Election is founded upon Christ's merit and God's gracious will...

The Holy Spirit dwells in the elect, who have become believers, as in His temple.  He is not idle in them, but moves God's children to obey God's commands.  Therefore, believers, too, should not be idle, much less resist the work of God's Spirit.  They should practice all Christian virtues, in all godliness, modesty, temperance, patience, and brotherly love; and they should give all diligence to make their calling and election sure.  They should do this so that the more they find the Spirit's power and strength within them, they may doubt their election less. For the Spirit bears witness to the elect that they are God's children.  Sometimes they fall into temptation so terribly that they imagine they can no longer perceive the power of God's indwelling Spirit, and so they say with David, "I had said in my alarm, 'I am cut off from Your sight'" (Psalm 31:22).  Yet they should, without regard to what they experience in themselves, again say with David the words immediately following (as is written in the same place), "But You heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to You for help."

Our election to eternal life is founded not on our godliness or virtue, but on Christ's merit alone and His Father's gracious will.  He cannot deny Himself, because His is unchangeable in will and essence.  Therefore, when His children depart from obedience and stubble, He has called them to repentance again through the Word, and the Holy Spirit wants by the Word to be effective in them for conversion.  When they turn to Him again in true repentance by a right faith, He will always show His old paternal heart to all who tremble at His Word and from their heart turn again to Him, as it is written:

If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her?  Would not that land be greatly polluted?  You have played the whore with many lovers; [yet returned again to Me,] declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 3:1).
~BOC, FSD, XI 73-75

Election is a cause that gains, works, helps, and promotes our salvation and what belongs to it...

God's eternal election does not just foresee and foreknow the salvation of the elect.  From God's gracious will and pleasure in Christ Jesus, election is a cause that gains, works, helps, and promotes our salvation and what belongs to it.  Our salvation is so founded on it that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18), as is written in John 10:28, "No one shall snatch [My sheep] out of My hand,"  And again, "as many as were appointed to eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48).
~BOC, FSD, XI, 8

The beginning and cause of evil is the wicked perverse will of the devil and of people, not God's foreknowledge...

God's foreknowledge foresees and foreknows what is evil, yet not in the sense that it is God's gracious will that evil should happen.  Everything that the perverse, wicked will of the devil and of people wants and desires to try and do, God sees and knows before it happens.  His foreknowledge sees its order also in wicked acts or works, since a time and measure is fixed by God for the evil that God does not will.  He limits how far it should go, how long it should last, and when and how He will hinder and punish it.  God the Lord rules over all of this so that it must flow to the glory of the divine name and to the salvation of His elect, and for that reason the godless must be astonished.

The beginning and cause of evil is not God's foreknowledge.  (For God does not create and do evil, neither does He help or promote it.)  The cause of this evil is the wicked, perverse will of the devil and of people, as it is written in Hosea 13:9, " He destroys you, O Israel, for you are against Me, against your helper."  Also, "For You are not a God who delights in wickedness" (Psalm 5:4).
~BOC, FSD, XI, 6-7

The devil's will and purpose and all our enemies shall and must fail...

We have this comfort and confidence: the devil's will and purpose and all our enemies shall and must fail and come to nothing, no matter how proud, secure, and powerful they know themselves to be.  For if their will were not broken and hindered, God's kingdom could not remain on earth nor His name be hallowed.
~BOC, LC, III, 70

The devil chafes and rages as a fierce enemy against us with all his power and might...

No one can believe how the devil opposes and resists these prayers.  He cannot allow anyone to teach or to believe rightly.  It hurts him beyond measure to have his lies and abominations exposed, which have been honored under the most fancy, sham uses of the divine name.  It hurts him when he himself is disgraced, is driven out of the heart, and has to let a breach be made in his kingdom.  Therefore, he chafes and rages as a fierce enemy with all his power and might.  He marshals all his subjects and, in addition, enlists the world and our own flesh as his allies.  For our flesh is in itself lazy and inclined to evil, even though we have accepted and believe God's Word.  The world, however, is perverse and wicked.  So he provokes the world against us, fans and stirs the fire, so that he may hinder and drive us back, cause us to fall, and again bring us under his power.  Such is all his will, and mind, and thought.  He strives for this day and night and never rests a moment.  He uses all arts, wiles, ways, and means that he can invent.

~BOC, LC, III, 62-64

The consolation in God's power made apparent in our weakness...

Job is excused though he was not troubled by past evil deeds.  Therefore, troubles are not always punishments or signs of wrath.  Indeed, terrified consciences should be taught that there are more important purposes for afflictions, so that they do not think God is rejecting them when they see nothing but God's punishment and anger in troubles.  The other more important purposes are to be considered, that is, that God is doing His strange work so that He may be able to do His own work, as Isaiah 28 teaches in a long speech.  When the disciples asked about the blind man who sinned, Christ replied that the cause of his blindness is not sin, but that "the works of God might be displayed in him" (John 9:2-3).  In Jeremiah it is said, "If those who did not deserve to drink the cup must drink it..." (49:12).  So the prophets, John the Baptist, and other saints were killed.  Therefore, troubles are not always punishments for certain past deeds, but they are God's works, intended for our benefit, and that God's power might be made more apparent in our weakness.
~BOC, AP, XII (VI), 61-62

The doctrine of election provides glorious consolation under the cross and amid temptations...

Furthermore, this doctrine provides glorious consolation under the cross and amid temptations.  In other words, God in His counsel, before the time of the world, determined and decreed that He would assist us in all distresses.  He determined to grant patience, give consolation, nourish and encourage hope, and produce an outcome for us that would contribute to our salvation.  Also, Paul teaches this in a very consoling way.  He explains that God in His purpose has ordained before the time of the world by what crosses and sufferings He would conform every one of His elect to the image of His Son.  His cross shall and must work together for good for everyone, because they are called according to God's purpose.  Therefore, Paul has concluded that it is certain and beyond doubt that neither "tribulation, or distress" neither "death nor life," or other such things "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (See Romans 8:28, 29, 35, 38, 39.)
~BOC, FSD, XI, 48-49

Through the Sacraments God moves hearts to believe...

...the Sacraments are not just marks of profession among people, as some imagine.  Rather, they are signs and testimonies of God's will toward us. Through them God moves hearts to believe.
~BOC, AP, XIII (VII), 1