A30198:46
Reprobation asserted, or, The doctrine of eternal election & reprobation promiscuously handled in eleven…
Reprobation asserted, or, The doctrine of eternal election & reprobation promiscuously handled in eleven chapters wherein the most material objections made by the opposers of this doctrine are fully answered, several doubts removed, and sundry cases of conscience resolved / by John Bunyan.
London: printed for G.L., 1674
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
First then, It is caused from the very Nature of God. There are two things in God, from which, or by the virtue of which, all things have their rise, to wit, the Eternity of God in general, and the eternal Perfection of every one of his Attributes in particular: for as by the first, he must needs be before all things; so by virtue of the second must all things consist. And as he is before all things, they having consistence by him; so also is he before all states, or their Causes, be they either good or bad, of continuance or otherwise, he being the first without beginning, &c. whereas all other things, with their causes, have rise, dependence, or toleration of being from him. Col. 1.17.
First then, It is caused from the very Nature of God. There are two things in God, from which, or by the vertue of which, all things have their rise, to wit, the Eternity of God in general, and the eternal Perfection of every one of his Attributes in particular: for as by the first, he must needs be before all things; so by vertue of the second must all things consist. And as he is before all things, they having consistence by him; so also is he before all states, or their Causes, be they either good or bad, of continuance or otherwise, he being the first without beginning, &c. whereas all other things, with their causes, have rise, dependance, or toleration of being from him. Col. 1.17.
Hence it follows, that nothing, either Person or Cause, &c. can by any means have a being, but first he knows thereof, allows thereof, and decrees it shall be so: Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? Now then, because that Reprobation, as well as Election, are subordinate to God; his Will also, which is eternally perfect, being most immediately herein concerned; it was impossible that any should be Reprobate, before God had both willed and decreed it ⟨p. 9⟩should be so. It is not the being of a thing that administers matter of knowledge or fore-sight thereof to God, but the perfection of his Knowledge, Wisdom and Power, &c. that giveth the thing its being: God did not fore-decree there should be a World, because he foresaw there would be one; but there must be one, because he had before decreed there should be one. The same is true as touching the case in hand: For this very purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show in thee my power.