The LORD hath made all [things] for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Ver. 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself.] That is, for his own glory, which he seeks in all his works. And well he may; for, first, He hath none higher than himself to whom to have respect; and, secondly, He is not in danger (as we should be in like case) of being puffed up or desirous of vain glory. Or thus, "He hath made all things for himself," that is, for the demonstration of his goodness, a according to that of Augustine, b Quia bonus est Deus sumus; et in quantum sumus, boni sumus. We owe both our being and wellbeing, and the glory of all to God alone. Rom 11:36
The wicked also for the day of evil,] i.e., Of. destruction. Hereof Dei voluntas est ratio rationam; nec tantum recta sed regula. c Howbeit, whereas divines make two parts of the decree of reprobation - viz., preterition and predamnation - all agree for the latter, saith a learned interpreter, that God did never determine to damn any man for his own pleasure, but the cause of his perdition was his own sin. And there is a reason for it. For God may, to show his sovereignty, annihilate his creature; but to appoint a reasonable creature to an estate of endless pain, without respect of his desert, cannot agree to the unspotted justice of God. And for the other part, of passing over and forsaking a great part of men for the glory of his justice, the exactest divines do not attribute that to the mere will of God, but hold that God did first look upon those men as sinners, at least in the general corruption brought in by the fall; for all men have sinned by Adam, and are guilty of high treason against God.
a Plato finem huius mundi bonitatem Dei esse affirmavit.
b De Doctr. Christiana.
c Bernard.