And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter. The history of Jacob and Esau is introduced to show the sovereign freedom of God's election. The elder shall serve the younger — this was declared before either had done good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand. Esau's selling his birthright for a mess of pottage shows the profanity of those who de…

He recalls the beginning of his youth, i.e. the thirty-first year of his age, in which very grave errors as to the nature of God and the origin of evil being distinguished, and the Sacred Books more accurately known, he at length arrives at a clear knowledge of God, not yet rightly apprehending Jesus Christ. Chapter 1. He Regarded Not God Indeed Under the Form of a Human Body, …

But the cause of this gracious election is exclusively the good pleasure of God. This does not involve God's choosing certain human qualities or actions from among all those possible as a condition of salvation, but rather involves adopting certain particular persons from among the common mass of sinners as God's own possession. As Scripture says: "When the children were not ye…