died
December 26, 1542] and adopted by the pastors of Geneva, is entitled:
"_Concerning God's Eternal Predestination_, by which He has elected some
to salvation and left theothers to their perdition--_qua in salutem
alios ex hominibus elegit, alios suo exitio reliquit_." (Niemeyer,
_Collectio Confessionum_, 218. 221.) The _Confessio Belgica_, of 1559,
and the _Confessio Gallicana_, of 1561, teach the same absolute
predestinarianism. In Article XVI of the Belgic Confession we read: In
predestination God proved Himself to be what He is in reality, _viz._,
merciful and just. "Merciful by liberating and saving from damnation and
perdition those whom ... He elected; just, by leaving the others in
their fall and in the perdition into which they precipitated themselves.
_Iustum vero, alios in illo suo lapsu et perditione relinquendo, in quam
sese ipsi praecipites dederunt_." (Niemeyer, 370.) The _Gallic
Confession_ [prepared by Calvin and his pupil, De Chandieu; approved by
a synod at Paris 1559; delivered by Beza to Charles IX, 1561, translated
into German 1562, and into Latin, 1566; adopted 1571 by the Synod of La
Rochelle] maintains that God elected some but left the others in their
corruption and damnation. In Article XII we read: "We believe that from
this corruption and general damnation in which all men are plunged, God,
according to His eternal and immutable counsel, calls those whom He has
chosen by His goodness and mercy alone in our Lord Jesus Christ, without
consideration of their works, to display in them the riches of His
mercy, leaving the rest in this same corruption and condemnation to show
in them His justice. _Credimus ex hac corruptione et damnatione
universali, in qua omnes homines natura sunt submersi, Deum alios quidem
eripere, quos videlicet aeterno et immutabili suo consilio sola sua
bonitate et misericordia, nulloque operum ipsorum respectu in Iesu
Christo elegit; alios vero in ea corruptione et damnatione relinquere,
in quibus nimirum iuste suo tempore damnandis iustitiam suam demonstret,
sicut in aliis divitias misericordiae suae declarat_." (Niemeyer, 332;
Schaff 3, 366.)

The _Formula Consensus Helveticae_ of 1675 says, canon 13: "As from
eternity Christ was elected Head, Leader, and Heir of all those who in
time are saved by His grace, thus also in the time of the New Covenant
He has been the Bondsman for those only who by eternal election were
given to Him to be His peculiar people, seed, and h