A30198:95
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.
CHAP. VII. Whether 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 Gods 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 ⟨p. 20⟩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?
THat the Answer to this Question may be to edification, recal again what I have before asserted; to wit, That for a man to be left out of Gods 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 ⟨p. 20⟩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? Behold, as the Clay is in the hand of the Potter, so are ye in my hand, O House of Israel, saith the Lord God. 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 no account of any of his ways, and what his Soul desireth, that doth he.