Fourth Objection
He wills that evil come to pass not by doing it Himself, but by willing not to hinder it to be done by others. Secondly, He does not inwardly incline the will to do evil, but He forsakes and outwardly offers objects which are good in themselves. Thirdly, God lays not on us any necessity, but a desertion or want of grace, to which being imposed follows the necessity of sinning, not as the effect does his cause, but as the defect does him that forsakes. And this I am resolved on, that God's decree does altogether order every event partly by inclining and gently bending the will in all things that are good and partly by forsaking it in things that are evil, and yet the will of the creature left to itself is carried headlong of the own accord not of necessity in itself, but contingently that way which the decree of God determined from eternity. We therefore (thanks be given to God) do with all our hearts renounce the doting follies of the Stoics and the Manichees.
Fourth Objection The fourth crimination is that we do teach, that the greatest part of mankind is deprived of Christ and all saving grace. Answer 1. It might happily seem a rigorous course that some should be deprived of Christ, if so be that they had never at any time nor anywhere received saving grace. But all and every one received holiness and happiness in Adam, together with ability to persevere and remain in the same holy and happy estate, if they had willed. But Adam would not, but did of his own accord cast away that grace which was bestowed on him by his Creator; for which being lost, it is a wonder that all without exception are not damned. And therefore it may
seem the less strange to any one if grace by Christ be again bestowed upon one and not upon another.
Secondly, I answer that we do acknowledge with glad minds that Christ died for all (the Scripture averring so much); but we utterly deny that He died for all and every one alike in respect of God, or as well for the damned as elect, and that effectually on God's part. For first, let us weigh well the words of Christ: "I never knew you; depart from Me ye workers of iniquity" (Matt. 7:25). Now to know with God is to acknowledge; and therefore, whom Christ never knew, He never acknowledged for His. And those whom He has not sometime acknowledged, He never bought or redeemed with the price of His blood. And therefore, well says Gregory: "Not to know with God is to reject." Again, if all and every one be effectually redeemed, all and every one are reconciled to God, because that the forgiveness of sins and the satisfaction for the same are inseparably joined together.
Yea, and Paul places redemption in the remission of sin, where he says: "By whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins" (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14). Very well therefore, says
Prosper, "As it is not sufficient for the renewing of men that Christ Jesus was born man, unless they be renewed also in the same Spirit whereof He was born, so it is not sufficient for man's redemption that Christ Jesus was crucified, unless we die together and be buried with Him in baptism."101 Of these premises therefore I frame this assumption: but all are not reconciled to God, neither do all receive remission of sins; for then all men were blessed (Ps. 32:1). And it were not possible for them to perish, which thing to affirm of all and every one is very gross. Thirdly, Christ gave Himself that He might sanctify to Himself a people peculiar (λαος περιούσιον) (Titus 2:14)— that is, as a precious treasure and His own gotten good selected and chosen from among others. Therefore, it was not Christ's purpose to give Himself for a ransom for all and every one alike. Fourthly, for
whom redemption is ordained, to them all is given on God's part the making of them sons by Christ. But the making of sons or adoption is not granted to all and every one, even on God's part (John 1:12). For the power of the adoption whereby a man is made of the child of wrath the child of God is only given to those that believe and apprehend Christ. "They are," says Augustine, "the children of God who are not as yet so to us, and yet they are so to God, because that by believing they should afterward be so through the preaching of the gospel; and yet before this was so, they were engraven the children of God by a steadfast and immutable stability in the register of their
Father. And again there are some which in respect even of some present or temporal grace which they have received are said by us to be the children of God, and yet are they not so to God."103 Fifthly, none are truly redeemed on God's part, but they who are freed from sin, both according to the power that it has to cause damnation and also according to the power that it has to reign in them. In this do the ancient fathers agree. For Augustine says, "By this Mediator God shows that He does make them of evil men eternally good whom He has redeemed with His blood." And again: "Those whom He would make His brethren, He freed and made them fellow heirs."105 And again: "Christ will have no partaker in that which He has bought, but will possess it wholly to Himself, and to that end gave He so great a price, that He might only possess the same." Tychicus says, "Christ, who suffered for us, has freed us from sin and the bondage thereof."
Remigius says, "Thou art the reconciler, Thou art the reconcilement; and blessed shall they be for whom Thou shalt make reconciliation."107 Out of these I thus conclude: all and every one are not redeemed according to both the aforesaid powers of sin. For let us grant that on God's part they are freed from damnation; yet they are not in such measure endued with grace, as that sin shall no more reign in them. Christ therefore is but only the half redeemer of these, and for that cause not a redeemer. Lastly, let us diligently consider
the judgment of ancient writers. Ambrose says, "If you believe not, Christ came not down for you. Neither did He suffer for you."
Augustine says, "Everyone that is generated is damned, and no one is freed unless he be regenerated."109 And again: "It is well said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. For if the whole world being in thralldom and in the power of sin and most justly ordained to punishment be nevertheless in part by God's mercy freed, who can say to God, Why dost Thou condemn the world?" And again: "He that has bought us at so dear a price will not that we whom He has bought should be destroyed. God has given a great price and bought those who He quickens."111 And again: "Of whose mercy is it but of His who has sent Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners," whom
He has both foreknown and predestinated, "and called, and justified, and glorified?" Bernard says, "Christ needed none of those; neither did He any of these things in regard of Himself, but rather in regard of the elect. They were not directly the Jews to whom He was sent, but the elect for whom He was sent."113 Haimo says, "Even as by one man death and sin came generally to our commendation, so by the one justice of man, which is of Christ, to all men elected and predestinated to eternal life came grace to the justification of life."
And again: "He took not away in the elect only original, but also actual sins; and therefore grace and the gift through grace did redound to the elect." Aquinas says, "Christ's merit according to the sufficiency carries itself indifferently to all, but not according to the efficacy. Which happens partly by God's election, through which the effect of Christ's merits is mercifully bestowed on some, and partly by the just judgment of God withdrawn from othersome."116
Objection 1. Against this it is thus objected: The Scripture affirms that Christ redeemed the world. Whereto I answer that this word
"world" in the writings of the apostles does not signify both all and every man that descended from Adam, but all nations in this last age
of the world. "God," says Paul, "was reconciling the world to Him in Christ" (1 Cor. 15:18). What means this word "world" in this place?
Surely not all men of all ages, but the Gentiles which were to be called after the ascension of Christ, as Paul plainly explaining his own mind shows. "Wherefore if the fall of them be the riches of the Gentiles, how much more shall their abundance be?" (Rom. 11:12).
And again in the fifteenth verse: "If the casting away of them (that is, of the Jews) be the reconciling of the world; what shall the receiving be but life from the dead?" In these very words he plainly shows that the reconciliation of the world is the reconciliation of the Gentiles after the casting away of the Jews. And hereby it is most manifest that all the like places of Scripture which many do think to make for the universal redemption of all and every one are to be understood of some men to be called out of every nation and country after the death of Christ. And hereto also let us join the answer of Augustine,
"He calls oftentimes even the church itself by the name of the world according to that, God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ; and again, the Son of Man came not to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. And John says in his epistle we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just, and He is the reconciler of our sins, and not only of ours, but also of the whole world. Therefore, the whole world is the church, and the whole world hates the church. Therefore, the world hates the world, the malignant world the reconciled world, the damned the saved, and the defiled that which is cleansed. But this world which God in Christ reconciles to Himself and which by Christ is saved and to which all sin is through Christ pardoned is elected out of the malignant, damned, and defiled world."117 Rupertus says, "The world surely which God loved we understand to be mankind—that is, the living and the dead: the dead, which in faith looked for His coming; the living, who should believe in Him, whether they were of the Jews or of the Gentiles. For so He says without any distinction either of Jew
or Gentile universally, that everyone that believes in Him shall not perish, but have life everlasting." And the common gloss expoundeth the world, "those that be the elect of the world."
Objection 2. Saint Paul says that "God will that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). I answer, first, that the place is not to be understood of all the posterity of Adam, but properly of those which live in the last age of the world. This I prove by conferring of the like places wherein Paul does plentifully show his meaning. "And the time of this ignorance God regarded not, but119 now He admonisheth all men everywhere to repent" (Acts
17:30). "By the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began" (Rom. 16:25). "But now is opened and published— for the obedience of faith among all nations" (Rom. 16:26). "The mystery which was hid since the world began and from all ages is now made manifest to the saints" (Col. 1:26). "To whom God would make known Christ; whom we preach, admonishing every man and teaching every man, that we may present all men perfect in Christ
Jesus" (Col. 1:27). And in the second epistle to the Corinthians, the sixth chapter and the second verse, he expounds that place of Isaiah where it is said, "In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee, and I will preserve thee: and will give thee for a covenant of the people that thou mayest raise up the earth—that thou mayest say to the prisoners, go forth," after this fashion: "Behold, now" says he, "the accepted time"—that is, the time of the New Testament—"behold now the day of salvation." Saint
Peter says, "Salvation ordained to be declared in the last times: concerning which the prophets which did prophesy of the grace which should afterward come to you, have searched and inquired" (1
Peter 2:10). And Christ Himself says most plainly of all, "When I shall be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to Me" (John
12:32). I therefore grant that God wills that all should be saved, but
that God both wills and that He has always willed that all men in all ages should be saved I utterly deny, neither has Paul said so much.
And among the ancient writers they which seem to affirm so much do notwithstanding in these kind of speeches doubtfully affirm it: "I do imagine that it may with reason and religion be believed. I do not think it irreligion to believe it. It may properly and religiously be believed."120
Secondly, I answer that God will that all men be saved—that is to say, of those that are saved. So says Augustine: "Even as it is said that all shall be quickened in Christ, although very many be punished by eternal death, because all whoever they are that do receive eternal life do not receive it but in Christ. For is it said that God will have all men to be saved, although He will have many not to be saved, because all who are saved are not saved but by Him willing it." And again: "When we read in the holy Scriptures that God will have all men to be saved, although we know assuredly that all men are not saved, yet ought we not therefore so derogate anything from the omnipotent will of God, but thus to understand that which is written: who will have all men to be saved, as if it should be said, that no man was saved but he whom God would have to be saved"122—not that there is no man whom He will not have saved. Hayme says, "God will have all men to be saved. Let us then ask what is the reason why all men are not saved. To which answer must be made that that saying in the psalm is true: He spoke the word, and they were made. In like manner, He will save all men who are saved and who by His mercy desire to be saved." For the apostle put the whole for the part, as it is in the gospel where the Lord says, "If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to Me. For He has not drawn neither does He draw all men to Him, but all that are elect, and of all sorts, and nations."
Thirdly, I answer that God will not have everyone of every kind, but the kinds of everyone to be saved—that is to say, of every estate and condition some. Augustine says, "This very saying, Who will have all men to be saved, is so said not because there is no man whom He would have damned, who would not do any powerful miracles among them, who He says would have repented if he had; but that we by all men may understand every sort of men, by whatever differences distinguished, whether they be kings or subjects, noble or ignoble, high or low, learned or unlearned, strong or weak, witty, dull spirited or foolish, rich, poor or mean, men or women, infants or children, youths or young men, middle aged men or old men, in all languages, in all trades, in all conditions, in all professions, in the innumerable variety of wills and consciences, and what other differences soever there is among men." These things says he very truly and rightly, for this word "all" is sometime taken distributively, and then it signifies every several and particular person. And Paul, to the intent that he might signify this (2 Thess. 1:3), joins the word "every one" with the word "all" (ἑκάστου πάντων) It is also often taken collectively, and then it signifies any, and not everyone—as when Christ is said to have healed every disease (Matt. 9:35)—that is, any disease. The double signification of this word Aristotle also observed. This word "all," says he, is taken two ways: first for everyone; and secondly, the word
"all" is used when it does not signify everyone (ὡς ἑκάστου καί ουκ ὡσ ἑάστου πάντων). It is plain therefore that the word "all" has a doubtful signification. And of this mind also is St. Jerome: "It is like to that, says he, which is in the psalm, Every man is a liar. If every man be a liar, then is he also a liar which speaketh it, and if he be a liar which speaketh it, then is not that true which he speaketh, namely that every man is a liar. But, if this saying be true, these words every man does lie are (as I said before) to be understood after this sort." A great part of men are liars. And the apostle writeth elsewhere, "teaching every man": and again, "Admonishing every
man"; not that he taught all men (for how many are there yet at this day which have neither heard of the apostle's doctrine," nor yet so much as his name?) "but that he should teach and admonish all that are in the church." Sedulus also says, "Many and all in Paul are one."127
Fourthly, St. Paul speaks in this place according to the charitable judgment of Christians, and not according to the judgment of secret and infallible certainty. Like to this is that also that he calls the faithful in several churches "men elected," among whom there were many which afterward fell away from the faith. And yet is not the apostle deceived; for it is one thing to speak according to his own affection, and another thing to speak as the matter is according as it is indeed. Augustine says, "We ought so charitably to be affected as to wish that all men be saved, as men that know not who appertain to the number of those that are predestinated and who are not." And again: "We must as much as in us is, being unable to distinguish those that are predestinated from those that are not, desire that all men be saved and use sharp correction to all with an intent to heal them that they perish not."129
Hence it appears what we ought to think of Damascene's opinion, who divides the will of God into His precedent and consequent will.
He calls that His precedent will whereby God, as He that is absolutely good, wills to bestow all good things, yea blessedness itself upon the creature. And by this will he affirms that God wills that all men should be saved and attain to His kingdom, because He made us not to punish us, but that He might make us partakers of His goodness as being good Himself. But His consequent will is that whereby for some certain circumstances of the creature He absolutely wills this or that. And by this will he says that God wills that man should be damned for sin, because He is just. And indeed
this distinction in itself is to be allowed, but that is not a very fit example which he has set down or alleged concerning His precedent will. For there seems not to be in God such a will or (as they use to term it) such a wishing will, whereby He will indefinitely and upon condition that all and every man of all ages should be saved. For first, it argues a finite power and insufficiency in him that wills. For whatever any one desires and earnestly wills, that will he bring to pass, unless he be hindered. As for example, the merchant desires and earnestly wills to save his ware; but being forced by a tempest, to the intent that himself may escape he does absolutely will to cast them into the sea. Yea indeed, this kind of will seems to argue weakness, because God wills that which shall not come to pass. But you will say that this will is conditional—that is, that God will that they be saved if they shall believe. And I say first that the will of God stands doubtful until the condition be fulfilled, and that the first cause is by this means held in suspense by the second causes.
Moreover, there is given to men a free will either to believe or not to believe—that is, flexible and inclinable both ways either by grace or by nature, both which things are false, as I will afterward show. And therefore, this will is rather a human will than a divine. Hear what
Anselmus says, "The will of God is taken four manner of ways by the principal doctors: first, for the knowledge of God; then, for the will of the saints, who will in charity that even the unjust should be saved; again, for human reason; and lastly, for God's commandments."131
Secondly, this conditional will seems idle and unnecessary, especially in him whose power is infinite, because if he earnestly willed he would verily do a thing when he might without hindrance. Thirdly,
God's will is not such concerning the angels, whereby He wills that all of them should be saved. Therefore, it may well be demanded whether His will be such concerning man. Fourthly, if God will that all men, as they are men, be saved, in like manner He will that all sinners, as they are sinners, be damned—which is absurd. Fifthly,
that will which cannot be resisted is absolute; but God's antecedent or first will cannot be resisted (Rom. 9:19). For there Paul speaks of the will that goes before all causes. Therefore, the precedent will is absolute. And this will I make manifest after another manner. The will of God is that some should believe and persevere, and that othersome should be forsaken either not believing or not persevering. You will ask me haply how I know this. I answer, by the event, for as touching the event some believe and some do not believe. But to believe and to persevere is a certain kind of good action, and on the contrary not to believe or not to persevere is an evil action. And everything that is good is through the effectual will of God, and so far forth as there is or exists that which is good, so far forth God wills it and makes it to exist by willing it. And that evil, which comes to pass, comes to pass God not hindering it. And because God will not hinder it, therefore consequently it comes to pass. Hereupon it is certain that God wills that some should believe and persevere to the end, and that othersome do not so, yea, even without any condition. And no reason can be rendered wherefore He wills this. Therefore, this will is both absolute and fast; and therefore that universal precedent will concerning the salvation of all and every one in Christ is counterfeit and feigned. Sixthly, the ground of this opinion is that foresaid place of Paul, which I have already showed to be misunderstood. And yet that place lays not down to us any conditional but an absolute will. For there it is first affirmed that "God will have all men to be saved"; afterward, that "he will have all men to come to the knowledge of the truth"—that is, to faith, because by applying faith to the word of God we acknowledge the truth.
Where is now then that condition of faith? Lastly, against Damascene I oppose Augustine, who to the Pelagians urging this place of Scripture, God will that all men be saved, makes a double answer.
First, he denies that it is not generally to be understood of the universality of men, and that by this argument: that which God wills,
He effects. But He does not generally save all men. Therefore, He wills not. Secondly, he says that the place is to be understood of them which are actually saved, because all men which are saved are saved by the will of God. Again, I oppose against him Prosper also, who says, "If the will of God concerning the universal saving of mankind and the calling them to the knowledge of the truth is to be affirmed so indifferently throughout all ages as that it shall be said to overpass no man in whatever place, God's impenetrable and deep judgments receive a great blow."133 And again: "We cannot say that there is the calling of grace, whereas there is as yet no regeneration of the mother, the church." And again: "He forbad the apostles to preach the gospel to some people; and now as yet He suffers some people to live out of His grace." Also, I oppose Thomas Aquinas against him, who says, "But says some man, God loves all men. Whereto I answer that it is true so far forth as He wills some good to all," and yet He wills not everything that is good to all, that is eternal life. "And therein He is said to hate and reject them." To conclude, I oppose against Hugo de Saint Victor: "Who will," says he, "that all men be saved, according to Ambrose, if they themselves will. But are there not many who would be saved, and yet are not saved?—or thus, He offers grace to all, by which, if they will, they may be saved. But how is this solution true? Are there not and have there not been many which never heard so much as a word of preaching?"
Objection 3. That which everyone is bound to believe is true. But everyone is bound to believe that he is effectually redeemed by Christ. Therefore, it is manifest that everyone, even the reprobate, is effectually redeemed by the death of Christ. Whereto I answer that the termini or parts of the proposition are to be distinguished. That which everyone is bound to believe is true according to the intention of God that binds. But it is not always true according to the event.
Jonah preached, and therefore he was bound to believe "yet forty
days and Nineveh shall be destroyed." But this was not true according to the event. The assumption also must be distinguished.
Everyone in the church who by God's commandment "believes the gospel" is bound to believe that he is redeemed by Christ, yea even the reprobate as well as the elect, but yet notwithstanding in a divers and different respect. The elect is bound to believe that by believing he shall be made partaker of election; the reprobate, that by not believing he may be made inexcusable, even by the intention of God.
For God sometimes gives a commandment not that it should be actually done, but that men may be tried, that they perform outward discipline and that they may be convicted of their natural infidelity and be made inexcusable of all their sins before God in the last judgment. For thus I distinguish of God's commandment. There is a certain commandment of obedience, the performance whereof God wills in all. Hither are referred the commandments of the moral law.
There is also a certain commandment of trial, as the commandment of sacrificing Isaac (Gen. 22:2), whereas God wills not the act itself, but only the manifestation of obedience. And therefore God must not be said to mock men if by the word preached He do outwardly call those whom He will not have to be saved, for by this means He shows to them the riches of His grace and declares that they perish by their own fault, because they will not receive salvation offered. But you will say they cannot. I confess as much, but that inability whereby they cannot is voluntary and born together with us, not infused into us by God; and therefore it cannot be excused. Very well therefore, says Bernard: "The Master knew well that the weightiness of the commandment exceeded the strength of man. But He thought it expedient even in this, that it put them in remembrance of their own insufficiency. Therefore, by commanding things impossible He makes not men swervers from the truth, but humbles them that every mouth may be stopped," so says Augustine.137 Secondly, I answer that that which everyone is bound to believe is true, unless
anyone shall by his own unbelief hinder himself. This does the reprobate by his own in-born infidelity. Thirdly, I answer that the argument does follow twice affirmatively in both propositions. For the termini or parts of the proposition are thus to be turned: that is true that everyone is bound to believe, but everyone is bound to believe that he is redeemed by Christ. Therefore, that is true.
Objection 4. The fathers which believed aright do affirm that Christ redeemed all and the whole world. Answer. Whereas they write that Christ redeemed all men and the world, their meaning is that He did it according to sufficiency and the common cause and common nature of all which Christ did take upon Him, and not effectually on God's part. This very thing does Prosper make plain: "All men," says he, "are rightly said to be redeemed in respect of the one nature of all and the one cause of all which our Lord did truly take upon Him, and yet all are not delivered from captivity." The propriety of redemption
"without doubt belongs to them for whom the prince of the world is sent abroad, whose death was not so bestowed for mankind as that it should also pertain to the redemption of them who were not to be regenerated." And again he says, "Our Savior may fitly be said to be crucified for the redemption of all the world both in respect that He truly took upon Him the nature of man and also in respect of the common or general perdition in the first man; and yet He may be said to be crucified only for those to whom His death was available."139 Moreover, the fathers speak of the universality and of the world of believers. So says he that is the author of the calling of the Gentiles: "The people of God," says he, "have their fullness."
And thus much for the efficacy and greatness of Christ's death. Now as concerning grace, I say, that that is diversity distinguished. For first, it is either restraining or renewing. The restraining grace is that whereby the inbred corruption of the heart is not thereby utterly
diminished and taken away, but in some is restrained more, in some less, that it break not violently forth into action. And it is given only for a testimony to man and to preserve order among men in a politic society. And this kind of grace is general—that is, belonging to all and every man, among whom some do exceed othersome in the gifts of civil virtue. And there is no man in whom God does not more or less restrain his natural corruption. Now renewing or Christian grace (as ancient writers do usually call it) is that whereby man has power given him to believe and repent, both in respect of will and power.
And it is universal in respect of those that believe, but indefinite in respect of all and every man. Thus we teach, thus we believe.
Secondly, grace is either natural or supernatural, as Augustine himself teaches. Natural grace is that which is bestowed on man together with nature. And this is either of nature perfect or corrupt.
Perfect, as the image of God or righteousness bestowed on Adam in his creation. This grace belonged generally to all, because we all were in Adam. And whatever he received that was good, he received it both for himself and his posterity. The grace of nature corrupted is a natural enlightening, whereof John speaks, "He enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9), yea and every natural gift. And these gifts truly by that order which God has made in nature are due and belonging to nature. But that grace which is supernatural is not due to nature, especially to nature corrupted; but is bestowed by special grace, and therefore is special. This the ancient writers affirm. Augustine says, "Nature is common to all, but not grace."142 And he only acknowledges a twofold grace—namely, that common grace of nature whereby we are made men, and Christian grace whereby in Christ we are again born new men. And he is of opinion that some that do not believe in Christ do not sin, which is a thing notwithstanding very ungodly and untrue, if grace be as general as nature. Let us well weigh his words: "In that he has,"
says he, "added, Now they are inexcusable for their sin, it may move men to ask whether those to whom Christ has not come nor spoken may have any excuse for their sin.… To this question according to my understanding I make answer" that "they cannot be inexcusable for every sin which they have committed, but for this sin that they have not believed, to whom Christ did not come, and to whom He did not speak. But they are not in this number to whom He has spoken in His disciples, and by His disciples, which He also now does. For He came to the Gentiles by His church.… It remains for us to demand, whether they can have this excuse, which have been or are prevented by death, before Christ came in His church to the Gentiles, and before they heard His Gospel. I answer that without doubt they may, but they cannot therefore escape damnation: for whosoever have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law." Again, he says, "Only grace distinguishes those that are saved from those that are damned, who were enwrapped in one lump of corruption by one common cause from the beginning."144 Chrysostom says, "The grace of God comes to everyone, but it remains with them who do worthily fulfill those things which are in their power, departing quickly from them which do not well behave themselves. Neither does it at all come to those who do not so much as begin to turn to the Lord."
Gregory says, "The Gentiles did not any way worship God, neither showed they any sign or token of any good work, for indeed they were forsaken. Among who because there was no lawgiver, nor no one that did according to reason seek after God, there was not as it were a man, but all lived as it were like beasts." And afterward he says, "When our Redeemer came, He so received the calling of grace as that there was not before in it the life of prophecy." And again:
"Teachers holding their tongues, the devils go into their place, because none do perish by the silence of the pastors, but they who are not predestinated to eternal life. For they are places for the devils, because in God's foreknowledge they are not preordained to
God's tabernacle. Hereupon is it said that when the pastors did preach, as many as were predestinated to eternal life did believe. And hereupon says Paul, whom He has predestinated, those has He called. Hereupon it is that the apostles, desirous to go into Asia, were forbidden by the Holy Ghost. They therefore which are not predestinated, whether they hear the words of the preachers or whether they do not hear them, cannot be called to God's tabernacle." And again: "Sometimes the preachers are silent by God's dispensation, that they holding their peace, they which are not the Lord's may be received of evil spirits."146 Bede says, "The church in the former state of error being without eyes and blind did neither see from the beginning," neither was it seen at all by God. And again:
"All other kinds of faith which are in the world are dead as also the motions of those people and Gentiles which are dead, as they which had not in them Him who said, I am the life. Neither do they regenerate and quicken their people and children by the womb of water and the Spirit, but are fruitless and bereft of the well of life and not enjoying the water which is lively and streams to eternal life.
Therefore, that church which is His is only termed the life and mother of all the living." Hugo de Saint Victor says, "Some of those who were before the coming of Christ, if they had not had some other sin, they should not have been damned for that they did not believe in Christ, because they have an excuse for that sin."148 And again:
"What if those should enter into consideration how many and how excellent in comparison of you are castaways, which could not attain to this grace which is given to you? Surely you have heard how many generations of men from the beginning even until this day have passed away," who are all without the knowledge of God and the price of His redemption "tumbled down into the gulf of everlasting destruction. Your Redeemer and lover has preferred you before all those, inasmuch as He has given you this grace which none of them was worthy to receive. And what will you say? Wherefore do you
think that you are preferred before them all? Have you been more valiant? Have you been more wise? Have you been more noble? Have you been more rich than they all? Because you have obtained this special favor above them all? How many valiant men? How many wise men? How many noble men? How many rich men have there been, and yet they are all forsaken, and have perished like castaways.
You only are received before them all, and yet you cannot find out any cause why you should thus be dealt withal, besides the free favor of your Savior."
Hitherto I have opened and defended our opinion of predestination.
I will now briefly examine another dissenting with this in many things, having taken it with as much diligence as I could out of the public writings of many men; and to this end, I do this briefly propound it.
First, God created all and every man in Adam to eternal life.
Secondly, He foresaw the fall.
Thirdly, because He is by nature gentle and good, He does seriously will that all men after the fall should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth and therefore wills to give all the furtherances both of nature and grace that they may be saved, but yet indefinitely, if they themselves shall believe. This will of God (they say) is predestination, and the same with the written gospel. The rule of this will is "whosoever shall believe shall be saved; he that would not believe, shall be damned."
Lastly, election is according to the foreknowledge of future faith (which notwithstanding may be lost utterly for a time, as some say; or finally and forever, as some other will); and reprobation is