concerning the topic. As William Perkins noted, “If there be an eternal decree of God, whereby he chooseth some men, then there must needs be another whereby he doth pass by others and refuse them.”6 Such a statement is not merely a logical deduction. Rather, it is based on passages of Scripture where God is said to “create” or “prepare” “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” (Rom. 9:22), appoint men to destruction (1 Peter 2:8), and mark them “out for … condemnation” (Jude 4). Second, God’s