Session 016 is devoted to the first half of Chapter 11 in The True Christian’s Faith and Experience concerning the Quaker doctrine of election and reprobation.
There are two seeds in every human being: “the seed of the woman” i.e. of God (Genesis 3:15), and “the seed of the serpent” i.e. of Satan. In the powerful parable of the sower of the seed, God has sown His good seed in everyone. That seed is the Word of God.
The first is incorruptible, and that seed is Christ. The election or choice of God is in this seed. God’s election is certain with all who are born of this seed. His covenant is with it forever. The elect are those who can never be deceived. The true Christian is born of this incorruptible seed. The true Christian grows up in this seed, developing fully into a measure of the full stature of Christ. This maturity is the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The true Christian has the witness of God in himself.
Reprobation is in the second seed, the seed of the serpent. All who are born of it are born of flesh and blood and of the will of man, not of the will of God. All who are children of reprobation have abandoned every good deed and work. They are disobedient children in whom the serpent rules who holds them captive. They do the devil’s will and are slaves to sin.
However, the true Christian testifies that God has appointed a means of deliverance, salvation, and redemption. There is a real possibility of being born of the first seed. Children of disobedience and wrath can turn and become children of God. The seed of the kingdom of God may replace the seed of the serpent in the heart of man.
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