2. Let me prove that there is such a decree by scripture, for reason here hath no place. Take here three that are most full : the first is 1 Thes. V. 9, ' God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ,' which plainly implieth that some are appointed unto wrath. The second is 1 Peter ii. 8, where the apostle speaketh of some that were disobedient and refused Chiist, 'whereunto
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130 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeR. 4-
alpo tliey were appointed.' The third place is Prov. xvi. 4, ' God made all things for himself, and the wicked for the day of evil/ The drift of that place is to show that both creation and predestination were for God's glory, and he instanceth in that part of predestination which concerneth the wicked, because it is hardest to be digested and believed.
But now for the reasons why God hath chosen some, and appointed others by sin to come unto judgment. I can only tell you that 'God's judgments are past finding out,' Rom. xi. 33. We must admire, we cannot search them to the bottom. So far as God hath revealed his will we may clearly judge that it is for the discovery of his justice and mercy, neither of which could have been discovered to the world with that advantage, had it not been for this double decree ■of God, to save some and leave others to their own ruin. If grace were given to all, how should the world know that God were free ? Again, if all were pardoned, how should the world know that God were just? In election, God discovereth the freeness of his grace, Eph. i. 6. It is love that we enjoy grace, elective love that we enjoy it alone. In reprobation God discovereth his sovereignty, and by it the severity of his justice and power of his wrath, Eom. ix. 22. In choosing one and leaving another, there God discovereth his liberty, and that he doth not act out of servile necessity ; and his severity in the eternal pains of them that perish in their sins.
3. Let me vindicate this doctrine, which in the eyes of some seemeth to blemish the justice of God, to infringe the comfort of man, yea, to abolish the duty of man ; therefore it needeth a little clearing. Reason cannot easily digest this strong meat, partly because we are apt to reprehend what we cannot comprehend ; partly because this doctrine checketh carnal ease and security, which is usually fed with a general hope and presumption that the God that made us will save us, that he will not damn his creatures, but is merciful to ail, &c. ; now this awakeneth us, when we hear that grace floweth in a narrower channel ; partly because aspiring man is loath to submit to this absolute lord- ship and sovereignty of God, that he should dispose of his creatures according to his own pleasure : our ambition is to be avre^ovaioL, lords of ourselves. Man, that would be as God, taketh it ill to be ' as a beast made to be taken and destroyed.' Upon all these prejudices man is loath to receive this doctrine, therefore it needeth to be cleared.
[1.] In regard of God, that you may not pollute and stain his excellency with impure and prejudicial thoughts. You will say. Is God just, that only upon his will and pleasure ordaineth his creatures to condemnation ? Have not the reprobate cause to complain, if he hath passed a decree upon which their condemnation doth infallibly follow? I answer— (1.) Our understandings are not the measure of God's justice, but his own will. Things may be just, though the reasons of them do not appear to us : human reason groweth giddy by peeping into the deep of God's decrees ; our work is not to dispute, but wonder. God's freedom is a riddle to reason, because though we will not be bound to laws, yet we are willing God should be bound. God's actions iiust not be measured by any external rule ; things are good because God willeth them, for his will is justice itself. (2.) The
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