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Reprobation Asserted: By J O H N.B U N Y A N of Bedford, A Lover of Peace and Truth. L O N D O N, Printed for G. L., and are to be sold in Turn-stile-alley, in Holbourn, 1674. (Year approximate.) Published two years after John Bunyan's twelve year incarceration. |
CHAPTER 3.
f the Antiquity of Reprobation.
Having now proceeded so far as to shew you what reprobation is, it will not be amiss
if in this place I briefly shew you its antiquity, even when it began its rise; the
which you may gather by these following particulars.
First, Reprobation is before the person cometh into the world, or hath done good
or evil: This is evident by that of Paul to the Romans: 'For the children being not
yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand not of works, but of him that calleth; it was said unto Rebecca,
The elder shall serve the younger' (9:11). Here you find twain in their mother's
womb, and both receiving their destiny, not only before they had done good or evil,
but before they were in a capacity to do it, they being yet unborn; their destiny,
I say, the one unto, the other not unto, the blessing of eternal life; the one chose,
the other refused; the one elect, the other reprobate. The same also might be said
of Ishmael and his brother Isaac, both which did also receive their destiny before
they came into the world: for the promise that this Isaac should be the heir, it
was also before Ishmael was born, though he was elder by fourteen years, or more,
than his brother (Gen 15:4,5, 16:4,5,16, 17:25, 21:5). And it is yet further evident,
1. Because election is an act of grace; 'There is a remnant according to the election
of grace' (Rom 11:5). Which act of grace saw no way so fit to discover its purity
and independency, as by fastening on the object before it came into the world; that
being the state in which at least no good were done, either to procure good from
God, or to eclipse and darken this precious act of grace. For though it is true that
no good thing that we have done before conversion, can obtain the grace of election;
yet the grace of election then appeareth most, when it prevents[3] our doing good, that we
might be loved therefore: wherefore he saith again, 'That the purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; it was said unto
her, The elder shall serve the younger' (Rom 9:11,12).
2. This is most agreeable to the nature of the promise of giving seed to Abraham;
which promise, as it was made before the child was conceived, so it was fulfilled
at the best time, for the discovery of the act of grace, that could have been pitched
upon: At this time will I come (saith God) 'and Sarah shall have a son' (Gen 18:14);
which promise, because it carried in its bowels the very grace of electing love,
therefore it left out Ishmael, with the children of Keturah: 'For in Isaac shall
thy seed be called' (Rom 4:16-19, 9:7).
3. This was the best and fittest way for the decrees to receive sound bottom, even
for God both to choose and refuse, before the creature had done good or evil, and
so before they came into the world: 'That the purpose of God according to election
might stand,' saith he, therefore before the children were yet born, or had done
any good or evil, it was said unto her, &c. God's decree would for ever want
foundation, should it depend at all upon the goodness and holiness either of men
or angels; especially if it were to stand upon that good that is wrought before conversion,
yea, or after conversion either. We find, by daily experience, how hard and difficult
it is, for even the holiest in the world, to bear up and maintain their faith and
love to God; yea, so hard, as not at all to do it without continual supplies from
heaven. How then is it possible for any so to carry it before God, as to lay, by
this his holiness, a foundation for election, as to maintain that foundation, and
thereby to procure all those graces that infallibly saveth the sinner? But now the
choice, I say, being a choice of grace, as is manifest, it being acted before the
creature's birth; here grace hath laid the cornerstone, and determined the means
to bring the work to perfection. Thus 'the foundation of God standeth sure, having
this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his' (2 Tim 2:19). That is, who he hath
chosen, having excluded works, both good and bad, and founded all in an unchangeable
act of grace; the negative whereof, is this harmless reprobation.
Second, But secondly, To step a little backward, and so to make all sure: This act
of reprobation was before the world began; which therefore must needs confirm that
which was said but now, that they were, before they were born, both destinated before
they had done good or evil. This is manifest by that of Paul to the Ephesians, at
the beginning of his epistle; where, speaking of Election, whose negative is reprobation,
he saith, 'God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world.' Nay
further, if you please, consider, that as Christ was ordained to suffer before the
foundation of the world, and as we that are elected were chosen in him before the
foundation of the world; so it was also ordained we should know him, before the foundation
of the world; ordained that we should be holy before him in love, before the foundation
of the world; and that we in time should be created in him to good works, and ordained
before that we should walk in them. Wherefore reprobation also, it being the negative
of electing love; that is, because God elected but some, therefore he left the rest:
these rest therefore must needs be of as ancient standing under reprobation, as the
chosen are under election; both which, it is also evident, was before the world began.
Which serveth yet further to prove that reprobation could not be with respect to
this or the other sin, it being only a leaving them, and that before the world, out
of that free choice which he was pleased to bless the other with. Even as the clay
with which the dishonourable vessel is made, did not provoke the potter, for the
sake of this or that impediment, therefore to make it so; but the potter of his own
will, of the clay of the same lump, of the clay that is full as good as that of which
he hath made the vessel to honour, did make this and the other a vessel of dishonour,
&c. (1 Peter 1:20,21; 1 Cor 2:7; Eph 1:3,4, 2:10).[4]
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