Theodicy Soteriology, Hermeneutics

SOTERIOLOGY : M. M. NINAN
resolves to save some particular persons, and, that he may do this, resolvesto endow them
with faith, but to condemn others and not to
endow them with faith. Yet many people declare, that thisis the kind of predestination on
which the apostle treats in the passagesjust cited. But I deny what they assert.
I grant that there is a certain eternal decree of God, accordingto which he administers the
means necessary to faith and salvation, and thishe does in such a manner as he knows to be
suited to righteousness, thatis, to his mercy and his severity. But about this decree, I think
nothingmore is necessary to be known, than that faith is the mere gift of the graciousmercy of
God; and that unbelief is partly to be attributed to the fault andwickedness of men, and partly
to the just vengeance of God, which deserts,blinds and hardens sinners.
But concerning that predestination by which God has decreedto save and to endow with faith
some particular persons, but to damn othersand not endow them with faith, so various are the
sentiment, entertainedeven by the divines of our profession, that this very diversity of
opinioneasily declares the difficulty with which it is possible to determine anything respecting
it. For while some of them propose, as the object ofpredestination generally considered, that
is, of election and reprobation,man as a sinner and fallen in Adam, others lay it down, man
considered ascreated and placed "in puris naturalibus." Some of them consider this objectto
be, man to be created, or, as some of them express it, man as salvableand damnable, as
capable of being created and of falling. Others of themlay down the object of election and
reprobation, which they denominateNonelection and Preterition, man considered in common
and absolutely; butthey lay down the object of reprobation, on which they bestow the
appellationof Predamnation and Affirmative Reprobation, man a sinner and guilty in
Adam.Lastly, some of them suppose that the object must be considered entirelyin common,
man as yet to be created, as created, and as fallen.
I am aware that when this diversity of opinion is offeredas an objection, it is usual to reply
that, in the substance of the matterthere is complete agreement, although some difference
exists in thecircumstances. But it would be in my power to prove, that the preceding
opinionsdiffer greatly in many of the things which conduce to the very matter andsubstance of
this kind of predestination; but that of consent or agreementthere is
nothing except in the minds of those who hold such sentiments,and who are prepared to bear
with those who dissent from them as far as thesepoints extend.
Such a mode of consent as this, [of which they are themselvesthe patrons,] is of the highest
necessity in the Christian church as, withoutit, peace can by no means be preserved. I wish
that I also was able to experiencefrom them any such benevolent feelings towards me and
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