Note 18 — CHAPTERS XXIX.-XXXI.
Reading edition
It is deeply interesting to the spiritual mind to mark how sedulously the Spirit of God, in Rom. ix. and indeed throughout all scripture, guards against the horrid inference which the human mind draws from the doctrine of God's election. When he speaks of "vessels of wrath," he simply says, "fitted to destruction." He does not say that God "fitted" them.
Whereas, on the other hand, when he refers to "the vessels of mercy" he says, "whom he had afore prepared unto glory." This is most marked.
If my reader will turn for a moment to Matt. xxv. 34-41, he will find another striking and beautiful instance of the same thing.
When the king addresses those on his right hand, he says, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Verse 34.)
But when he addresses those on his left, he says, "Depart from me, ye cursed." He does not say, "cursed of my Father." And, further, he says, "into everlasting fire, prepared," not for you, but "for the devil and his angels." (Verse 41.)
In a word, then, it is plain that God has "prepared" a kingdom of glory, and "vessels of mercy" to inherit that kingdom; but he has not prepared "everlasting fire" for men, but for the "devil and his angels;" nor has he fitted the "vessels of wrath," but they have fitted themselves.
The word of God as clearly establishes "election" as it sedulously guards against "reprobation." Every one who finds himself in heaven will have to thank God for it; and every one that finds himself in hell will have to thank himself.