Chapter 44. Gratuitous Grace Exemplified In Infants (continued)
CHAPTER 45.
THE REASON WHY ONE PERSON IS ASSISTED BY GRACE,
AND ANOTHER IS NOT, MUST BE REFERRED
TO THE SECRET JUDGMENTS OF GOD
You must refer the matter then to the hidden determinations of God when you see all infants in one and the same condition, such as all unquestionably have who derive their hereditary evil from Adam. One is assisted so as to be baptized, and another is not assisted, so that he dies in his bondage. And again you see that one baptized person is left and forsaken in his present life, whom God foreknew would be ungodly, while another baptized person is taken away from this life, “lest that wickedness were to alter his understanding.”Wis 4.11 Be sure in such cases that you do not ascribe unrighteousness or unwisdom to God, in whom is the very fountain of righteousness and wisdom; but as I have exhorted you from the commencement of this treatise, “to what you have already attained, walk in it,”Phil 3.16 and “even this God shall reveal to you,”Phil 3.15—if not in this life, yet certainly in the next, “for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed.”Mat 10.26 When therefore you hear the Lord say, “I the Lord have deceived that prophet,”Eze 14.9 and likewise hear what the apostle says: “He has mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will, He hardens,”Rom 9.18 believe that in the case of the one whom God permits to be deceived and hardened, his evil deeds have deserved the judgment; while in the case of the one to whom God shows mercy, you should loyally and unhesitatingly recognize the grace of the God who “does not render evil for evil; but contrariwise, blessing.”1Pet 3.9 Nor should you take away from Pharaoh his free will; because in several passages God says, “I have hardened Pharaoh;” or, “I have hardened, or I will harden Pharaoh’s heart;” but it does not by any means follow that Pharaoh did not on this account harden his own heart. For this too is said of him after the removal of the fly-plague from the Egyptians, in these words of the Scripture: “And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also; nor would he let the people go.”Exo 8.32 Thus it was that both God hardened him by His just judgment, and Pharaoh [hardened himself] by his own free will. Be then well-assured that your labour will never be in vain if, setting before you a good purpose, you persevere in it to the last. For God—who fails to render according to their deeds, only to those whom He liberates—will then “recompense every man according to his works.”Mat 16.27 God will therefore certainly recompense both evil for evil, because He is just; and good for evil, because He is good; and good for good, because He is good and just; but He will never recompense evil for good, because He is not unjust. He will therefore recompense evil for evil—punishment for unrighteousness; and He will recompense good for evil—grace for unrighteousness; and He will recompense good for good—grace for grace.