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Lectures on Divine Sovereignty, Election, the Atonement, Justification, and Regeneration
Lectures on Divine Sovereignty Election the Atonement Justification and Regeneration Author:George Payne General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1838 Original Publisher: J. Dinnis Subjects: Reformed Church Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Bo... more »oks.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: LECTURE III. ELECTION. PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE. II. We advance now to the second main division of this great subject, in which we are to state the evidence to which we appeal in support of the doctrine of eternal and personal election. Is there any foundation in reason, or in Scripture, to sustain the confidence we cherish, that all who shall appear at length around the throne of God, in the heavenly temple, were destined, in the eternal purpose of God, to occupy that exalted station? or -- according to that more precise view which we have given of the doctrine -- were chosen to be the recipients of that special and saving influence of the Holy Spirit which secures their admission into this temple 'I Our reply is, that both reason and revelation supply a solid basis for our confidence. I proceed, therefore, First, to adduce the testimony of reason in reference to this point. And here I cannot but think that the answer which reason gives to the question just stated, must depend upon the reply which is truly given to another, viz., " Is God the cause or author of man's salvation, or is man the author of his own salvation ?" If the latter should be found to be the case, it would be needless to inquire concerning the Divine purpose in reference to human salvation. What God does not do, he does not decree to do. On the supposition that man extricates himself from the blindness and depravity of his natural state, the purpose of God -- if there were any purpose of God in reference to his deliverance -- could only be a decree to permit him to work out h...« less