Page 37 - Absolute Predestination With Observations On The Divine Attributes

end "are in the book of life" (Phil. 4.3) and written in heaven (Luke 10.20; Heb.
29
12.23). Luther observes that in Rom. 9, 10, and 11. the apostle particularly
insists on the doctrine of predestination, "Because," says he, "all things

whatever arise from and depend upon the Divine appointment, 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 condemned."

IV.—We assert that the number of the elect, and also of the reprobate, is so

fixed and determinate that neither can be augmented or diminished. It is written
of God that "He telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their
names" (Psalm 147.4). Now, it is as incompatible with the infinite wisdom and

knowledge of the all-comprehending God to be ignorant of the names and
number of the rational creatures He has made as that He should be ignorant of
the stars and the other inanimate products of His almighty power, and if He
knows all men in general, taken in the lump, He may well be said, in a more

near and special sense, to know them that are His by election (2 Tim. 2.19). And
if He knows who are His, He must, consequently, know who are not His, i.e.,

whom and how many He hath left in the corrupt mass to be justly punished for
their sins. Grant this (and who can help granting a truth so self-evident?), and it
follows that the number, as well of the elect as of the reprobate, is fixed and
certain, otherwise God would be said to know that which is not true, and His

knowledge must be false and delusive, and so no knowledge at all, since that
which is, in itself, at best, but precarious, can never be the foundation of sure
and infallible knowledge. But that God docs indeed precisely know, to a man,

who are, and are not the objects of His electing favour is evident from such
Scriptures as these: "Thou hast found grace in My sight, and I know thee by
name" (Exod. 33.17). "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee" (Jer. 1.5).

"Your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10.20). "The very hairs of your head
are all numbered" (Luke 12.7). "I know whom I have chosen" (John 13.18). "I
know My sheep, and am known of Mine" (John 10.14). "The Lord knoweth

them that are His" (2 Tim. 2.19). And if the number of these is thus assuredly
settled and exactly known, it follows that we are right in asserting—

V.—That the decrees of election and reprobation are immutable and

irreversible. Were not this the case—

(1) God's decree would be precarious, frustrable and uncertain, and, by

consequence, no decree at all.