“O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine
help.” – Hosea 13:9
“Seek not death in the error of your life and pull not upon
yourselves destruction with the works of your hands.” – Wisdom of Solomon 1:12
The general love of God towards mankind is so clearly testified
in Holy Scripture, so demonstrated by the manifold effects of Gods goodness and
mercy extended to every particular man in this world, that to doubt it is
infidelity, and to deny it, is plainly blasphemy. Yet for all this, if anyone magnifies
the common love of God extended indiscriminately to all men such that he thereby
obscures the special love and mercy of God prepared from all eternity and
bestowed in due time upon the elect, he leads the ignorant and unlearned into a
dangerous error. To oppose the eternal, free and absolute decree of predestination
under the guise of disapproving an absolute decree for any man’s damnation is
not befitting any divine who acknowledges the truth of that doctrine which the
Scriptures has delivered , St. Augustine has cleared, and the Church of England
has established in the 17th
article.
The author of this treatise has no other aim than the overthrowing of the idea that the eternal decree of predestination will save men whether they repent or not repent, believe or not believe, persevere or not persevere; and of a preterition which is an absolute decree of reprobation that will damn men though they repent and believe, will hinder them from repenting and believing, or will cause or strengthen their impenitency or infidelity. We shall endeavor together with anyone to root such erroneous fancies out of all Christian minds.
The author of this treatise has no other aim than the overthrowing of the idea that the eternal decree of predestination will save men whether they repent or not repent, believe or not believe, persevere or not persevere; and of a preterition which is an absolute decree of reprobation that will damn men though they repent and believe, will hinder them from repenting and believing, or will cause or strengthen their impenitency or infidelity. We shall endeavor together with anyone to root such erroneous fancies out of all Christian minds.
The quote from Hosea, along with many others which might be cited, will easily prove that man is the author of his own sin and the procurer of his own damnation, and God is only the Judge and punisher of it. They also clearly prove that man is not the procurer of his own predestination, nor the deserver of his own salvation by his foreseen faith and perseverance—it is God who according to His absolute and infallible purpose gives in time that grace to His elect which before all time He decreed should be an effectual means to bring them to glory.
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