Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ: according to his choosing of us in him before the foundation of the world, to the end we should be holy and unblamable before him in charity. (Ephesians 1:3-4)

We have seen before now how St. Paul exhorted us to praise and bless God, because he has blessed us, and that not after an earthly manner, but after a spiritual manner, to the end we should learn to hold ourselves contented with God's showing of his fatherly goodness and love toward us, in opening the gate of the kingdom of heaven to us by hope. Even though we are subject to much misery in this world, yet it is good reason that we should content ourselves with God's choosing of us after that fashion, and with his calling of us to him, according as it is witnessed to us by the Gospel, that he is our Father, namely in as much as he has knit us to our Lord Jesus Christ as members to their head.

And now St. Paul brings us to the original and wellspring, or rather to the principal cause that moved God to take us into his favor. For it is not enough that God has poured out the treasures of his goodness and mercy upon us, to draw us to the hope of the heavenly life by the Gospel, and yet that is very much. For had St. Paul not added what we now see, it might have been thought that God's grace is common to all men, and that he offers it to all without exception, and consequently that it is in every man's power to receive it through his own free will, by means of which there should be some deserving in us.

For if there were no difference in men, but that some receive God's grace and others not, what might be said, except that God has shown himself kind to all mankind? But those who are partakers of the Lord Jesus Christ attain to it by faith. And so you see what might be deemed of it. But St. Paul, to exclude all deserving on man's behalf and to show that all comes of God's only freely bestowed goodness, says that he has blessed us according to his choosing beforehand. As if he should say that to exalt God's grace as becomes us, we must look upon the difference that is put between man and man. For the Gospel is preached to some, and others do not know what it is but are utterly shut out from it, as if God should make it rain in one region and allow another region to remain dry.

Now if it be asked why God favors one part and forsakes and gives over the other, there is no other answer except that it so pleased him. Upon the preaching of the Gospel in a place, some shall be touched with lively faith in their hearts, and others go away again as they came, without feeling any the better, or else they harden themselves against God and betray the stubbornness that was hidden in them before. Where does such diversity come from? Even from this, that God amends the one lot by his Holy Spirit and leaves the other lost in their natural corruption.

You see, then, that the thing in which God's goodness shines forth most to us is that by the preaching of the Gospel to us, we have, as it were, a token that he pities us, loves us, calls us, and allures us to him. But when the doctrine that is preached to us is received by us heartily and effectually, that is yet a further and more special token by which we perceive that God intended to be our Father and has adopted us to be his children. Not without cause, then, does St. Paul say in this strain that we are blessed of God, even according to his choosing of us beforehand. For we have not come to him of ourselves, nor have we sought him of ourselves. But the saying of the prophet Isaiah must needs be fulfilled in all, namely, that God showed himself to such as sought him not, and that such as were far off see him near at hand. And he says to them, "Here I am, here I am, although you have despised me, yet I vouchsafe to come to you because I care for your welfare."

Thus we see what St. Paul aimed at in this strain. To be sure, we have to mark here that we shall never know where salvation comes from until we have lifted up our minds to God's everlasting purpose, by which he has chosen whom he thought good and left the rest in their own confusion and fall. Now then, it is no marvel, even though some men think this doctrine to be strange and hard, for it agrees in no way at all with man's natural wit. If a man asks the philosophers, they will always tell him that God loves such as are worthy of it, and that, since virtue pleases him, he also marks out such as are given to it, to hold them for his people.

You see, then, that after our own imagination, we will deem that God puts no other difference between man and man in loving some and in hating others than each man's own worthiness and deserving. But along the way, let us remember also that in our own understanding there is nothing but vanity, and that we must not measure God by our measure, and that it is too excessive and presumptuous to bind God to the stake, so that he should not do anything except what we could conceive and what might seem right in our eyes. The matter, therefore, concerns here the reverencing of God's secrets, which are incomprehensible to us, and without which we shall never taste the principles of faith. For we know that our wisdom ought always to begin at humility. And this humility is as much as to say that we must not fall to the weighing of God's judgments in our own balance, nor take upon ourselves to be judges and determiners of them, but that we must be sober because of the weakness of our wit, and that, since we are gross and dull, we must magnify God and say, as we are taught by the Holy Scripture, "Lord, your determinations are as a great deep, and no man is able to reckon them up unto you."

You see, then, that the cause why some men find this doctrine hard and irksome is that they are too much wedded to their own opinion and cannot submit themselves to God's wisdom, to receive his sayings soberly and modestly. And truly, we ought to take warning by what St. Paul says, namely, that man by his nature does not understand God's secrets but takes them to be stark foolishness. And why? Because we are not of his counsel but must have things revealed to us by his Holy Spirit, or else we should never know them. And we must have them in such measure as he gives them to us. St. Paul speaks here of the things that we know by experience, that is to say, that we are God's children, that he governs us by his Holy Spirit, that he comforts us in our adversities, and that he strengthens us through patience. We should not conceive any of these things unless we were enlightened by his Holy Spirit.

How then shall we understand the thing that is much higher, namely, that God chose us before the making of the world? Since the case stands so, let us learn to put away all that we conceive of our own brain and lay it at his feet. Let us receive whatever God lays up for us, discharging ourselves utterly of all selfconceit and assuring ourselves that we cannot bring anything of our own side but beastliness. Thus, see what we have to bear in mind. And in good truth, we see how St. Paul exhorts us to come to the same point: "Who are you, O man, who stand in contention with your God?" After he had set down many replies that we are accustomed to make, he says, "Who are you, O man?" By the word "man," he meant to make us perceive our own frailty, for we are but worms of the earth and rottenness.

Now then, what manner of goodness is it to open our mouths to dispute with God? Is it not a perverting of the whole order of nature? Is it in our power to block the sun out of the sky, or to halt the moon? Much less is it lawful for us to contend with God and to allege reasons to control his judgments, which we cannot comprehend. There are those who will grant this doctrine of predestination to be true, as St. Paul treats it here, but yet they would have it so buried that it might never be spoken of. Yes, but they show themselves to be but fools in controlling the Holy Spirit, who speaks it by the prophets and apostles, yes, and even by the mouth of God's only Son. For when our Lord Jesus intended to assure us of our salvation, he sends us to this everlasting election. And likewise, when he intended to magnify the gift of faith, the one in the tenth of John, and another in the fifth, and another in the sixth. Therefore, those kinds of folk come too late to put God into silence and to wipe out of the Holy Scripture the things which are shown there. For all the whole Scripture is profitable. St. Paul spoke that of the Law and the Prophets. Therefore, we also may conclude that there is no superfluity in the Gospel, nor anything which serves no good purpose, and by which we may not be edified, both in faith and in the fear of God.

But this doctrine is contained there, and the Holy Spirit speaks it loud and surely. Therefore, they must needs be Manichaeans who intend to nip and clip the Gospel, for whatever they do not like, they set aside and forge their Gospel of diverse pieces, allowing nothing but what they themselves think good. Now, if such manner of heretics have shown a devilish stubbornness against God in separating the things which ought to go together in an inseparable bond, then are they malicious and fraudulent also, who would nowadays have the doctrine of election kept in silence. For they would overrule God if it were possible, and stop his mouth as often as he answers anything that does not please them. Again, a man may evidently see their beastliness in that St. Paul had no better proof by which to magnify God's goodness than this. If there were no other reason, yet it would be better that the whole world should go to confusion than that this doctrine should be suppressed with silence. For it is reasonable that God should set the infinite treasures of his mercies before our eyes, and not that they should be unspoken, but thrust underfoot.

But there are yet two more reasons which show that this doctrine is most needful to be preached, and that we reap such great profit by it, that it had been much better that we had never been born than to be ignorant of the thing that St. Paul shows us here. For there are two things at which we must chiefly aim, and to which it behooves us to apply all our wits and endeavors. And they are the very sum of all the things which God teaches us by the Holy Scripture. The one is the magnifying of God as he deserves, and the other is the assurance of our salvation, that we may call upon him as our Father with full liberty. If we do not have these two things, woe to us, for there is neither faith nor religion in us. We may well talk of God, but it shall be about a lie.

As touching the first point, I have told you already that God's grace is not sufficiently known except by setting God's election, as it were, before our eyes. For suppose that God draws all men alike, and that such as intend to obtain salvation must come of their own free will and self moving. If it is so, then it is certain that we deserve to be received at God's hand, and that he should handle every man according to his worthiness. But in what shall God's goodness be magnified? Even in this: that he went before us of his own mere free goodwill and loved us nevertheless, without finding anything either in us or in our works why he should love us. If this is true, then there must needs be election. So God must take the one sort because he thinks it good to do so, and leave the other. Thus it is a most assured point that God's glory does not appear and shine forth as it ought, except it be known that he sheds forth his goodness and love where it pleases him.

I said just now that the preaching of his Word is a singular benefit to us, and that is the cause why it is said so often in the Law and the Prophets that God has not dealt so with any other nation as he dealt with the lineage of Abraham, in that he vouchsafed to choose and adopt them. For after the Law was a short record, the children of Israel were exhorted to praise God because he had vouchsafed to give them his Law, and in the meanwhile had let the poor Gentiles alone as folk that did not pertain to him at all. But it is yet a far greater and more special privilege when he makes us fare the better by that Word. For it is certain that our ears might be beaten daily with the things that should be told to us, and we would be never the better for it until God speaks to us by his Holy Spirit within us. Then, in this matter, God shows a double grace. The one is when he raises up men to preach the Gospel to us, for no man is fit and sufficient to do it of himself. They must needs, therefore, be of God's sending, who call us to him and offer us the hope of salvation. But yet, for all that, let us mark well that we cannot believe except God reveals himself to us by his Holy Spirit and speaks to our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as well as he has spoken to our ears by the mouth of man.

That is the cause why the prophet Isaiah says, "Who has believed our doctrine? Or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" He shows that there is no faith in the world until God has worked in men's minds and hearts by the power of his Holy Spirit. For the very same cause also, our Lord Jesus says that no man comes to him except he be drawn by the Father. "But whoever has learned of my Father," he says, "the same submits himself to me." To be short, we see manifestly that God shows himself pitiful to us when he vouchsafes to enlighten us by his Holy Spirit, to the end that we should be drawn to the faith of his Gospel. If the same work were done commonly and indifferently to all men, yet we should have cause to magnify God. But now when we see that some are hardened and others inconstant, and that some go their ways without taking any profit by the things that they have heard, and others are altogether blockish, it is certain that the same makes God's grace more apparent to us, according as St. Luke says that at St. Paul's preaching, as many believed as were ordained to salvation. Truly, the number of people was great who heard St. Paul's sermon, and out of all doubt, he on his side had so great grace as ought to have moved even the very stones. Yet notwithstanding, a great number continued in their unbelief and stubbornness, and others believed.

Now it is plainly seen that the cause of it was not that the one sort were more forward folk than the other, or that there was any tendency to virtue more in the one than in the other, but that God had foreordained them to salvation. Therefore, in one word, we see that all man's deserving must cease and be laid underfoot, or else God shall not have his deserved praise. Yes, and we must understand that faith does not come of ourselves, for if it did, then there should be some worthiness in our works. True it is that by faith we confess that there is nothing but wretchedness in us, that we are damned and accursed, and that we bring nothing with us but only an acknowledgment of our sins. But yet our faith would serve for some merit if we had it of our own breeding. We must therefore conclude that it is impossible for men to believe unless it be given them from above.

Surely, St. Paul declares here a thing well worthy to be marked when he says, "Blessed be God." And for what cause? Even for enriching us in such a way in Jesus Christ that our life is happy and blessed. And afterward he adds, "according to his choosing of us." Is faith not comprehended among the spiritual riches of which St. Paul makes mention? Yes, and what is more, it is the chief of them. For it is by faith that we receive the Holy Spirit. It is by faith that we become patient in our adversities. It is by faith that we become obedient to God. It is by faith that we are sanctified to his service. To be short, faith continues always chief among the spiritual benefits that God bestows upon us. Now, let us remember St. Paul's order. He says that God has given us faith as well as any of all the rest, according to his choosing of us. We see then that faith depends upon God's election, or else we must make St. Paul a liar.

So, touching the first point, you see that all such as cannot abide to have predestination plainly and openly spoken of are deadly enemies of God's grace, and will oppose it to the utmost of their power. For, as I said before, the hiding of it would be the overthrowing of all religion.

The second point is the assurance of our salvation. The papists say we must doubt of it, and that we cannot come to God otherwise than with an opinion that he will receive us, but to assure ourselves of it, that we ought not to do, for that would be too great a presumption. But when we pray to God, we must call him Father, at least if we are the scholars of our Lord Jesus Christ, for he has taught us to do so. Now, do we call him Father at all hazards? Or are we sure of it in ourselves that he is our Father? If not, then there is nothing but hypocrisy in our prayers, and the first word that we utter shall be a stark lie.

The papists, therefore, never know what it is to pray to God, seeing they say that they ought not to assure themselves of their salvation. But, as we shall see in the third chapter especially, the Scripture shows us that if we will pray to God rightly, we must have belief in Jesus Christ, which gives us trust, and upon that trust we presently conceive boldness. Then, however the world goes, we must not be murmuring, nor yet doubt, but we must be thoroughly resolved and persuaded in ourselves that God accounts us as his children. And how may that be except by embracing his mercy through faith as he offers it to us in his Gospel, and by assuring ourselves also that we are grounded in his everlasting election? For if our faith should depend upon ourselves, surely it would soon slip from us, and it might be shaken off if it were not maintained from above. And although we are kept or preserved by faith, as St. Peter says, yet it is God who keeps us and preserves us. Then if our faith were not grounded upon God's eternal election, it is certain that Satan might pluck it from us every minute of an hour. Although we were today the most constant in the world, yet we might fail tomorrow. But our Lord Jesus shows us the remedy to strengthen us against all temptations in that he says, "You come not to me of yourself, but the heavenly Father brings you to me, and since I have taken you into my keeping, be no more afraid, for I acknowledge you for the inheritance of God my Father, and he who has given me the charge of you and put you into my hand is stronger than all."

We see then that, besides the setting forth of God's glory, our salvation also is warranted by God's eternal predestination, which ought to be sufficient cause to move us to consider what St. Paul treats of in this place. True it is, as I have touched already, that many men startle at it when they hear that God has chosen whom he thought good and refused all the rest. For we see that the number of those who come to God is very small. And why then has he refused the rest? Truly, as if to say that God's will ought not to stand for a rule toward us. It behooves us to mark first that God is not bound at all to any person. For if he were, then we might well go to law with him. But since he on his side is nothing at all bound to us, but we all together to him, let us see now what we shall win by contending with him. For if we will needs constrain God to deal alike with all men, he should have less liberty than mortal creatures.

If a man is rich, he may do what he likes with his own goods. If he is liberal to someone, is it reasonable that he should be sued at law for it, and that every man should demand the like sum of him? Behold, a man of his goodwill advances one whom he loves. Now if all poor folk should come and require him to do as much for them as if it were a bounden duty, would it not be a foolish thing? Truly, a man may adopt the farthest stranger in the world to be his child and heir, and it is free for him to do so. Behold, God is liberal to all men, for he makes his sun to shine both upon good and bad. Only he reserves a certain part of men on whom to bestow the privilege of adopting them to be his children. What? Are we now again murmuring against him? If any man says that, then he would seem to be an accepter of persons. No, it is not so, for he does not choose the rich and let the poor go. He does not choose noblemen and gentlemen rather than men of no estimation and base degree, and therefore it cannot be said that there is any accepting of persons before God. For in choosing those who are unworthy, he has no respect but only to his own mere goodness. Nor does he care whether one be more worthy than another, but he takes whom he likes.

What would we have more? Then it is good reason that we should hold ourselves contented with God's will and bridle ourselves and let him choose whom he wishes. Because his will is the sovereign rule of equity and right. And so you see, the mouths of all the world are stopped. And although the wicked and heathenish seek to rant and rail at God, yes, or blaspheme him for so doing, yet is he mighty enough to maintain his own righteousness and infinite wisdom. And when they have chattered their fill, yet must they be confounded in the end. For our part, we see what St. Paul says here, for it is no dark doctrine when he says that God has blessed us, truly inasmuch as he has enlightened us with the faith of the Gospel by his Holy Spirit, and made us partners in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; even thereby he shows that he had chosen us before the making of the world. And therefore, let us understand that to magnify God's grace rightly, we must, as I said before, come to this wellspring and original cause, that is to say, to election.

Now we have to pass further forward, to the intent of the better to exclude all the considerations and worthiness which men might pretend, since we are inclined to claim always something for ourselves, and cannot abide to be brought to nothing. He says, before the creation of the world. So then, since through such imagination we think ourselves to have what we do not have, it was required that St. Paul should here beat down all such fanciful foolishness. And for that cause, he says, we could not put ourselves forward when we were not yet born. Now, truly, God chose us before the making of the world, and what could we then bring to him? Indeed, the papists have a little shift in this regard. For they say that God chose such to salvation, not as had yet deserved it, but yet he chose such as he foresaw should deserve it. Thus they confess that no deserving at all went before election, either in order or in time, but that God, to whom all things are open, knew who should be worthy of it. After that manner do the papists speak of it. So they do not deny God's election, and this shows plainly that the wicked sort which nowadays cannot abide to have it spoken of are as devils incarnate, and maintain a more outrageous and villainous wickedness than the papists do.

We must note that the papists confess God to have chosen and predestinated whom he thought good, even before the making of the world; they stand to that, the very thing which these devils deny, and would have God's majesty utterly defamed by overthrowing his ordinance after that manner. The papists, at least such of them as have walked upright, and I speak even of the very monks and friars which are called school divines, grant yet further that this election of God is free, and that he chose no men for any other consideration than that it pleased himself. But yet presently, afterward, they mingle and confuse all, for they say that when God chose whom he listed, he did it to make them deserve it. And thereupon they ground all their merits, inasmuch as they conclude that men may win the kingdom of heaven by their own power. They grant indeed that as touching the election, it is a free gift. But always they return to their fanciful surmise that God foresaw who should do good. But how should he foresee that which could not be? For we know that all Adam's offspring is corrupted, and that we do not have the skill to think one thought of doing well, and much less, therefore, are we able to do well. Indeed, although God should wait for us a hundred thousand years, if we could continue so long in the world, yet it is certain that we should never come to him, nor do anything else but increase the mischief continually to our own condemnation. To be short, the longer that men live in the world, the deeper do they plunge themselves in their damnation. And therefore, God could not foresee the thing which was not in us before he himself put it into us.

How then can we submit ourselves under God? How do we obey him? How do we have a mind acquired that yields itself according to his faith? All these things come from him. And so it follows that he must do all himself. Therefore let us consider that in saying that God chose us before the foundation of the world, St. Paul presupposes a thing that is true, namely, that God could not see anything in us except the evil that was there, for there was not one drop of goodness for him to find. So then, seeing he has chosen us, you see, it is a very manifest record of his free goodness. And for the same cause, in the ninth to the Romans, where he speaks of the two twins, Jacob and Esau, at such time as they were yet in their mother's womb, before they had done either good or evil, to the intent that all should come only of the caller and not of the worker, it is said that the elder should serve the younger.

We see then how St. Paul declares there more at large the thing that he touches here briefly, that is the word that, whereas God chose us before the creation of the world, therein he shows sufficiently that one man is not more worthy or excellent than another, that he had no respect to any deserving. Therefore, seeing that the putting of difference between Jacob and Esau was before they had done either good or evil, it came not of the works but of the caller, then must all praise be yielded to God, and nothing at all be reserved to men. And so you see yet once again what we have to mark here, when St. Paul says that we were chosen before the making of the world. He confirms the thing yet better in that he says that the same was done in Jesus Christ. If we had been chosen in ourselves, it might be said that God had found in us some secret virtue unknown to men, but seeing that he has chosen us, that is to say, loved us out of ourselves, what shall we reply to that? If I do a man good, it is because I love him. And if the cause of my love be sought for, it will be because we are alike, have like conditions, or else for some other consideration, but we must not imagine any likeness in God. And so it is told us expressly here, for St. Paul says that we were chosen in Jesus Christ.

Did God have an eye to us when he vouchsafed to love us? No, for then he should have utterly loathed us. It is true that in respect of our miseries, he had pity and compassion upon us, to relieve us. But that was because he had loved us already in our Lord Jesus Christ. Then God must needs have had his pattern and looking glass before him, in which to behold us. That is to say, he must have looked upon our Lord Jesus Christ before he could choose us and call us. And so, to be short, after St. Paul has shown that we could not bring anything to God, but that he went before us of his own free goodness in choosing us before the creation of the world, he added yet a more certain proof, namely, that he did it in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is, as it were, the true book of record for God's vouchsafing to choose us, that is to say, his vouchsafing to do it before all eternity. This was, as it were, a registering of us in writing of record, and the Holy Scripture calls God's election the Book of Life. As I said before, Jesus Christ serves for a register; in him we are engraved, and in him God acknowledges us for his children. Seeing then that God had an eye to us in the person of Jesus Christ, it follows that he did not find anything in us which might labor for him, to cause him to elect us.

This in effect is the thing that we have to remember further. It follows afterward that it is to the end that we should be pure and unblamable before God, namely in love. This word "love" may be referred to God, as if it were said that we shall find no other reason why God vouchsafed to take us for his children, but only his own free love. Or else, as it is very likely, St. Paul shows here that the true soundness and perfection of the faithful is namely to walk in all righteousness before God. We cannot lay forth the whole now, but it shall suffice to tell briefly where St. Paul had an eye, for he shows here that although God's election is free and does beat down and put away all the worthiness, works, and virtues of men, yet, notwithstanding, it does not serve to give us leave to do evil and to lead a disordered life, or to run as rovers, but rather to withdraw us from the evil in which we were plunged. For naturally, we can do nothing else but provoke God's wrath. Wickedness will always reign in us, and we will be held down under the bonds and tyranny of Satan.

God therefore must work and change us, for all goodness comes from his election, says St. Paul. You see, then, that the thing he means to bring the faithful to is to make them know that, as God chose them of his own free goodness, so he does not give them leave to yield themselves to wickedness, but intends to keep and preserve them undefiled to himself. For God's choosing of us and his calling of us to holiness are things inseparably matched together, accordingly also as St. Paul says in another text, that we are not called to uncleanness and filthiness, but to be dedicated to God in all godliness and holiness.

Now, since we cannot lay forth the whole at this time, let us look to make our profit of this lesson. And seeing we are now about to prepare ourselves for the receiving of our Lord Jesus Christ's supper, which is a pledge to us as well of election as of the hope of our salvation, and of all the spiritual benefits that come forth from this wellspring and fountain of God's free goodness, let us consider that there he poured out his riches to us, not to the end that we should abuse them, but rather of purpose to be glorified for them at our hands, not only with our mouths, but also with our whole lives. And since we hold all things of him, let us also learn to be his, and to give ourselves over to the obeying of him, that he may enjoy us quietly. And let us always aim at this mark, namely, to get assurance that he takes us for his children, by bearing his marks and by showing in very deed that we are rightly governed by his Holy Spirit in calling upon him as our Father. Thus you see, in effect, what we have to mark in this text, until the remainder may follow.

Now let us fall down before the majesty of our good God with acknowledgment of our faults, praying him to make us feel them in such a way as we may continue to profit in his fear, and be strengthened more and more in the same, and in the meanwhile so to bear with our weakness, as we may always enjoy his grace, even till he has set us in possession of all things at such time as he shall have done away our sins and blotted them quite out for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake. And so let us all say, Almighty God, heavenly Father, etc.