God’s Decree of Election¹

Thomas Boston

Objection. If God has determined the eternal state of men – that is, whether they shall be happy or miserable for ever – then it is in vain to repent and believe, or use any means for their own safety. For if God has elected them to salvation, they shall certainly be saved, whether they use any means or not; and if they are not elected to everlasting life, all that they can possibly do will be to no purpose at all, for they shall never be saved by it.

Answer. 1. God’s decree of election is a great secret, which we ought not to pry into. It is simply impossible for men to know whether they are elected or not, before they believe. Indeed if a man were certain that he is not elected to eternal life, it would be different; but as it is not certain that you are elected, so it is not certain that you are not elected. You have no means to know either the one or the other certainly, till you get saving faith. Till then the Lord reserves it in His own breast, as a secret which we are not to pry into. For it is said: “Secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Dt 29:29). Here the Lord shows what

¹Taken, with editing, from Boston’s Works, vol 1. Here he states a third objection that might be made to the scriptural doctrine of God’s decrees and then answers it.

belongs to Him and what belongs to us, and that we should mind our duty and not busy and perplex ourselves about what is not appropriate to us. Whether men are elected or not elected is a secret that God never discloses to an unbeliever; but it is no secret that we ought to believe on Christ. This is a duty clearly revealed and enjoined by the gospel.

1. It is our duty to look to God’s commands, and not to His decrees; to our own duty, and not to His purposes. The decrees of God are a vast ocean, into which many may have pried to their horror and despair; but few or none have ever pried into them to their profit and satisfaction. No one’s particular election is written in the Word of God, but our duty is plainly set down there. If men conscientiously perform their duty, this is the way to come to the knowledge of their election. Men therefore should not question whether they are elected or not, but first believe on Christ and endeavour diligently to work out their own salvation. And if their works are good and their obedience true, thereby they will come to a sure knowledge that they were elected and set apart to everlasting life.

2. As God elects to the end, so He elects also to the means. Now faith and obedience are the means and the way to salvation; therefore if you are elected to salvation, you are also elected to faith and obedience. See what is said to this purpose: “God hath . . . chosen you to salvation”; there is the end. “Through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Th 2:13); there is the means which lead to that end. Both are decreed by God. If therefore you heartily and sincerely believe and obey, then your election to salvation stands firm and sure.

Further, the Scriptures make election to terminate as well in obedience as salvation. So the Apostle says, “Elect . . . through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience” (1 Pet 1:2). In the former place it was: elect to salvation through sanctification; but here it is: elect to obedience through sanctification – to denote to us that none are elected unto salvation but those that are elected unto obedience. Therefore it is unreasonable, indeed it is contradictory, to say, If I am elected, I shall be saved, whether I believe and obey or not – for none are elected to salvation but through faith and obedience.

1. Men do not pry into the decrees of God in other things, but do what they know is incumbent on them as their duty. Certainly it is as unreasonable here. When you are dangerously sick, and the physician tells you that, unless you take such and such medicines, your case is desperate. You do not reason thus: If God has decreed my recovery, I will certainly be restored to health, whether I take that course of medicine or not; but at once you fall in with the advice you were given and make use of the means prescribed for your health. And will you not do so here? You are dangerously sick and mortally wounded

with sin, and God commands you to flee to Christ and cast yourselves upon Him, as the only physician that can cure you, and you shall certainly be saved. But, says the sinner, if I knew that God had decreed my salvation, I would venture on Christ; but till I know this, I must not believe.

O how unreasonable is unbelief! The devil’s suggestions make poor creatures act as if they were entirely out of their wits. It is as if an Israelite stung with the fiery serpents said, If I knew that the Lord had decreed my cure, I would look upon the brazen serpent, and if He has decreed it, I will certainly recover whether I look to it or not. If all the stung Israelites had been thus resolved, it is likely they had all perished.

Or it is as if someone pursued by the avenger of blood sat down in the way to the city of refuge, where he should have been fleeing for his life, and said, If God has decreed my escape, then I will be safe whether I run to the city of refuge or not; but if he has not decreed it, then it is in vain for me to go there. Now would men not count this a wilful casting away of his life, with a careless neglect of the provision that God has made to save it? Was it not sufficient that a way was made for his escape, a way feasible enough, the city of refuge being always open?

Thus the arms of Christ are always open to receive and embrace poor, humbled perishing sinners fleeing to Him for help. And will men destroy themselves by suffering Satan to entangle them with needless, inappropriate and unreasonable scruples? In other cases, if there is no way but one and some encouraging probability to draw men into it, they run into it without delay, not perplexing and discouraging themselves with the decrees of God. Now this is your case, sinner. Christ is the way, the truth, and the life; there is no other by whom you can be saved; flee to Him then as for your life; and do not let Satan hinder you by diverting you to what is impossible and irrelevant. Comply with the call and offer of the gospel. This is your present and relevant duty; do not trouble yourself about God’s secret things.