Page 48 - Absolute Predestination With Observations On The Divine Attributes

disobedience being only the consequence of their not having that grace which
God is not obliged to grant them)—I say, if it be the will of God thus to leave
them in time (and we must deny demonstration itself, even known absolute
matter of fact, if we deny that some are so left), then it must have been the

Divine intention from all eternity so to leave them, since, as we have already
had occasion to observe, no new will can possibly arise in the mind of God. We
see that evil men actually are suffered to go on adding sin to sin, and if it be not

inconsistent with the sacred attributes actually to permit this, it could not
possibly be inconsistent with them to decree that permission before the
foundations of the world were laid.

Thus God efficaciously permitted (having so decreed) the Jews to be, in effect,
the crucifiers of Christ, and Judas to betray Him (Acts 4.27,28; Matt. 26.23,24).
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Hence we find Augustine speaking thus: "Judas was chosen, but it was to do a
most execrable deed, that thereby the death of Christ, and the adorable work of
redemption by Him, might be accomplished. When therefore we hear our Lord

say, 'Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?' we must
understand it thus, that the eleven were chosen in mercy, but Judas in judgment;

they were chosen to partake of Christ's kingdom; he was chosen and pitched
upon to betray Him and be the means of shedding His blood."

POSITION 3.—The non-elect were predestinated, not only to continue in final

impenitency, sin, and unbelief, but were likewise, for such their sins,
righteously appointed to infernal death hereafter.

This position is also self-evident, for it is certain that in the day of universal
judgment all the human race will not be admitted into glory, but some of them
transmitted to the place of torment. Now, God does and will do nothing but in
consequence of His own decree (Psalm 135.6; Isa. 46.11; Eph. 1.9,11); therefore

the condemnation of the unrighteous was decreed of God, and if decreed by
Him, decreed from everlasting, for all His decrees are eternal. Besides, if God
purposed to leave those persons under the guilt and the power of sin, their

condemnation must of itself necessarily follow, since without justification and
sanctification (neither of which blessings are in the power of man) none can
enter heaven (John 13.8; Heb. 12.14). Therefore, if God determined within

Himself thus to leave some in their sins (and it is but too evident that this is
really the case), He must also have determined within Himself to punish them
for those sins (final guilt and final punishment being correlatives which

necessarily infer each other), but God did determine both to leave and to punish