Quotes about Predestination

God neither wills nor decrees anything without having long before directed it to its proper end.

The salvation of all the elect is not less certain than the power of God is invincible.

Now, it is beyond a doubt that the steps by which the Lord in his mercy consummates our salvation are these, "Whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Rom. 8:30).

Christ is indeed presented to all, but God opens the eyes of the elect alone, and enables them by faith to seek after him.

Hence the unskillful rashly infer, that man did not sin by free choice.

Whence follows the plain conclusion, that if all men were elected, no man would perish.

We are taught that the salvation of all the elect is as certain as that God's power is invincible. Besides

It is the Spirit of God alone who opens the gate of heaven to the elect. Further

The decree is dreadful indeed, I confess.

Let us imagine, for example, a merchant who, entering a wood with a company of faithful men, unwisely wanders away from his companions, and in his wandering comes upon a robber's den, falls among thieves, and is slain. His death was not only foreseen by God's eye, but also determined by his decree. For it is not said that he foresaw how long the life of each man would extend, but that he determined and fixed the bounds that men cannot pass [Job 14:5]. Yet

As all future events are uncertain to us, so we hold them in suspense, as if they might incline to one side or the other. Yet in our hearts it nonetheless remains fixed that nothing will take place that the Lord has not previously foreseen.

The reason for God's keeping some for himself and rejecting others is to be sought nowhere but in God himself.