reminds him that he is merely a "man", a creature, and that as such it is most unseemly and impertinent for him to "reply (argue, or reason) against God". Furthermore, he reminds him that he is nothing more than a "thing formed", and therefore, it is madness and blasphemy to rise up against the Former Himself. Before leaving this verse it should be pointed out that its closing words, "Why have you made me thus" help us to determine, unmistakably, the precise subject under discussion. In the light of the immediate context what can be the force of the "thus"? What--but as in the case of Esau, why have you made me an object of "hatred"? What--but as in the case of Pharaoh, Why have you made me simply to "harden" me? What other meaning can, fairly, be assigned to it?

It is highly important to keep clearly before us that the apostle's object throughout this passage is to treat of God's sovereignty in dealing with, on the one hand, those whom He loves--vessels unto honor and vessels of mercy, and also, on the other hand, with those whom He "hates" and "hardens"--vessels unto dishonor and vessels of wrath.

Verses 21-23: "Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump, to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory." In these verses the apostle furnishes a full and final reply to the objections raised in verse 19. First, he asks, "Has not the potter power over the clay?" etc. It is to be noted the word here translated "power" is a different one in the Greek from the one rendered "power" in verse 22 where it can only signify His might; but here in verse 21, the "power" spoken of must refer to the Creator's rights or sovereign prerogatives; that this is so, appears from the fact that the same Greek word is employed in John 1:12, "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God"--which, as is well known, means the right or privilege to become the sons of God. The R. 5. employs "right" both in John 1:12 and Romans 9:21.

Verse 21: "Has not the potter power over the clay of the same lump, to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?" That the "potter" here is God Himself is certain from the previous verse, where the apostle asks "Who are you that replies against God?" and then, speaking in the terms of the figure he was about to use, continues, "Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it" etc. Some there are who would rob these words of their force by arguing that while the human potter makes certain vessels to be used for less honorable purposes than others, nevertheless, they are designed to fill some useful place. But the apostle does not here say, Has not the potter power over the clay of the same lump, to make one vessel unto an honorable use and another to a less honorable use--but he speaks of some "vessels" being made "unto dishonor". It is true, of course, that God's wisdom will yet be fully vindicated, inasmuch as the destruction of the reprobate will promote His glory--in what way the next verse tells us.

Before passing to the next verse let us summarize the teaching of this and the two previous ones. In verse 19 two questions are asked, "You will say then unto me, Why does He yet find fault? For who has resisted His will?" To those questions a threefold answer is returned. First, in verse 20 the apostle denies the creature the right to sit in judgment upon the ways of the Creator, "Nay but, O man who are you that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why have You made me thus?" The apostle insists that the rectitude of God's will must not be questioned. Whatever He does must be right. Second, in verse 21 the apostle declares that the Creator has the right to dispose of His creatures as He sees fit, "Has not the Potter power over the clay, of the same lump, to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?" It should be carefully noted that the word for "power" here is exousia--an entirely different word from the one translated "power" in the following verse ("to make known His power"), where it is dunaton. In the words "Has not the Potter power over the clay?" it must be God's power justly exercised, which is in view--the exercise of God's rights consistently with His justice--because the mere assertion of His omnipotency would be no such answer as God would return to the questions asked in verse 19. Third, in verses 22, 23, the apostle gives the reasons why God proceeds differently with one of His creatures from another: on the one hand, it is to "show His wrath" and to "make His power known"; on the other hand, it is to "make known the riches of His glory."

"Has not the potter power over the clay of the same lump, to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?" Certainly God has the right to do this because He is the Creator. Does He exercise this right? Yes, as verses 13 and 17 clearly show us, "For this same purpose have I raised you (Pharaoh) up".

Verse 22: "What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction". Here the apostle tells us in the second place, why God acts thus, that is, differently with different ones--having mercy on some and hardening others, making one vessel "unto honor" and another "unto dishonor". Observe, that here in verse 22 the apostle first mentions "vessels of wrath", before he refers in verse 23 to the "vessels of mercy". Why is this? The answer to this question is of first importance: we reply, Because it is the "vessels of wrath" who are the subjects in view before the objector in verse 19. Two reasons are given why God makes some "vessels unto dishonor": first, to "show His wrath", and secondly "to make His power known"--both of which were exemplified in the case of Pharaoh.

One point in the above verse requires separate consideration, "Vessels of wrath fitted to destruction". The usual explanation which is given of these words, is that the vessels of wrath fit themselves to destruction, that is, fit themselves by virtue of their wickedness; and it is argued that there is no need for God to "fit them to destruction", because they are already fitted by their own depravity, and that this must be the real meaning of this expression. Now if by "destruction" we understand punishment, it is perfectly true that the non-elect do "fit themselves", for everyone will be judged "according to his works"; and further, we freely grant that subjectively the non-elect do fit themselves for destruction. But the point to be decided is, Is this what the apostle is here referring to? And, without hesitation, we reply it is not. Go back to verses 11-13: did Esau fit himself to be an object of God's hatred, or was he not such before he was born? Again; did Pharaoh fit himself for destruction, or did not God harden his heart before the plagues were sent upon Egypt?--see Exodus 4:21!

Romans 9:22 is clearly a continuation in thought of verse 21, and verse 21 is part of the apostle's reply to the questions raised in verse 20: therefore, to fairly follow out the figure, it must be God Himself who "fits" unto destruction the vessels of wrath. Should it be asked how God does this, the answer, necessarily, is, objectively--He fits the non-elect unto destruction by His fore-ordinating decrees. Should it be asked why God does this, the answer must be, To promote His own glory, that is, the glory of His justice, power and wrath. "The sum of the apostle's answer here is, that the grand object of God, both in the election and the reprobation of men, is that which is paramount to all things else in the creation of men, namely, His own glory" (Robert Haldane).

Verse 23: "And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory." The only point in this verse which demands attention is the fact that the "vessels of mercy" are here said to be "afore prepared unto glory". Many have pointed out that the previous verse does not say the vessels of wrath were afore prepared unto destruction, and from this omission they have concluded that we must understand the reference there to the non-elect fitting themselves in time, rather than God ordaining them for destruction from all eternity. But this conclusion by no means follows. We need to look back to verse 21 and note the figure which is there employed. "Clay" is inanimate matter, corrupt, decomposed, and therefore a fit substance to represent fallen humanity. As then the apostle is contemplating God's sovereign dealings with humanity in view of the Fall, He does not say the vessels of wrath were "afore" prepared unto destruction, for the obvious and sufficient reason that, it was not until after the Fall that they became (in themselves) what is here symbolized by the "clay". All that is necessary to refute the erroneous conclusion referred to above, is to point out that what is said of the vessels of wrath is not that they are fit for destruction (which is the word that would have been used if the reference had been to them fitting themselves by their own wickedness)--but fitted to destruction; which, in the light of the whole context, must mean a sovereign ordination to destruction by the Creator.

We quote here the pointed words of Calvin on this passage, "There are vessels prepared for destruction, that is, given up and appointed to destruction; they are also vessels of wrath, that is, made and formed for this end, that they may 'be examples of God's vengeance and displeasure.' Though in the second clause the apostle asserts more expressly, that it is God who prepared the elect for glory, as he had simply said before that the reprobate are vessels prepared for destruction, there is yet no doubt but that the preparation of both is connected with the secret counsel of God. Paul might have otherwise said, that the reprobate gave up or cast themselves into destruction--but he intimates here, that before they are born they are destined to their lot". With this we are in hearty accord. Romans 9:22 does not say the vessels of wrath fitted themselves, nor does it say they are fit for destruction, instead, it declares they are "fitted to destruction", and the context shows plainly it is God who thus "fits" them--objectively by His eternal decrees.

Though Romans 9 contains the fullest setting forth of the doctrine of Reprobation, there are still other passages which refer to it, one or two more of which we will now briefly notice:

"What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he obtained not--but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened" (Romans 11:7). Here we have two distinct and clearly defined classes which are set in sharp antithesis: the "election" and "the rest"; the one "obtained", the other is "hardened". On this verse we quote from the comments of John Bunyan of immortal memory:, "These are solemn words: they sever between men and men--the election and the rest, the chosen and the left, the embraced and the refused. By 'rest' here must needs be understood those not elect, because set the one in opposition to the other, and if not elect, whom then but reprobate?"

Writing to the saints at Thessalonica the apostle declared "For God has not appointed us to wrath--but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:9). Now surely it is patent to any impartial mind, that this statement is quite pointless if God has not "appointed" any to wrath. To say that God "has not appointed us to wrath", clearly implies that there are some whom He has "appointed to wrath", and were it not that the minds of so many professing Christians are so blinded by prejudice, they could not fail to clearly see this.

"A Stone of stumbling, and a Rock or offence, even to them who stumble at the Word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed" (1 Peter 2:8). The "whereunto" manifestly points back to the stumbling at the Word, and their disobedience. Here, then, God expressly affirms that there are some who have been "appointed" (it is the same Greek word as in 1 Thess. 5:9) unto disobedience. Our business is not to reason about it--but to bow to Holy Scripture. Our first duty is not to understand--but to believe what God has said.

"But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption" (2 Peter 2:12). Here, again, every effort is made to escape the plain teaching of this solemn passage. We are told that it is the "brute beasts" who are "made to be taken and destroyed", and not the persons here likened to them. All that is needed to refute such sophistry is to inquire wherein lies the point of analogy between the "these" (men) and the "brute beasts"? What is the force of the "as"--but "these as brute beasts"? Clearly, it is that "these" men as brute beasts, are the ones who, like animals, are "made to be taken and destroyed": the closing words confirming this by reiterating the same sentiment, "and shall utterly perish in their own corruption."

"For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation; ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ" (Jude 4). Attempts have been made to escape the obvious force of this verse by substituting a different translation. The R.V. gives: "But there are certain men crept in secretly, even they who were of old written of beforehand unto this condemnation." But this altered rendering by no means gets rid of that which is so distasteful to our sensibilities. The question arises, Where were these "of old written of beforehand"? Certainly not in the Old Testament, for nowhere is there any reference there to wicked men creeping into Christian assemblies. If "written of" be the best translation of "prographo", the reference can only be to the book of the Divine decrees. So whichever alternative be selected there can be no evading the fact that certain men are "before of old" marked out by God "unto condemnation."

"And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him (namely, the Antichrist), everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb that has been slain" (Revelation 13:8, R. 5. compare Revelation 17:8). Here, then, is a positive statement affirming that there are those whose names were not written in the Book of Life. Because of this they shall render allegiance to and bow down before the Antichrist.

Here, then, are no less than ten passages which most plainly imply or expressly teach the fact of reprobation. They affirm that the wicked are made for the Day of Evil; that God fashions some vessels unto dishonor; and by His eternal decree (objectively) fits them unto destruction; that they are like brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, being of old ordained unto this condemnation. Therefore in the face of these scriptures we unhesitatingly affirm (after nearly twenty years careful and prayerful study of the subject) that the Word of God unquestionably teaches both Election and Reprobation, or to use the words of Calvin, "Eternal Election is God's predestination of some to salvation, and others to destruction".

Having thus stated the doctrine of Reprobation, as it is presented in Holy Writ, let us now mention one or two important considerations to guard it against abuse and prevent the reader from making any unwarranted deductions--

First, the doctrine of Reprobation does not mean that God purposed to take innocent creatures, make them wicked, and then damn them. Scripture says, "God has made man upright--but they have sought out many inventions" (Eccl. 7:29). God has not created sinful creatures in order to destroy them, for God is not to be charged with the sin of His creatures. The responsibility and criminality is man's.

God's decree of Reprobation contemplated Adam's race as fallen, sinful, corrupt, guilty. From it God purposed to save a few as the monuments of His sovereign grace; the others He determined to destroy as the exemplification of His justice and severity. In determining to destroy these others, God did them no wrong. They had already fallen in Adam, their legal representative; they are therefore born with a sinful nature, and in their sins He leaves them. Nor can they complain. This is as they wish; they have no desire for holiness; they love darkness rather than light. Where, then, is there any injustice if God "gives them up to their own hearts' lusts" (Psalm 81:12)!

Second, the doctrine of Reprobation does not mean that God refuses to save those who earnestly seek salvation. The fact is that the reprobate have no longing for the Savior--they see in Him no beauty in Him, that they should desire Him. They will not come to Christ--why then should God force them to? He turns away none who do come--where then is the injustice of God fore-determining their just doom? None will be punished but for their iniquities; where then, is the supposed tyrannical cruelty of the Divine procedure? Remember that God is the Creator of the wicked, not of their wickedness; He is the Author of their being--but not the Infuser of their sin.

God does not (as we have been slanderously reported to affirm) compel the wicked to sin, as the rider spurs on an unwilling horse. God only says in effect that solemn word, "Let them alone!" (Matthew 15:14). He needs only to slacken the reins of providential restraint, and withhold the influence of saving grace, and apostate man will only too soon and too surely, of his own accord, fall by his iniquities. Thus the decree of reprobation neither interferes with the bent of man's own fallen nature, nor serves to render him the less inexcusable.

Third, the decree of Reprobation in no manner conflicts with God's goodness. Though the non-elect are not the objects of His goodness in the same way or to the same extent as the elect are--yet are they not wholly excluded from a participation of it. They enjoy the good things of Providence (temporal blessings) in common with God's own children, and very often to a higher degree. But how do they improve them? Does the (temporal) goodness of God lead them to repent? Nay, truly, they do but "despise His goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, and after their hardness and impenitency of heart treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath" (Romans 2:4, 5). On what righteous ground, then, can they murmur against not being the objects of His benevolence in the endless ages yet to come? Moreover, if it did not clash with God's mercy and kindness to leave the entire body of the fallen angels (2 Peter 2:4) under the guilt of their apostasy; still less can it clash with the Divine perfections to leave some of fallen mankind in their sins and punish them for them.

Finally, let us interpose this necessary caution: It is utterly impossible for any of us, during the present life, to ascertain who are among the reprobate. We must not now so judge any man, no matter how wicked he may be. The vilest sinner, may, for all we know, be included in the election of grace--and be one day quickened by the Spirit of grace! Our marching orders are plain, and woe be unto us if we disregard them, "Preach the Gospel to every creature!" When we have done so, our skirts are clear. If men refuse to heed, their blood is on their own heads; nevertheless "For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell unto death; to the other, the fragrance unto life" (2 Corinthians 2:15, 16).

We must now consider a number of passages which are often quoted with the purpose of showing that God has not fitted certain vessels to destruction or ordained certain ones to condemnation.

First, we cite Ezekiel 18:31, "Why will you die, O house of Israel?" On this passage we cannot do better than quote from the comments of Augustas Toplady: "This is a passage very frequently--but very idly, insisted upon by Arminians, as if it were a hammer which would at one stroke crush the whole fabric to powder. But it so happens that the "death" here alluded to is neither spiritual nor eternal death: as is abundantly evident from the whole tenor of the chapter. The death intended by the prophet is a political death; a death of national prosperity, tranquility, and security. The sense of the question is precisely this: What is it that makes you in love with captivity, banishment, and civil ruin? Abstinence from the worship of images might, as a people, exempt you from these calamities, and once more render you a respectable nation. Are the miseries of public devastation so alluring as to attract your determined pursuit? Why will you die? die as the house of Israel, and considered as a political body? Thus did the prophet argue the case, at the same time adding, "For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies says the Lord God, wherefore, turn yourselves, and live you." This imports: First, the national captivity of the Jews added nothing to the happiness of God. Second, if the Jews turned from idolatry, and flung away their images, they should not die in a foreign, hostile country--but live peaceably in their own land and enjoy their liberties as an independent people." To the above we may add: political death must be what is in view in Ezekiel 18:31, 32 for the simple but sufficient reason that they were already spiritually dead!

Matthew 25:41 is often quoted to show that God has not fitted certain vessels to destruction, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels." This is, in fact, one of the principal verses relied upon to disprove the doctrine of Reprobation. But we submit that the emphatic word here is not "for" but "Devil." This verse (see context) sets forth the severity of the judgment which awaits the lost. In other words, the above Scripture expresses the awfulness of the everlasting fire rather than the subjects of it--if the fire be "prepared for the Devil and his angels" then how intolerable it will be! If the place of eternal torment into which the damned shall be cast is the same as that in which God's arch-enemy will suffer, how dreadful must that place be!

Again--if God has chosen only certain ones to salvation, why are we told that God "now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30)? That God commands "all men" to repent is but the enforcing of His righteous claims as the moral Governor of the world. How could He do less, seeing that all men everywhere have sinned against Him? Furthermore; that God commands all men everywhere to repent argues the universality of creature responsibility. But this Scripture does not declare that it is God's pleasure to "give repentance" (Acts 5:31) to all men everywhere. That the apostle Paul did not believe that God gave repentance to every soul is clear from his words in 2 Timothy 2:25, "In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God perhaps will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth."

Again, we are asked, if God has "ordained" only certain ones unto eternal life, then why do we read that He "will have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4)? The reply is, that the words "all" and "all men", like the term "world," are often used in a general and relative sense. Let the reader carefully examine the following passages: Mark 1:5; John 6:45; 8:2; Acts 21:28; 22:15; 2 Corinthians 3:2 etc., and he will find full proof of our assertion. 1 Timothy 2:4 cannot teach that God wills the salvation of all mankind, or otherwise all mankind would be saved, "What His soul desires even that He does" (Job 23:13)!

Again; we are asked, Does not Scripture declare, again and again, that God is no "respecter of persons"? We answer, it certainly does, and God's electing grace proves it. The seven sons of Jesse, though older and physically superior to David, are passed by, while the young shepherd-boy is exalted to Israel's throne. The scribes and lawyers pass unnoticed, and ignorant fishermen are chosen to be the apostles of the Lamb. Divine truth is hidden from the wise and prudent and is revealed to babes instead. The great majority of the wise and noble are ignored, while the weak, the base, the despised, are called and saved. Harlots and publicans are sweetly compelled to come in to the gospel feast, while self-righteous Pharisees are suffered to perish in their immaculate morality. Truly, God is "no respecter" of persons or He would not have saved me.

That the Doctrine of Reprobation is a "hard saying" to the carnal mind is readily acknowledged. Yet, is it any "harder" than that of eternal punishment? That it is clearly taught in Scripture we have sought to demonstrate, and it is not for us to pick and choose from the truths revealed in God's Word. Let those who are inclined to receive those doctrines which commend themselves to their judgment, and who reject those which they cannot fully understand, remember those scathing words of our Lord's, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken" (Luke 24:25): fools because slow of heart; slow of heart, not dull of head!

Once more we would avail ourselves of the language of Calvin: "But, as I have hitherto only recited such things as are delivered without any obscurity or ambiguity in the Scriptures, let persons who hesitate not to brand with ignominy those Oracles of heaven, beware what kind of opposition they make. For, if they pretend ignorance, with a desire to be commended for their modesty, what greater instance of pride can be conceived, than to oppose one little word to the authority of God! as, 'It appears otherwise to me,' or 'I would rather not meddle with this subject.' But if they openly censure, what will they gain by their puny attempts against heaven? Their petulance, indeed, is no novelty; for in all ages there have been impious and profane men, who have virulently opposed this doctrine. But they shall feel the truth of what the Spirit long ago declared by the mouth of David, that God 'is clear when He judges' (Psalm 51 :4). David obliquely hints at the madness of men who display such excessive presumption amidst their insignificance, as not only to dispute against God--but to arrogate to themselves the power of condemning Him. In the meantime, he briefly suggests, that God is unaffected by all the blasphemies which they discharge against heaven--but that He dissipates the mists of calumny, and illustriously displays His righteousness; our faith, also, being founded on the Divine Word, and therefore, superior to all the world, from its exaltation looks down with contempt upon those mists" (John Calvin).

In closing this chapter we propose to quote from the writings of some of the standard theologians since the days of the Reformation, not that we would buttress our own statements by an appeal to human authority, however venerable or ancient--but in order to show that what we have advanced in these pages is no novelty of the twentieth century, no heresy of the 'latter days' but, instead, a doctrine which has been definitely formulated and commonly taught by many of the most pious and scholarly students of Holy Writ.

"Predestination we call the decree of God, by which He has determined in Himself, what He would have to become of every individual of mankind. For they are not all created with a similar destiny--but eternal life is foreordained for some, and eternal damnation for others. Every man, therefore, being created for one or the other of these ends, we say, he is predestined either to life or to death." From John Calvin's "Institutes".

We ask our readers to mark well the above language. A perusal of it should show that what the present writer has advanced in this chapter is not "Hyper-Calvinism" but real Calvinism, pure and simple. Our purpose in making this remark is to show that those who, not acquainted with Calvin's writings, in their ignorance condemn as ultra-Calvinism that which is simply a reiteration of what Calvin himself taught--a reiteration because that prince of theologians as well as his humble debtor have both found this doctrine in the Word of God itself.

Martin Luther is his most excellent work "Free-will a Slave", wrote: "All things whatever arise from, and depend upon, the Divine appointments, whereby it was preordained who should receive the Word of Life, and who should disbelieve it; who should be delivered from their sins, and who should be hardened in them; who should be justified and who should be condemned. This is the very truth which destroys the doctrine of free-will from its foundations, to wit, that God's eternal love of some men and hatred of others--is immutable and cannot be reversed."

John Fox, whose Book of Martyrs was once the best known work in the English language (alas that it is not so today, when Roman Catholicism is sweeping upon us like a great destructive tidal wave!), wrote: "Predestination is the eternal decreement of God, purposed before in Himself, what should befall all men, either to salvation, or damnation".

The "Larger Westminster Catechism" (1688)--adopted by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church--declares, "God, by an eternal and immutable decree, out of His mere love, for the praise of His glorious grace, to be manifested in due time, has elected some angels to glory, and in Christ has chosen some men to eternal life, and the means thereof; and also, according to His sovereign power, and the unsearchable counsel of His own will (whereby He extends or withholds favor as He pleases), has passed by, and fore-ordained the rest to dishonor and wrath, to be for their sin inflicted, to the praise of the glory of His justice".

John Bunyan, author of "The Pilgrim's Progress," wrote a whole volume on "Reprobation". From it we make one brief extract:, "Reprobation is before the person comes into the world, or has done good or evil. This is evidenced by Romans 9:11. Here you find two in their mother's womb, and both receiving their destiny, not only before they had done good or evil--but before they were in a capacity to do it, they being yet unborn. Their destiny, I say, the one unto, the other not unto eternal life; the one elect, the other reprobate; the one chosen, the other refused". In his "Sighs from Hell", John Bunyan also wrote: "Those who continue to reject and slight the Word of God are such, for the most part, as are ordained to be damned".

Commenting upon Romans 9:22, "What if God willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction" Jonathan Edwards (Vol. 4, p. 306--1743 A.D.) says, "How solemn does the majesty of God appear in the dreadfulness of His anger! This we may learn to be one end of the damnation of the wicked."

Augustus Toplady, author of "Rock of Ages" and other sublime hymns, wrote: "God, from all eternity decreed to leave some of Adam's fallen posterity in their sins, and to exclude them from the participation of Christ and His benefits". And again; "We, with the Scriptures, assert: That there is a predestination of some particular persons to eternal life, for the praise of the glory of Divine grace; and also a predestination of other particular persons to eternal death for the glory of Divine justice--which death of punishment they shall inevitably undergo, and that justly, on account of their sins!"

George Whitefield, that stalwart of the eighteenth century, used by God in blessing to so many, wrote: "Without doubt, the doctrine of election and reprobation must stand or fall together. . . . I frankly acknowledge I believe the doctrine of Reprobation, that God intends to give saving grace, through Jesus Christ, only to a certain number; and that the rest of mankind, after the fall of Adam, being justly left of God to continue in sin, will at last suffer that eternal death which is its proper wages."

"Fitted to destruction" (Romans 9:22). After declaring this phrase admits of two interpretations, Dr. Hodge, perhaps the best known and most widely read commentator on Romans--says, "The other interpretation assumes that the reference is to God and that the Greek word for 'fitted' has its full participle force; prepared (by God) for destruction."

Were it necessary we are prepared to give quotations from the writings of Wycliffe, Huss, Ridley, Hooper, Cranmer, Ussher, John Trapp, Thomas Goodwin, Thomas Manton, John Owen, Witsius, John Gill (predecessor of Spurgeon), and a host of others. We mention this simply to show that many of the most eminent saints in bye-gone days, the men most widely used of God, held and taught this doctrine which is so bitterly hated in these last days, when men will no longer "endure sound doctrine"; hated by men of lofty pretensions--but who, notwithstanding their boasted orthodoxy and much advertised piety, are not worthy to unfasten the shoes of these faithful and fearless servants of God of other days.

"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Or who has ever first given to Him, and has to be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen!" (Romans 11:33-36)

From the Sovereignty of God by A. W. Pink

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