Alas! Behold! Is it possible?
You must have misunderstood them.
Irressistible Grace #2
The parts of this decree, concerning the rejection of men, are commonly said to be preterition and pre-damnation.
His By Grace--"John Gill: A Body of Doctrinal & Practical Divinity"-Doctrinal Book 2, Chapter 3
2b1. Preterition is God's passing by some men, when he chose others: and in this act, or part of the decree, men are considered as in the pure mass of creatureship, or creability;
in which state they are found when passed by or rejected, and in which they are left, even just as they are found, nothing put into them; but were left in the pure mass, as they lay, and so no injury is done them;
nor is God to be charged with any injustice towards them: in this act sin comes not into consideration, as it does in a following one;
for in this men are considered as not created, and so not fallen; but as unborn, and having done neither good nor evil, #Ro 9:11.
And this is a pure act of sovereignty in God, and to his sovereign will it is to be ascribed; who has the same sovereign power, and greater, than the potter has over his clay, to make one vessel to honor, and another to dishonor, #Ro 9:19,20,22.
This being expressed, as before observed, by negative phrases, is, by some, called negative reprobation.
Pre-damnation is God's appointment, or preordination of men to condemnation for sin; and is what is spoken of in #
Jude 1:4.
"There are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation";
"ungodly men, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and, or even our Lord Jesus Christ";
"Whom he will he hardeneth", #Ro 9:18
.
Just called it, "Damned", or "Damnation".
"Damnation" is their Heritage.
His By Grace--"John Gill: A Body of Doctrinal & Practical Divinity"-Doctrinal Book 2, Chapter 3
Hence this blindness, hardness, insensibility, and stupidity, are represented as following upon non-election;
not as the immediate effect of it, but as consequences of it;
and such as neither judgments nor mercies can remove;
and bring persons to a right sense of sin, and repentance for it, #Ro 11:7-10.
The sin and fall of Adam having brought him into a state of infidelity, in which God has concluded him: and he does not think fit to give to every man that grace which can only cure him of his unbelief, and without which, and unless almighty power and grace go along with the means they have, they cannot believe; whereby the decrees, predictions, and declarations of God are fulfilled in them, #Joh 12:37-40
yea, as Christ is said to be set, or appointed,
"for the fall of many in Israel", #Lu 2:34 so many are appointed to stumble at the Word, at him, the Stone of stumbling, and Rock of offence, being children of disobedience, and left as such;
when, to those who are a chosen generation, he is a precious cornerstone, and they believe in him, and are saved by him, #1Pe 2:7-9
hence we read of some, who, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, to them are sent by God strong delusions, and they are given up to believe a lie, that they might be damned;
not that God infuses any delusion or deceit into them, but because of their disbelief of, and disrespect to him and his Word, he suffers their corruptions to break forth and prevail, not giving restraining grace to them;
so that they become a prey to them that lie in wait to deceive; and being easy and credulous, they believe lies spoken in hypocrisy;
which issue in their damnation; while others, beloved of the Lord, and chosen from the beginning to salvation, obtain the glory of Christ, #2Th 2:10-14.
But though all this is a most certain truth, and is contained in the decree we are speaking of, yet condemnation, or everlasting punishment, seems to be meant in the passage quoted; or, however, this is what some men are foreordained unto.
Some will have it, that this refers to something forewritten, as they choose to render the word; to some prophecy concerning the condemnation of those persons, and particularly to that of Enoch, #
Jude 1:14,15
but it is not certain that prophecy was ever written;
besides, a prophecy, or prediction, of anything future, is founded upon an antecedent predetermination and appointment;
God foretells by his prophets what will be, because he has determined it shall be;
if, therefore, the condemnation of those persons was foretold in any written prophecy, it was because God had decreed it should come upon them, or they be brought into it.
It seems to have the same sense with God's appointing men unto wrath; which, though not in so many words expressed, is manifestly implied; as when the apostle says,
"God hath not appointed us to wrath",
who yet were children of wrath, and deserving of it as others;
"but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ":
it suggests, that though he had not appointed them, yet he had appointed others to wrath, and who are therefore called
"vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction",
by their own sins and transgressions, #1Th 5:9 Ro 9:22.
With which agrees what is said of some wicked men, who are
"reserved" in the purposes and decrees of God,
"to the day of destruction";
in consequence of which,
"they shall be brought to the day of wrath",
which God has appointed for the execution of his wrath;
and hence the casting of the fury of his wrath, in all the dreadful instances of it, is called
"the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed;
unto him of God", #
Job 21:30 20:23-29
and this is the sense of #Pr 16:4
for the meaning of the text is not, nor is it our sense of it, as some misrepresent it, as if God made man to damn him;
we say no such thing, nor does the text;
our sentiment is, that God made man neither to damn nor save him;
but he made him for his own glory, and he will be glorified in him, in one way or another: nor that he made man wicked, in order to damn him;
for God made man upright;
men made themselves wicked by their own inventions;
which are the cause of damnation: but the true sense of the passage is, that
"the Lord hath made", that is, has appointed
"all things for himself", for his own glory: and should it be objected, that the wicked could not be for his glory, it is added,
"Yea, even the wicked for the day of evil";
that is, he has appointed the wicked for the day of evil,
to suffer justly for their sins, to the illustration of the glory of his justice.