the works of john gill vol2 SAMPLE

The Cause of God and Truth
men were not considered as sinners in the act of preterition, or passing
by some, when others were chosen; yet they always suppose men to be
considered as sinners in the decree of damnation, and that God
appointed none but sinners, and no man but for sin, to everlasting
torments; and where is the cruelty of this doctrine?
2. The Sublapsarians are represented 30 as thinking unworthily of
God; “who, knowing that all the lapsed sons of Adam were equally the
objects of his pity and compassion, equally capable of his mercy, and
equally his offspring, and so no more unworthy of it than the rest,
believe that his decrees of governing and disposing of them are wholly
founded on such an absolute will, as no rational or wise man acts by;
so that he determines of the everlasting fate of the souls he daily doth
create, after the fall of Adam, without respect to any good or evil done
by them, and so without respect to any reason why he puts this
difference, or any condition on their parts; and yet afterwards, in all his
revelations, made in order to the regulating of their lives, suspends
their everlasting state upon conditions.”
I reply, that all the lapsed sons of Adam are equally the offspring of
God, as men, and equally capable of his mercy, as being miserable; and
equally unworthy of it, as having sinned against him; and therefore the
reason why he shows mercy to one, and not to another, can be no
other than his sovereign will and pleasure; who hath mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
But then it is intimated, that “this is to believe, that God’s decrees of
governing and disposing of men, (by which I suppose is meant, his
decrees of showing mercy to some, and withholding it from others,)
are wholly founded on such an absolute will, as no rational or wise man
acts by.”
But it should be observed, that neither the mercy nor the will of God
are to be compared with the mercy and will of man. The mercy of God
is not to be considered, quoad affectum, as an affection moved by the
30 Whitby, p. 20, 32; ed. 2. 28, 32
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