Commentary on Genesis and Exodus, Chapter 32 · Questions · Question 82
QUEST. LXXXI. Of the two wayes whereby we are said to be written in the booke of life.
BUt one may be said two wayes to bee written in the booke of life. 1. Lyranus hath this distinction; one way they are said simply to be written, In quantum praedestinati sunt in noticia Divina, as they are ordained to salvation in the knowledge and prescience of God; and they that are thus written can never bee blotted out: another way, they are scripti secundum quid, written after a sort, not according to the divine prescience or predestination: Sed secundum dispositionem in eis actu existentem, & secundum praesentem justitiam; But according to their disposition, which is in act in them, and according to their present justice: and thus are they said to be blotted out, not in respect of Gods knowledge, as though any thing can fall out against his prescience, but in respect of their change, from grace into sinne.
2. Thomas also to the same purpose: some are said to bee blotted out, Non secundum rei veritatem, sed secundum hominum opinionem; Not according to the truth of the thing,1. p. qu. 24. ar. 1. & 3. but in the opinion of men: for it is usuall in Scripture, ut aliquid dicatur fieri, quando innotescit, that a thing should be said to be done, when it appeareth. So some are said to be written in the booke of life, quia homines ibi opinantur scriptos propter presentem justitiam, because men thinke they are there written, in respect of their present justice. Then some are there written, ex pradestinatione, by predestination, which can never bee blotted out. Some, ex gratia, in respect of their present grace, which they may fall from, and so be blotted out. And againe in another place, he expresseth the same thing in other termes. Some are predestinate of God, Ins… ut simpliciter habituri vitam aeternam, Simply to have life eternall in themselves: and these are so written in the booke of life, as they can never be blotted out. And some are so written, Vt habeant vitam aeternam non in se, sed in sua causa; To have life eternall not in themselves, but in respect of their cause and present state of Justice, which when they fall from, they are said to be blotted out.
3. So before them both, Augustine, We must not so take it brethren, Quod quenquam Deus scribat in libr… vitae, & deleat illum; That God writeth any in the booke of life, and blotteth him out for if a mortall man said, that I have written, I have written, shall we thinke that God writeth and blotteth out: Praescius est Deus, & praedestinavit omnes ante constitutionem mundi regnaturos cum filio; God foreseeth all things, and he did predestinate all before the making of the world, that should reigne with his sonne, &c. Therefore this is said, Secundum spem ipsorum qui ibi se scriptos putabant; That some are written, which are said to be blotted out in their owne opinion, because they thought they were there written: so that where it is said, let them be blotted out of the booke of life, the meaning is, ut ipsos constet non illos ibi esse, that it may appeare unto them, that they are not there. To this purpose Augustine, In Psalm. 69.as he is alleaged both by Simlerus, and Borrhaius.
4. Tostatus followeth the same distinction: that some are written in the booke of life, secundum firmam praedestinationem, according to Gods sure predestination: some only secundum praesentem justitiam, in respect of their present justice: these may bee blotted out, and not the other: but he addeth further; that so likewise in the booke of Gods prescience, wherein onelyonly they are written, whose end is damnation: some are written there, secundum firmam Dei praescientiam, according to Gods firme prescience: others, secundum praesentem injustitiam, according to their present injustice: These may be blotted out, and not the other. And this writing of them in one booke, according to their present justice; in the other, according to their present injustice, he calleth the writing, foris, without the booke: the other writing according to Gods predestination and prescience, he saith, is intus, within the booke.
Then out of these positions, he inferreth certaine conclusions: 1. That it is possible for one to be written in both these bookes, the booke of life, and the booke of death together: in the one, according to Gods predestination or prescience; in the other, according to their present justice or injustice. As he which is predestinate unto life, may according to his present state of injustice be written in the booke of death, foris without, as Paul, while he was yet a persecutor: and one may be in Gods prescience written in the booke of death, and yet according to his present state of grace, he may be written in the booke of life, as Iudas, while yet he continued in Christs obedience and preached the Gospell.
2. Yet it is possible for one to be written twice in the same booke, both in regard of Gods prescience, and his owne state and condition: as Moses was thus written in the booke of life, and Iudas when he betrayed Christ in the booke of death.
3. They which are written in the booke of life according to predestination, may be blotted out thence, according to their present state and condition, as David, when he sinned: and so in the other booke likewise, as Saul, while he was yet a vertuous King, he was written in the booke of rejection in Gods prescience, but blotted out, in regard of his present justice.
4. But he that is written in the booke of life according unto predestination, cannot be written in the booke of death according to Gods prescience, and so on the other side: because one and the same cannot be foreseene of God, both to salvation, and condemnation.
5. And they which are written according to their present justice in the booke of life, cannot at the same time be written in the booke of death, according to their present injustice: because one cannot at the same time be counted righteous, and wicked before God, Tostat. qu. 43.
But these exceptions may worthily be taken unto Tostatus conclusions: 1. Because he maketh a booke of death, and speaketh of putting in, and blotting out of that booke: whereas the Scripture acknowledgeth only a booke of life, not any of death: for not to be written in the booke of life, though they bee not written in any other blacke booke, is sufficient unto everlasting perdition. 2. He calleth the booke of death the booke of Gods prescience only, as though God were not a Judge also in condemning the vessels of wrath into hell, and ordaining them justly thereunto, as he is in the electing the vessels of honour to salvation. 3. It is an errour, that God writeth any in either of those bookes on the backside in respect of their present state or condition of justice or injustice: for Gods writing there is unchangeable: they are there said to be written, in regard of their present state, secundum spem ipsorum, in their owne hope, as Augustine, or secundum opinionem homin…m, according to the opinion of men, that thinke them to be there written: as Thomas before alleaged.