The First Crimination

Answer. Certain men we say. For all the elect are known to God, and their number can neither be increased nor diminished. Few we do not say, but after a prescript and certain manner. For (to omit the Angels) if you consider the elect by themselves, they are many. Matthew 8:11. I say to you, that many shall come from the East, and West, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Revelation 7:9. I beheld and lo a great multitude, which no man could number of all nations, kindreds, people and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with long white robes, and palms in their hands. Yes there is as it were a world of elect. Augustine: The Church which is without spot and wrinkle, and gathered together out of all nations, and which shall reign with Christ for ever, even she is the land of the blessed, and the land of the living. Again, The reconciling world shall be delivered out of the maligning world. Eusebius: Christ suffered for the salvation of the world, of those which are to be saved. The Author of the book de vocat. gen. lib. 1. In those which are elected, foreknown and severed from the multitude of men, there is a certain special universality counted, that the whole world may seem to be delivered out of the whole world, and that all men may seem to be taken out of all men. Beda calls those a world to be enlightened and healed, who were predestinated to eternal life. Thomas: The true light enlightens those, who come into the world of virtues, not those which come into the world of vices.

Nevertheless, if those same elect be compared with them that are justly damned, we say according to the Scriptures that they are few. Matthew 7:13-14. The gate is narrow and the way strait which leads to life, and few there be which find it. Again, Many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 20:16).