629. As just said, the imputation of the prevailing faith is a double imputation; but it is double in the sense that God exercises His mercy toward some, and not toward all, or that a parent exercises his love toward one or two of his children, and not toward all, or that the Divine law and its command apply to a few and not to all. One kind of doubleness, therefore, is far-reaching and undivided, the other is restricted and divided; this latter is doubleness, but the former is miry. For it is taught that the imputation of Christ's merit is from an arbitrary election, and that to those so elected there is an imputation of salvation, thus that some are adopted and the rest rejected; which would be as if God lifted some up into Abraham's bosom, and gave some over as morsels to the devil; and yet the truth is that the Lord rejects no man, and gives no man over to the devil, but this is done by the man himself.
