In this way it came before the eyes of the bishops and divines in We have already given extracts from the authorities we have mentioned; but to save our readers the trouble of referring back, we will put the language of the Article and the language in these extracts side by side, that they may judge more easily. The case hardly requires this tabular juxtaposition; but if it would assist them at all, they will see one in the next page. The language of the Article, as compared with the language of those writers, has indeed, if anything, rather a more moderate tone than theirs, Some parts of Peter Lombard's language-that where he touches on reprobation, and in what sense it is caused by the deserts of the reprobate, and in what sense not caused at all by their deserts, but by the absolute and irrespective decree of God-though balanced by what he says elsewhere, and on the whole tolerably negatived, still touches on bolder ground than what the Article does, and has more a Calvinistic look about it. The same may be 1 Archbishop Lawrence's Bampton Lectures, p. 250. NO. LXVII.-N. S. D XVII. ARTICLE. Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour. Wherefore, they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to God's purpose by his Spirit working in due season they through Grace obey the calling they be justified freely: they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ: they walk religiously in good works, and at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity. S. AUGUSTINE. Whoever therefore are separated by Divine grace from that original damnation, we doubt not but that there is procured for them the hearing of the Gospel; that when they hear, they believe; and that in that faith which worketh by love they continue unto the end: that if they ever go astray they are corrected, and being corrected grow better; or that if they are not corrected by men, they still return into the path they left. All these things in them He worketh, whose handiwork they are, and who made them vessels of mercy; He who chose them in his Son before the foundation of the world according to the election of grace: and if of grace, then no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace.' These were not called so as not to be chosen, as those of whom we hear, many are called but few chosen; but they are called according to his purpose, and therefore elected according to the election of grace. Of such the Apostle saith, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, who are the called according to His purpose. Of them none perish, because all are elect, and they are elect because they are called according to His purpose; and that purpose not their own but God's: of which He elsewhere saiththat the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of him that calleth.' If any of these perish, God is deceived; but none doth perish, for God is not deceived. If any of these perish, God is overcome by man's corruption: but none doth perish, for God is conquered by nothing.-De Corrept. et Grat. c. vii. S. BERNARD. With this glue hath that Divine Intuition glued us unto Himself from the foundation of the world, that we might be holy and without spot in His sight, in love. For we know that he that is born of God sinneth not, because the heavenly begetting keepeth him. And the heavenly begetting is the eternal predestination whereby God foresaw that they would be conformed to the image of his Son. Of these none sinneth-i. e. persevereth in sin; because the Lord knows those that are His, and the purpose of God remaineth stedfast. And though the mark of ever so horrible crimes be burnt into David, and Mary Magdalene be overwhelmed with seven devils, and the chief of the Apostles be sunk in the abyss of denial, there is none that can take them out of the hand of God. For whom He hath predestinated him He hath called, and whom He hath called him he hath justified. S. Bernard's Works. Paris Edit. 1640, p. 364. Showed him the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is granted, is promised, is shown, is received. It is granted in predestination, is promised in vocation, is shown in justification, is received in glorification. Whence the invitation'Come ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom of God.' For thus saith the Apostle: Whom he predestinated them he also called; and whom he called them he also justified; and whom he justified them he also glorified.' In predestination is grace, in vocation is power, in justification is joy, in glorification is glory.-P.392. S. ANSELM. This is the predestination of Saints, the foreknowledge, that is, and preparation of the Divine benefits, in consequence of which those who are saved, are saved. For of those who are predestinated none perisheth with the devil, none will remain till death under the power of the devil. If any one of these perish, God is deceived. But none of them does perish, because He is not deceived. Again, as whom He foreknew He predestinated, so whom He predestinated he called. Here we must understand ( according to His purpose.' For there are others called but not chosen, and therefore not called according to His purpose. Again, whom He called, i. e. according to His purpose, them He also justified. Just as an emperor, if he determined to elevate a humble person to the consulship, would supply him with the necessary expenses, and equip him suitably to so high an office: so to those, whom He hath predestinated to life, God giveth the degrees of virtue and good works, which are to raise them to that sublime state. He calls them, and justifies them, and glorifies them. And these gifts, to whomsoever He giveth them, He foreknew beyond all doubt He would give to these persons; and so prepared them in His foreknowledge. Those whom He predestinated, then, He also called, with that calling of which it is said, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For the arrangement of infallible and unchangeable foreknowledge, and nothing else, is predestination. Not any others, then, but those whom He predestinated, He called; nor others but whom He called, He justified; nor others but those whom He predestinated and called, and justified, He glorified. Anselm, tom. ii. pp. 55, 56. LOMBARD. Predestination is the preparation of grace, or that divine election by which God has chosen those whom He willed before the foundation of the world, as saith the Apostle. Reprobation e converso is the foreknowledge of wickedness and preparation of its punishment. And as the effect of predestination is grace, so the effect of reprobation is obduration. * * Jacob was elected and Esau reprobated, neither on account of any deserts which they then had, because they had none, inasmuch as they were not yet born; nor on account of any future ones which were foreseen. God hath elected those whom He willed, according to His free mercy, and He hath reprobated those whom He willed, not on account of any future merits foreseen by Him, but according to a most absolute truth, removed from our cognizance. Lombard. Libri Sententiarum, i. Distinct. xl. xli. AQUINAS. As respects some, those, viz. whom He predestinates, God represents His goodness per modum misericordia, by sparing them; as respects others, those, viz, whom He reprobates, He represents it per modum justitie, by punishing them. This is the reason why God elects some and reprobates others. It is the reason which the Apostle assigns in the Epistle to the Romans, when he says God, willing to show his wrath (i.e. the vengeance of his justice), and to make his power known, endured (i. e. permitted) with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory.' And again- -'In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and earth, and some to honour and some to dis honour.' But why God hath elected some and reprobated others there is no account to be given, except the Divine Will, as S. Augustine says'Why he draweth this man, and draweth not that, desire not to explain, if thou desirest not to err.' * * * No charge of injustice can be brought against God on this account; because He e provides unequally for beings who are to begin with equal. This would, indeed, be contrary to justice if that which predestination conveyed to a man were given him because it was owing to him. But this is not the case. That which predestination conveys is the result of free grace; and in matters of free grace a person can give more or less, exactly as he likes, without infringing any rule of justice. Summa Theologica, p. i. Q. 23, A. 5. - : be said of the extract from Aquinas: it states things more boldly, and confronts and sets down the difficulty of injustice on the part of the Deity, with a decision that offends more than the simple description of benevolent Power given in the Article. The Article. avoids entering at all into any dealings of God with the wicked, with the wrathful side of His providence, altogether it simply states His dealings with the good, and the work of grace. It can, therefore, raise no hostile feeling in any minds which are ready to accept the Augustinian dicta, Deus in nobis dona coronat sua,' and 'Da quod jubes, et jube quod vis.' Nobody can object to attribute all the good that there is in him to God; the principle of humility in human nature compels him so to do. But if he attributes all the good he has and does to God, he makes God the author and maker of this good, the creator of the spiritual man. It is this spiritual creation, simply, that the Article describes. It takes us through several processes, indeed, but these are only so many successive stages in the work of creation. First comes the purpose of creation; for God designs to create before He does actually begin to create the new creature; and this is the 'everlasting purpose of God, whereby before the foundations of the world were laid, He hath constantly decreed by His counsel, secret to us,' to make some men vessels of honour. In accordance with this previous determination to make them vessels of honour, God then begins to make them such; and the first step of this work is to call them, giving them at the same time the grace to obey the call; the next, to justify or pardon them; the next, to sanctify them, or give them such grace as that they walk religiously in good works; the next, to give them the reward and crown of these good works in the gift of eternal felicity. The whole is simply the work of spiritual creation described, with the addition of that creation having been foreknown and purposed from the first. It is that foreknowledge and preparation of the Divine acts of grace,' which S. Augustine speaks of: it is that foreknowledge whereby God foreknew what He Himself was about to make,' which S. Anselm speaks of: it is that 'glueing by which the Divine intuition hath glued us unto Him'self from the foundation of the world, that we might be holy and without spot in His sight, in love,' which S. Bernard speaks of: it is the 'predestination which causes every thing in 'man fitting him for salvation (quicquid est in homine ordinans ipsum in salutem') of Aquinas. S. Augustine is full of language which describes the formation of human goodness as a simple work of creation on God's part, just as the formation of man out of the clay of the earth was. 'Ipse ergo illos bonos 1 Summa, I. xxiii. 5. FACIT,' he says-' Ipse eos facit perseverare in bono qui FACIT 'bonos'' Ipse igitur fidem gentium FACIT '-' His operibus in quibus te Deus FINXIT, i. e. FORMAVIT, et CREAVIT:'-' Non illa CREATIONE qua homines facti sumus sed ea de qua ille dicebat, qui utique jam homo erat, cor mundum CREA in me.'- Sed Deus quos dignatur vocat, et quem vult religiosum FACIT,' quoted from S. Cyprian. And all that language of his which represents human goodness simply as a gift; the donum obedientiæ,' the 'donum bene vivendi, the donum meriti,' the 'donum fidei,' the donum justitia,' speaks exactly to the same purport. It is this view of human goodness as the simple creation, and the simple gift of God, which is put forward in the 17th Article. Indeed so far from there being any reason for fixing upon this Article any charge of puritanism, and superseding of good works; its language is positively valuable in the very direction of good works; because it makes the legitimate necessary fruit of grace to be good works: they (to whom grace is given) walk religiously ' in good works.' As it is Augustinian in deriving all good works from grace as their true cause, so it is strictly Augustinian also in assigning to grace good works as its true effect. This is what S. Augustine is so perpetually insisting on. Every cause has its effect. What is the effect of grace? the question is: S. Augustine answers unhesitatingly and summarily-Good works. The Article does the same. With such patristic language, with such medieval language, with such a general doctrine handed down from one age of the Church to another, with which the language of this Article and the doctrine of this Article can be identified, it does appear then, we must say, most unnecessary, and indeed a simple misapprehension, to treat this Article as it had a puritan and a Genevan aim; as it were something which, after all explaining and qualifying, it were all that a highchurchman could do to subscribe to. There is no necessity thus to hand it over to the Genevan school. It does not belong to it. It belongs to a school which thought and which taught before that school existed. Were S. Augustine, and S. Bernard, and S. Anselm, and Peter Lombard, and S. Thomas Aquinas puritans? If they were not, then there is nothing puritan in this Article. It is needless to add, when its predestinarian language has nothing puritan in it, that its protest against the abuse to which that language is liable, is certainly not puritan. Persons have an image upon their minds of a long Article' upon predestination; and regard its length as a proof of some extraordinary prominence which was meant to be given to this doctrine by our Church. But what makes the length of the article? Not the statement of the doctrine of predestination itself, which is short, but a protest against the abuse of the doc |
