Page images
PDF
EPUB

CALVIN.

[ocr errors]

be followed by a correspondent purity of life*. That we are made free from sint," that we might "become servants of righteousness." Can we be incited to charity by any stronger argument than that of John, " If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another? In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil ;" hereby the children of light, by their abiding in love, are distinguished from the children of darkness. Or that of Paul, that if we be united to Christ, we are members of one body, and ought to afford each other mutual assistance§? Or can we be more powerfully excited to holiness, than when we are informed by John, that " every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as God is pure ||?" Or when Paul says, "Having therefore these promises, (relative to our adoption,) let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit ¶?" or than when we hear Christ proposing himself as our example, that we should follow his steps?—Institut. l. 3. c. 16. s. 2.

These few instances, indeed, I have given as a specimen; for, if I were disposed to pursue every particular passage, I should produce a large volume. The apostles are quite full of admonitions, exhortations, and reproofs to "furnish the man of God to every good work," and that without any mention of merit. But they rather deduce their principal exhortations from this consideration, that our salvation depends not on any merit of ours, but merely on the mercy of God. As Paul, after having very largely shown, that we can have no hope of life but from the righteousness of Christ, when he proceeds to exhortations, beseeches, us by that divine mercy with which we have been favoured**. Institut. l. 3. c. 16. s. 3.

* 1 Pet. i. 15. || 1 John iii. 3.

† Rom. vi. 18.

John iv. 11.

¶ 2 Cor. i. 7.

§ 1 Cor. xii. 12. ** Rom. xii. 1,

CHURCH OF ENGLAND. The true church is an universal congregation or fellowship of God's faithful and elect people, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head corner stone.-Homily for Whitsunday, p. 283. Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby, before the foundations of the world were laid, he hath constantly decreed by his counsel, secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour. Wherefore, they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God, be called according to God's purpose by his Spirit working in due season: they through grace obey the calling: they be justified freely: they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ:

CALVİN.

Another passage from this apostle will still more clearly express my meaning. "He hath chosen us (he says) before the foundation of the world, according to the good pleasure of his will, that we should be holy and without blame before him*:" where he opposes the good. pleasure of God to all our merits whatsoever.-Institut. l. 3. c. 22. s. 1.

To render the proof more complete, it will be useful to notice all the clauses of that passage, which, taken in connexion, leave no room for doubt. By the appellation of the elect or chosen, he certainly designates the faithful, as he soon after declares: wherefore, it is corrupting the term by a shameful fiction to pervert it to the age in which the gospel was published. By saying that they were elected before the creation of the world, he precludes every consideration of merit. For what could be the reason for discrimination between those who yet * Eph. i. 4, 5.

F

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

they walk religiously in good works, and at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity.-Art.17. Once more: God, of his mercy and special favour towards them whom he hath appointed to everlasting salvation, hath so offered his grace especially, and they have so received it fruitfully, that although, by reason of their sinful living outwardly, they seemed before to have been the children of wrath and perdition; yet now, the Spirit of God mightily working in them, they declare by their outward deeds and life, in the showing of mercy and charity (which cannot come but of the Spirit of God, and his especial grace), that they are the undoubted children of God, appointed to everlasting life. And so, as, by their wickedness and ungodly living, they showed themselves according to the judgement of men, which follow the outward appearance, to be reprobates and castaways; so now, by their obedience unto God's holy will, and

[blocks in formation]

might be holy," fully refutes the error which derives election from foreknowledge; since Paul, on the contrary, declares that all the virtue discovered in men is the effect of election. If any inquiry be made after a superior cause, Paul replies, that God thus "predestinated," and that it was "according to the good pleasure of his will." This overturns any means of election which men imagine in themselves; for all the benefits conferred by God for the spiritual life, he represents as flowing from this one source, that God elected whom he would, and, before they were born, laid up in reserve for them the

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

by their merciful and tender pity, (wherein they show themselves to be like unto God, who is the fountain and spring of all mercy,) they declare openly and manifestly to the sight of men, that they are the sons of God, and elect of him unto salvation.-2 Hom. on alms deeds, p. 235, 203,

CALVIN.

grace with which he determined to favour them.-Institut. l. 3. c. 22. s. 2.

:

Wherever this decree of God reigns, there can be no consideration of any works. The antithesis, indeed, is not pursued here; but it must be understood, as amplified by the same writer in another place who hath 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 Jesus, before the world began *." And we have already shown that the following clause," that we should be holy," removes every difficulty. For say, Because he foresaw they would be holy, therefore he chose them, and you will invert the order of Paul. You may safely infer then, If he chose us that we should be holy, his foresight of our future holiness was not the cause of his choice. For these two propositions, that the holiness of the pious is the fruit of election, and that they attain it by means of works, are incompatible with each other. Nor is there any force in the cavil to which they frequently resort, that the grace of election was not God's reward of antecedent works, but his gift to future ones. For, when it is said that the faithful were elected that they should be holy, it is fully implied that the holiness they were in future to possess had its origin in election. And what consistency would there be in asserting, that things derived from election were the causes of election?

* 2 Tim. i. 9.

CALVIN.

A subsequent clause seems further to confirm what he had said, "according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself*." For the assertion that God purposed in himself, is equivalent to saying that he considered nothing out of himself, with any view to influence his determination. Therefore be immediately subjoins, that the great and only object of our election is, "that we should be to the praise of divine grace." Certainly the grace of God deserves not the sole praise of our election, unless this election be gratuitous. Now it could not be gratuitous, if in choosing his people God himself considered what would be the nature of their respective works. The declaration of Christ to his disciples, therefore, is universally applicable to all the faithful: "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen yout;" which not only excludes past merits, but signifies that they had nothing in themselves to cause their election, independently of his venting mercy. This also is the meaning of that passage of Paul, "Who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?" For his design is to show, that God's goodness altogether anticipates men, finding nothing in them either past or future to conciliate his favour to them.-Institut. l. 3. c. 22. s. 3.

[ocr errors]

pre

We must therefore come to that more select people, whom, Paul in another place tells us, "God foreknew §," not using this word, according to the fancy of our opponents, to signify a prospect, from a place of idle observation, of things which he has no part in transacting, but in the sense in which it is frequently used. For certainly, when Peter says that Christ was "delivered " to death by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,"

66

* Eph. i. 9.
§ Rom. xi. 2.

† John xv. 16.

Acts ii. 23.

Rom. xi. 35.

« PreviousContinue »