Gerhard and Walther

But where there is servile fear in the heart, there one flees from God. Indeed, one actually then begins in his heart secretly to hate if this slavish fear is not squelched and driven out by love.—Johann Gerhard, Schola Pietatis III:113.

God did not foresee something good in His elect that prompted Him to choose them. On the contrary, He saw them in the blood of their sins and yet declared: “You shall live!”—C. F. W. Walther, God Grant It!, p. 482.