Modern History Sourcebook:
John Calvin: On Double Predestination
In conformity, therefore, to the clear doctrine of the Scripture, we assert, that by an
eternal and immutable counsel, God has once for all determined, both whom he would admit
to salvation, and whom he would condemn to destruction. We affirm that this counsel, as
far as concerns the elect, is founded on his gratuitous mercy, totally irrespective of
human merit; but that to those whom he devotes to condemnation, the gate of life is closed
by a just and irreprehensible, but incomprehensible, judgment. In the elect, we consider
calling as an evidence of election, and justification as another token of its
manifestation, till they arrive in glory, which constitutes its completion. As God seals
his elect by vocation and justification, so by excluding the reprobate from the knowledge
of his name and the sanctification of his Spirit, he affords an indication of the
judgement that awaits them.
Source: From John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, translated by John
Allen.
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Modern History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and
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© Paul Halsall, January 1999
halsall@fordham.edu
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