Archive for September 10th, 2008
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.