A30198:47
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.
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. Lam. 3.37. Exod. 9.16. Rom. 9.17.
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 shew in thee my power.