"33. This is the first difference (in reason) between election and reprobation; in election, not only the glorious grace of God is an end, but also the salvation of men themselves; whereas in reprobation, damnation in itself has no relation to an end or a good. ...
37. Because of this setting apart whereby God does not bestow blessedness upon some persons, he is said to Hate them, Rom. 9:13. This hatred is negative or privative, because it denies election. But it has a positive content, for God has willed that some should not have eternal life.
38. The second difference (in reason) between election and reprobation, namely, that the love in election bestows good on the creatures directly, but the hatred in reprobation only denies good--it does not bring or inflict evil because the creature himself deserves it.
39. The third act of reprobation is the intention to use means by which justice may be manifested in the reprobate. These means, most accurately speaking, are permission to sin and abandonment to sin, Rom. 9:18; 2 Thess. 2:11,12.
40. Here is a third difference (in reason) between election and reprobation: Election is the cause not only of salvation, but of everything causally connected with salvation; reprobation is not properly a cause of either damnation or sin (which deserves damnation), but an antecedent only.
41. There is a fourth disparity, namely, that the means leading to reprobation are not in themselves either cause or effect. For the permission to sin is not the cause of the forsaking, the hardening, and the punishment: The cause of these is the sin itself" (William Ames, The Marrow of Theology, pp. 155-156).
