Page 50 - Absolute Predestination With Observations On The Divine Attributes

the supposed unmercifulness, tyranny, or injustice of the Divine procedure?

POSITION 5.—God is the creator of the wicked, but not of their wickedness; He
is the author of their being, but not the infuser of their sin.

It is most certainly His will (for adorable and unsearchable reasons) to permit
sin, but, with all possible reverence be it spoken, it should seem that He cannot,

consistently with the purity of His nature, the glory of His attributes, and the
truth of His declarations, be Himself the author of it. "Sin," says the apostle,
"entered into the world by one man," meaning by Adam, consequently it was
not introduced by the Deity Himself. Though without the permission of His will

and the concurrence of His providence, its introduction had been impossible, yet
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is He not hereby the Author of sin so introduced. Luther observes (De Serv.
Arb., c. 42. [Sect. 24.]): "It is a great degree of faith to believe that God is

merciful and gracious, though He saves so few and condemns so many, and that
He is strictly just, though, in consequence of His own will, He made us not
exempt from liableness to condemnation." And cap. 148 [Sect. 83.]: "Although

God doth not make sin, nevertheless He ceases not to create and multiply
individuals in the human nature, which, through the withholding of His Spirit, is
corrupted by sin, just as a skilful artist may form curious statues out of bad

materials. So, such as their nature is, such are men themselves; God forms them
out of such a nature."

POSITION 6.—The condemnation of the reprobate is necessary and inevitable.
Which we prove thus. It is evident from Scripture that the reprobate shall be
condemned. But nothing comes to pass (much less can the condemnation of a

rational creature) but in consequence of the will and decree of God. Therefore
the non-elect could not be condemned was it not the Divine pleasure and
determination that they should, and if God wills and determines their

condemnation, that condemnation is necessary and inevitable. By their sins they
have made themselves guilty of death, and as it is not the will of God to pardon
those sins and grant them repentance unto life, the punishment of such
impenitent sinners is as unavoidable as it is just. It is our Lord's own declaration

that "a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit" (Matt. 7.), or, in other words,
that a depraved sinner cannot produce in himself those gracious habits, nor exert
those gracious acts, without which no adult person can be saved. Consequently

the reprobate must, as corrupt, fruitless trees (or fruitful in evil only), be "hewn
down and cast into the fire" (Matt. 3.). This, therefore, serves as another
argument in proof of the inevitability of their future punishment, which