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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 7.
hether any under Eternal Reprobation have just cause to quarrel
with God for not electing of them?
That the answer to this question may be to edification, recall again what I have
before asserted; to wit, That for a man to be left out of God's election, and to
be made a sinner, is two things; and again, For a man to be not elect, and to be
condemned to hell-fire, is two things also. Now I say, if non-election makes no man
a sinner, and if it appoints no man to condemnation neither, then what ground hath
any reprobate to quarrel with God for not electing of him? Nay, further, reprobation
considereth him upright, leaveth him upright, and so turneth him into the world;
what wrong doth God do him, though he hath not elected him? What reason hath he that
is left in this case to quarrel against his Maker?
If thou say, because God hath not chosen them, as well as chosen others: I answer,
'Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say
to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?' (Rom 9:20). 'Behold, as the clay
is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel,' saith the Lord
God (Jer 18:6). So then, if I should say no more but that God is the only Lord and
Creator, and that by his sovereignty he hath power to dispose of them according to
his pleasure, either to choose or to refuse, according to the counsel of his own
will, who could object against him and be guiltless? 'He giveth not account of any
of his matters' (Job 33:13). 'And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth' (Job
23:13).
Again, God is wiser than man, and therefore can shew a reason for what he acts and
does, both when and where at present thou seest none. Shall God the only wise, be
arraigned at the bar of thy blind reason, and there be judged and condemned for his
acts done in eternity? Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, 'or who hath been
his counsellor?' (Rom 11:34). Do you not know that he is far more above us, than
we are above our horse or mule that is without understanding? 'Great things doeth
he, which we cannot comprehend' (Job 37:5). 'Great things and unsearchable, marvellous
things without number' (Job 5:9).
But, I say, should we take it well if our beast should call us to account for this
and the other righteous act, and judge us unrighteous, and our acts ridiculous, and
all because it sees no reason for our so doing? Why, we are as beasts before God
(Psa 73:22).
But again, to come yet more close to the point: the reprobate quarrels with God,
because he hath not elected him; well, but is not God the master of his own love?
And is not his will the only rule of his mercy? And may he not, without he give offence
to thee, lay hold by electing love and mercy on whom himself pleaseth? Must thy reason,
nay, thy lust, be the ruler, orderer, and disposer of his grace? 'Is it not lawful
for me to do what I will with mine own?' saith he, 'Is thine eye evil, because I
am good?' (Matt 20:15).
Further, What harm doth God to any reprobate, by not electing of him; he was, as
hath been said, considered upright, so formed in the act of creation, and so turned
into the world: indeed he was not elected, but hath that taken anything from him?
No, verily, but leaveth him in good condition: there is good, and better, and best
of all; he that is in a good estate, though others through free grace are in a far
better, hath not any cause to murmur either with him that gave him such a place,
or at him that is placed above him. In a word, reprobation maketh no man personally
a sinner, neither doth election make any man personally righteous. It is the consenting
to sin that makes a man a sinner; and the imputation of grace and righteousness that
makes [men] gospelly and personally just and holy.
But again, seeing it is God's act to leave some out of the bounds of his election,
it must needs be, therefore, positively good: Is that then which is good in itself
made sin unto thee? God forbid: God doth not evil by leaving this or that man out
of his electing grace, though he choose others to eternal life, through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Wherefore there is not a reprobate that hath any cause, and therefore no
just cause, to quarrel with his Maker, for not electing of him.
And that, besides what hath been spoken, if you consider,
1. For God to elect, is an act of sovereign grace; but to pass by, or to refuse so
to do, is an act of sovereign power, not of injustice.
2. God might therefore have chosen whether he would have elected any, or so many
or few; and also which and where he would.
3. Seeing then that all things are at his dispose, he may fasten electing mercy where
he pleaseth; and other mercy, if he will, to whom and when he will.
4. Seeing also that the least of mercies are not deserved by the best of sinners;
men, instead of quarrelling against the God of grace, because they have not what
they list, should acknowledge they are unworthy of their breath; and also should
confess that God may give mercy where he pleaseth, and that too, both which or what,
as also to whom, and when he will; and yet be good, and just, and very gracious still:
Nay, Job saith, 'He taketh away, who can hinder him? Who will say unto him, What
doest thou?' (Job 9:12).
The will of God is the rule of all righteousness, neither knoweth he any other way
by which he governeth and ordereth any of his actions. Whatsoever God doth, it is
good because he doth it; whether it be to give grace, or to detain it; whether in
choosing or refusing. The consideration of this, made the holy men of old ascribe
righteousness to their Maker, even then when yet they could not see the reason of
his actions. They would rather stand amazed, and wonder at the heights and depths
of his unsearchable judgments, than quarrel at the strange and most obscure of them
(Job 34:10-12, 36:3, 37:23; Jer 12:1; Rom 11:33).
God did not intend that all that ever he would do, should be known to every man,
no nor yet to the wise and prudent. It is as much a duty sometimes to stay ourselves
and wonder, and to confess our ignorance in many things of God, as it is to do other
things that are duty without dispute. So then, let poor dust and ashes forbear to
condemn the Lord, because he goeth beyond them; and also they should beware they
speak not wickedly for him, though it be, as they think, to justify his actions.
'The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works' (Psa 145:17; Matt
11:25; 1 Cor 2:8; Job 13:6-8).[7]
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