Calvinists? We can see, indeed, how it applies to the
descendants of Esau, who were in many respects placed in less advantageous
circumstances than the posterity of Jacob; but how can God be said to love
the elect more than the reprobate? Can he be said to love the reprobate at
all? If, from all eternity, they have been eternally damned for not
rendering an impossible obedience, should we call this a lesser degree of
love than that which is bestowed upon the elect, or should we call it
hate? It seems, that the commentator feels some repugnance at the idea of
setting apart the individual, before he has "done either good or evil," as
an object of hate; but not at all at the idea of setting him apart as an
object of eternal and remediless woe!

"It is no doubt true," says Professor Hodge, "that the prediction
contained in this passage has reference not only to the relative standing
of Jacob and Esau, as individuals, but also to that of their descendants.
It may even be allowed that the latter was principally intended in the
communication to Rebecca. But it is clear: 1. That this distinction
between the two races presupposed and included a distinction between the
individuals. Jacob, made the special heir to his father Isaac, obtained as
an individual the birthright and the blessing; and Esau, as an individual,
was cut off."

This may all be perfectly true; it is certainly nothing to the purpose. It
is true, that Jacob was made the special heir to his father; but did he
thereby inherit eternal life? The distinction between him and Esau was
undoubtedly a personal favour; the very fact that his descendants would be
so highly blessed, must have been a source of personal satisfaction and
joy, which his less favoured brother did not possess. But was this
birthright and this blessing the fixed and irreversible boon of eternal
life? There is not the least shadow of any such thing in the whole record.
The only blessings, of a personal or individual nature, of which the
account gives us the least intimation, either by express words or by
implication, are like those with which God, in his providence, still
continues to distinguish some individuals from others. They are not the
gift of eternal life, but of certain external and temporal advantages.
Hence they throw no light upon the Calvinistic scheme of election and
reprobation. To make out this scheme, or anything in support of it,
something more must be done than to show that God di