Predestination, Treatise · Objection and answer 1 – Objection and answer 2
The first Crimination is,
That we teach, that certaine men and those but few are elected.
Answere. Certaine men we say. For all the elect are knowne vntounto God, and their number can neither be increased nor diminished. Few we do not say, but after a prescript and certaine manner. For (to omit the Angels) if you consider the elect by themselues, they are many. Matth. 8. 11. I say vntounto you, that many shall come from the East, and West, and shall sit downe with Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob in the kingdome of heauen. Reuel. 7. 9. I beheld and loe a great multitude, which no man could number of all nations, kindreds, people and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lambe, cl…athed with long white robes, and palmes in their hands. Yea there is as it were a world of elect. Augustine: The Church which is De doctr. Chr. lib. 3. cap. 34.without spot and wrinkle, and gaethered together out of all nations, and which shall reigne with Christ for euer, euen she is the land of the blessed, and the land of the liuing. Againe, The reconciling world shal be deliuered out Tract. in Jo…n. 111. Hist. lib. 4. … 15.of the maligning world. Eusebius: Christ suffred for the saluation of the world, of those which are to be saued. The Author of the booke de vocat. gen. lib. 1. In those which are elected, foreknowne and seuered from the multitude of men, there is a certaine speciall vniuersalitie counted, that the whole world may seeme to be deliuered out of the whole world, and that all men may seeme to be taken out of all men. Beda calleth those a world to … Tobiam.be enlightned and healed, who were predestinated to eternall life. Thomas: The crue light enlighteneth those, who come into the world of In Catena in 1. Ioan. ex Orig.vertues, not those which come into the world of vices.
Neuerthelesse, if those same elect be compared with them that are iustly damned, wee say according to the Scriptures that they are few. Matth. 7. 13. 14. The gate is narrow and the way streight which leadeth vntounto life, and few there be which find it. Againe, Many are called, but few are chosen, Matth. 20. 16.
The second Crimination is,
That we teach, that God ordained men to hell fire, and created them to the end that he might destroy them.
Answere. Here the distinction of the double act in reprobation must bee repeated and retained. First therefore I answere, that reprobation in regard of the former act is absolute, that is, in regard of the purpose to forsake the creature, and to manifest Iustice in it: so we teach, and beleeue. For we cannot so much as imagine a cause in the creature, why it was Gods wil to passe by it, and to suffer some to fall finally from their blessed estate. Yea sinne is it selfe after the desertion and iust permission of God: and therefore it can by no meanes be the cause of the permission and desertion. Whence it is that Lumbard the Lib. 1. dist. 41.Master of all the Schoolemen saith, that God hath reiected whom he would, not for any future merits which he did foresee, but yet most righteously, though we cannot conceiue the reason thereof. And Ierome long before him dothd thus expound y• place of Paul, Ad Hebid. quaest. 10.Rom. 9. 11. (Ere the children were borne, and whē they had neither done good nor euill) If Esau (saith hee) and Iacob were not yet borne, neither had done good or euill, whereby they might win… Gods fauour or offend him, and if their election and reiection doth not shew their seuerall deserts, but the will of the Elector and Reiector, what shal we say? Afterwards: If we grant this, that God doth what soeuer hee will, and that he either chuseth or condemneth a man without desert and workes: it is not therefore in him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but in God that sheweth merciemercy. Againe: Therefore it is in vaine asked—, seeing that it is in his power and will either to chuse or to refuse a man without good and euill workes. Anselmus: It Comment. in Math. c. 11.is not ours to know why God demeth grace to them which would gladly receiue and consent to grace, and neglecteth another, that would so well consent vntounto it. This is onelyonly In Rom. cap. 11.knowne …to God. Againe, No creature is able to search out why he is mercifull to this man rather than to another. xThe same doe other Summ. 1. par. quae. 23. art. 5. Schoolmen affirme in …e midst of Papacie. Gregorius Ariminensis laieth downe sixe conclusiōs cōcerning Predestination. First, that there is no bodie predestinated for the well vsing of freewill, which God for…knew that he should hauehave. Secondly, that no man is predestina…ed, because he was foreknowne to cō tinue to the end without Cont. Gent. lib. 1. c. 44. any let of habitual grace. 3. That whomsoeuer God predestinated, …m hee did predestinate freely, purposedlie and of his pure merciemercy. Fourthly, that no man is reiected for the euill vsing of freewill, which God foresaw he would be tainted with. Fiftly, that there is not any reiected, because hee was foreknowne to hauehave finally an impedimēt of diuine grace. Sixtlie, that whomsoeuer God reiected, him hee did reiect without anie cause in him. The very same conclusions hath Petrus de Alliaco, lib. 1. sent. quaest. 12. art. 2. and Marsilius of Inghen, lib. 1. dist. 42. q. 4. Some of whose words I will set downe: He is predestinated (saith he) to whom God hath purposed to giuegive euerlasting life. And he is reiected, on whom God hath determined not to bestow the same, as the Apostle teacheth, Rom. 9. Againe: No man, that is predestinated, is predestinated for any thing, which should bee in him in time to come: so also there is no reprobate reiected for any cause, which was to be in him in time to come. And eueryevery one that is predestinate, is predestinated only by grace, & by Gods mercifull disposition, not for any cause either actuall or priuatiue to bee found in him, whiles hee liueth. Againe, To reiect is to nill to shewe merciemercy, and this is not for the euill workes of In sent. lib. 1. quae. 22. art. 2. any creature, for how holy soeuer the workes were, God would shew merciemercy as he listed. So also Francis. Mar. lib. x. q. 31. art. 2. 3. saith, that there are foure signes necessarie for the vnderstāding of the proceeding of predestination and reprobation: First, in which Peter & Iudas are offred to the diuine will, as to neither of thē both. And …hen the diuine will … preordaine P…ter vntounto gl…ie, but it had no posi…ne act about Iudas, according to …u…ustine. The second s…gne is, in which hee preordained Peter to grace: and thē he had …o posi…ue act as yet about Iudas. The th…d signe …. in which they are left to themselues, and bot… o… them doe fall into sinne. The fourth s…gne is that, in which Peter riseth againe, …or he cannot continue, because he is predestinated by the first signe. But Judas riseth not againe, because he hath not God to raise him vp, therefore hee is reiected. D. Bannes in 1. Thom. q…. 23. The cause and reason of the whole worke of reprobation cannot be said to bee in the reprobates, for sinne it selfe cannot be the cause of that pennission of sinne, for which a man is damned, whether it bee originall or actuall, as it appeareth in infants who die only with originall sinne: which verely, howsoeuer it may be the cause why infants are forsaken in it, yet neuerthelesse it cannot bee the cause and reason, why the whole nature of man should be suffered to fall in Adam. And Ferrariensis (in Thom. cont. Gent. pag 603.) saith, that foure things are found in a reprobate; to wi…, a sufferance to fall into sinne, the sin it selfe, Gods forsaking not raising him from sin, and the punishment or damnation. Now reprobation is not alike but diuersly affected to all these. For if we consider sinne in it self, reprobation is not caused by i…—.Although nothing on our parts, to wit, no worke of ours bee the cause of the whole work of reprobatiō (for of al these together, namely, of the permission, forsaking and punishment, the manifestation of Gods iustice is the alone cause, considering that no worke of ours is the cause of the permission) yet notwithstanding our wicked working or sinne is the cause why wee are damned and punished. Againe, We denie that God is cruell, for we say that God doth not punish and torment the reprobate for the fulfilling (as it were) of his owne fancie, but for sinne eternally foreknowne, which he determined so to dispose of by punishing of it, that his iustice might be made manifest.Thomas: Why hee ele…teth these vntounto glorie, and reiecteth those, he hath …o reason but the diuine will. Againe, The difference of those which are to be saued, from them that are to be damned proceedeth from the principall …ention of the first Ag… Againe, Wee … not enquire why he conuerieth these and not those. For this commeth of his owne meere will. And Augustine vpō Iohn: Why Lib. 3. c. 161.hee draweth this man, and not that, do not desire to iudge, if thou wouldest not erre.
Neuerthelesse reprobation in regarde of the second act, that is, in respect of the purpose to damne, is not absolute but for sinne. For no man perisheth but thorough his owne default; and no man is absolutely ordained to hell or destruction, but for his sinne; hauing also receiued before in Adam power, whereby hee was able to liue holily and happely, if so be that hee would. And therefore I say that that which they alleage is a very calumnie.
Secondly I answer, that God did not simply create man to destroy him, but that he might manifest his iudgement by the iust destruction of the sinner. Now it is one thing to will the destruction of a man as hee is man; and another thing to will the deserued destruction of a man as he is a sinner. Heere also the iudgemēt of Cameracēsis a iudicial Scholeman is to bee heard and obserued. According to the Scripture (saith hee) although God should punish or afflict some creature eternally, or vtterly abolish it without any sinne in it, yet he should not deale vniustly or cruelly with it. Whence it is, Wisedome 12. 12. Who dare accuse thee, if the nations perish which thou hast made?—God is not bound to lawes created, as if any thing were iust before God did will i…, whereas indeed the contrarie is true.