[C.f. Calvin on General Love.]

Calvin:

all men under divine wrath:

sermons

1) For the Apostle testifies the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to us and leads us to God to be reconciled to him, whereas we are naturally children of wrath. Calvin, Sermons on Ephesians, 1:1-3, p., 14.

2) For, by nature, we can do nothing else but provoke God’s wrath; wickedness will always reign in us; and we are held down under the bonds and tyranny of Satan. Calvin, Sermons on Ephesians, 1:1-3, p., 33.

3) It is true that our father Adam was created after the image of God [Gen 1:26] and that he was excellent in his first estate, but after the coming in of sin we all became utterly helpless, so that even Adam did not have any strength in himself, and his free will that was given him served him to no other purpose but to make him the more inexcusable. For he fell wilfully and through his own malice. But by this we see that sort of constancy he had in him, for having been created with utmost care he fell, and ruined himself, and ourselves with him. Now, then we are all born children of wrath and cursed of God. Calvin, Sermons on Ephesians, 1:4-6, p., 41.

4) Who are you O wretched creature? For you see you are separated from your God even from your birth. Look, you are his enemy and inheritor of his wrath, and furthermore, there is nothing in yourself which does not tend to evil and perverseness. Calvin, Sermons on Ephesians, 1:7-10, p., 63.

all men hated by God:

sermons

1) And why is Jesus Christ called God’s well-beloved, as he is termed in the seventeenth chapter of Matthew [v.5] and in other places, and also is shown to be so in the prophet Isaiah? [Isa 43:4]. It is thereby shown us that God justly hates us and abhors us so long as we remain in our own natural state… For (as I have said already) we are hated… Calvin’s Sermons on Ephesians, 1:4-6, p., 45.

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Ames:

37. Because of this setting apart whereby God does not bestow blessedness upon some persons, he is said to Hate them, Rom. 9:13. This hatred is negative or privative, because it denies election. But it has a positive content, for God has willed that some should not have eternal life.

38. In this is found, nevertheless, the second difference (in reason) between election and reprobation, namely, that the love in election bestows good on the creatures directly, but the hatred in reprobation only denies good–it does not bring or inflict evil because the creature himself deserves it.

William Ames, The Marrow of Theology (Durham, North Carolina: Labyrinth Press, 1983), 156.

Polanus:

The hatred of God, is either the withholding or denying of his goodwill, or reprobation itself, or his decree not to choose to everlasting life. Malac 1:2,3. Rom. 9:13. And the cause of this divine hatred, is only God, and that is his own good pleasure.

Or else it is his displeasure, detestation, abomination, or turning away. Isa. 1:14. My soul hates your new moons, and set feasts. But the cause of this hatred is in men themselves.

Or else it is the execution of the decree of God, to punish and to destroy the wicked, Psal. 5:6. Thou hates all them that work iniquity: that is, thou doth punish and destroy the ungodly, as they was want both to punish and destroy them. And the cause of this hatred also, is even in men themselves.

Amandus Polanus, The Substance of Christian Religion, (London: Arn. Hatfield, 1600), pp., 34-35.

Zanchi:

1) II.–When hatred is ascribed to God, it implies

(1) a negation of benevolence, or a resolution not to have mercy on such and such men, nor to endue them with any of those graces which stand connected with eternal life. So, “Esau have I hated ” (Rom. ix.), i.e., “I did, from all eternity, determine within Myself not to have mercy of him.” The sole cause of which awful negation is not merely the unworthiness of the persons hated, but the sovereignty and freedom of the Divine will.

(2) It denotes displeasure and dislike, for sinners who are not interested in Christ cannot but be infinitely displeasing to and loathsome in the sight of eternal purity.

(3)It signifies a positive will to punish and destroys reprobate for their sins, of which will, the infliction of misery upon them hereafter, is but the necessary effect and actual execution. Zanchius, Absolute Predestination, p., 78.

2) Further, it is manifest, that all things that are without God and made by him, are beloved of God, both by testimonies of Scripture, and by firm reasons. Wisd. “Thou loves all things that are, and hates nothing that thou made,” [Wisd. 11]. But what is it, to say that God loves any thing? it is to wish and do well unto the same. But God has both willed and done good to all things that he has made: for for any thing to be is good, add farther hereunto, the divers and excellent qualities wherewith every thing is endued and adorned. What a great goodness is this? and therefore Moses says, Gen. 1. all things which God made were very good.  Therefore, as we love things because they are good, so all good things of their own nature, for that God loved and does love them. For God infuses goodness into things, by loving it, and this is truly to love: as we do contrarily love things because they are good: and we are said to love them, when we desire to have them, keep the good they have and wish them further that good they want [lack]. Thus appears the love of God to be more excellent then ours, because it is more effectual, and the cause of goodness in everything. It is manifest therefore that all things are beloved of God; for whatsoever he makes, he makes it good, how then could be but love it before he made it? He sustains those things which he has made, how can he then but love those things which he has made? by this means, there is no man nor devil, which can say, “God loves him not.” For God always did and does good to all.

Object.

But the Scripture says, that God hated the wicked, “thou has hated all those that work iniquity.”

Answ.

How therefore can the same thing be loved and hated? Answ. 2. Things are to be considered in a wicked man, nature, and iniquity. Nature is made by God, but iniquity is not, but belongs to the wicked. And we said in the proposition, “that God loves all things that are made by him.” Therefore these two are not repugnant; that God loves a wicked man as his own work and creature, and hates him as he is evil and works wickedness. For God does not properly hate a wicked man, but wickedness in him: according to that, “Thou has loved righteousness and hated iniquity.”   [Girolamo Zanchi] Live Everlasting: Or The True Knowledge of One Iehova, Three Elohim and Jesus Immanuel: Collected Out of the Best Modern Divines, and compiled into one volume by Robert Hill, ([Cambridge:] Printed by Iohn Legat, printer to the Vniuersitie of Cambridge. And are to be sold [in London] at the signe of the Crowne in Pauls Church-yard by Simon Waterson, 1601), 362-363. [Some reformatting; some spelling modernized; inserted bracketed material mine; side-headers included; repeated Scripture side-header references not included; and underlining mine.]

[Notes: Worldcat and Wing identify this as as: “Largely a translation and abridgement of Zanchi, Girolamo. De natura Dei. Zanchi is identified in the side-note on page 655—STC…” I have inserted Zanchi’s name in the title as a reflection that because: 1) as noted, this is largely a translation of Zanchi’s work; 2) because it quite probably does reflect Zanchi’s theology; 3) because Wing attributes the authorship to Zanchi, and Hill as the translator; and 4) from the opening “Epistle Dedicatory” (3^rd page) Hill identifies a work by Zanchi as the principal text upon which this work is based. Lastly, I actually suspect this is a much more reliable translation than Toplady’s briefer translation from the same work.]