Page 62 - Absolute Predestination With Observations On The Divine Attributes

"And as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed" (Acts 13.):

tetagmenoi, designed, destined or appointed unto life.

Concerning the Apostle Paul, what shall I say? Everyone that has read his
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epistles knows that they teem with predestination from beginning to end. I
shall only give one or two passages, and begin with that famous chain: "whom

He did foreknow" (or forelove, for to know often signifies in Scripture to love)
"He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he

might be the firstborn among many brethren," that, as in all things else, so in the
business of election, Christ might have the pre-eminence, He being first chosen
as a Saviour, and they in Him to be saved by Him: "moreover, whom He did
predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified;

and whom He justified, them He also glorified" (Rom. 8.).

Chapters 9-11. of the same epistle are professed dissertations on, and

illustrations of the doctrine of God's decrees, and contain, likewise, a solution of
the principal objections brought against that doctrine.

"Who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace" (Gal.

1.).

The first chapter of Ephesians treats of little else but election and predestination.

After observing that the reprobates perish wilfully, the apostle, by a striking
transition, addresses himself to the elect Thessalonians, saying, "But we are

bound to give thanks unto God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath, from the beginning, chosen you to salvation, through

sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2 Thess. 2.).

"Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose, and grace, which was given us in

Christ before the world began" (2 Tim. 1.).

Jude, on the other hand, describes the reprobate as "ungodly men, who were, of

old, foreordained to this condemnation."

Another apostle makes this peremptory declaration, "Who stumble at the word,
being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed: but ye are a chosen

generation [genoV eklekton, an elect race], a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a