Institutes of the Christian Religion (Vol. 2 of 2)
VI. If it be objected, that from these inferior and inconsiderable
benefits, it must not be concluded respecting the life to
come, that he who has been raised to the honour of primogeniture
is therefore to be considered as adopted to the inheritance
of heaven,—for there are many who spare not Paul, as though
in his citation of Scripture testimonies he had perverted them
from their genuine meaning,—I answer as before, that the
apostle has neither erred through inadvertency, nor wilfully
perverted testimonies of Scripture. But he saw, what they
cannot bear to consider, that God intended by an earthly
symbol to declare the spiritual election of Jacob, which otherwise
lay concealed behind his inaccessible tribunal. For
unless the primogeniture granted him had reference to the
future world, it was a vain and ridiculous kind of blessing,
which produced him nothing but various afflictions and adversities,
grievous exile, numerous cares, and bitter sorrows.
Discerning, beyond all doubt, that God’s external blessing was
an indication of the spiritual and permanent blessing he had
prepared for his servant in his kingdom, Paul hesitated not to
argue from the former in proof of the latter. It must also be
remembered, that to the land of Canaan was annexed the
pledge of the celestial residence; so that it ought not to
be doubted that Jacob was ingrafted with angels into the body
of Christ, that he might be a partaker of the same life. While
Esau is rejected, therefore, Jacob is elected, and distinguished
from him by God’s predestination, without any difference of
merit. If you inquire the cause, the apostle assigns the following:
“For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom
I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I
will have compassion.”[472]
And what is this but a plain declaration
of the Lord, that he finds no cause in men to induce
him to show favour to them, but derives it solely from his
own mercy; and therefore that the salvation of his people is
his work? When God fixes your salvation in himself alone,
why will you descend into yourself? When he assigns you
his mere mercy, why will you have recourse to your own
merits? When he confines all your attention to his mercy,
why will you divert part of it to the contemplation of your
own works? We must therefore come to that more select
people, whom Paul in another place tells us “God foreknew,”[473]
not using this word, according to the fancy of our
opponents, to signify a prospect, from a place of idle observation,
of things which he has no part in transacting, but in the
sense in which it is frequently used. For certainly, when
Peter says that Christ was “delivered” to death “by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God,”[474]
he introduces
God not as a mere spectator, but as the Author of our salvation.
So the same apostle, by calling believers, to whom he writes,
“elect according to the foreknowledge of God,”[475]
properly
expresses that secret predestination by which God has marked
out whom he would as his children. And the word purpose,
which is added as a synonymous term, and in common speech
is always expressive of fixed determination, undoubtedly implies
that God, as the Author of our salvation, does not go out
of himself. In this sense Christ is called, in the same chapter,
the “Lamb foreknown before the foundation of the world.”
For what can be more absurd or uninteresting, than God’s
looking from on high to see from what quarter salvation
would come to mankind? The people, therefore, whom Paul
describes as “foreknown,”[476]
are no other than a small number
scattered among the multitude, who falsely pretend to be
the people of God. In another place also, to repress the boasting
of hypocrites assuming before the world the preëminence
among the godly, Paul declares, “The Lord knoweth them
that are his.”[477]
Lastly, by this expression Paul designates
two classes of people, one consisting of the whole race of
Abraham, the other separated from it, reserved under the eyes
of God, and concealed from the view of men. And this, without
doubt, he gathered from Moses, who asserts that God will
be merciful to whom he will be merciful; though he is speaking
of the chosen people, whose condition was, to outward appearance,
all alike; as though he had said, that the common
adoption includes in it peculiar grace towards some, who resemble
a more sacred treasure; that the common covenant
prevents not this small number being exempted from the common
lot; and that, determined to represent himself as the uncontrolled
dispenser and arbiter in this affair, he positively
denies that he will have mercy on one rather than another,
from any other motive than his own pleasure; because, when
mercy meets a person who seeks it, though he suffers no repulse,
yet he either anticipates or in some degree obtains for
himself that favour, of which God claims to himself all the
praise.
VII. Now, let the supreme Master and Judge decide the
whole matter. Beholding in his hearers such extreme obduracy,
that his discourses were scattered among the multitude
almost without any effect, to obviate this offence, he exclaims,
“All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me. And this
is the Father’s will, that of all which he hath given me, I
should lose nothing.”[478]
Observe, the origin is from the donation
of the Father, that we are given into the custody
and protection of Christ. Here, perhaps, some one may argue
in a circle, and object, that none are considered as the Father’s
peculiar people, but those whose surrender has been voluntary,
arising from faith. But Christ only insists on this point—that
notwithstanding the defections of vast multitudes, shaking the
whole world, yet the counsel of God will be stable and firmer
than the heavens, so that election can never fail. They are
said to have been the elect of the Father, before he gave them
to his only begotten Son. Is it inquired whether this was by
nature? No, he draws those who were strangers, and so makes
them his children. The language of Christ is too clear to be
perplexed by the quibbles of sophistry: “No man can come to
me, except the Father draw him. Every man that hath heard
and learned of the Father, cometh unto me.”[479]
If all men
promiscuously submitted to Christ, election would be common:
now, the fewness of believers discovers a manifest distinction.
Having asserted his disciples therefore, who were given to him,
to be the peculiar portion of the Father, Christ a little after
adds, “I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine;”[480]
which shows that the whole
world does not belong to its Creator; only that grace delivers
from the curse and wrath of God, and from eternal death,
a few, who would otherwise perish, but leaves the world in its
destruction, to which it has been destined. At the same time,
though Christ introduces himself in his mediatorial capacity,
yet he claims to himself the right of election, in common with
the Father. “I speak not of all,” he says; “I know whom I
have chosen.”[481]
If it be inquired whence he chose them,
he elsewhere answers, “out of the world,”[482]
which he excludes
from his prayers, when he commends his disciples to the
Father. It must be admitted, that when Christ asserts his
knowledge of whom he has chosen, it refers to a particular
class of mankind, and that they are distinguished, not by the
nature of their virtues, but by the decree of Heaven. Whence
it follows, that none attain any excellence by their own ability
or industry, since Christ represents himself as the author of
election. His enumeration of Judas among the elect, though
he was a devil, only refers to the apostolical office, which,
though an illustrious instance of the Divine favour, as Paul so
frequently acknowledges in his own person, yet does not include
the hope of eternal salvation. Judas, therefore, in his
unfaithful exercise of the apostleship, might be worse than a
devil; but of those whom Christ has once united to his body,
he will never suffer one to perish; for in securing their salvation,
he will perform what he has promised, by exerting the
power of God, who is greater than all. What he says in
another place, “Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and
none of them is lost, but the son of perdition,” is a mode of
expression, called catachresis, but the sense is sufficiently plain.
The conclusion is, that God creates whom he chooses to be
his children by gratuitous adoption; that the cause of this is
wholly in himself; because he exclusively regards his own
secret determination.
