Chapter 24. That Election Is Established by the Calling of God, but That the Reprobate Do Bring upon Themselves the Just Destruction to Which They Are Appointed

But, that the matter may more plainly appear, we must treat of both the calling of the elect, and of the blinding and hardening of the wicked. Of the first of these I have already spoken somewhat when I refuted their error, which thing that the generalness of the promises extends equally to all mankind. But this election which otherwise God has hidden with himself he does not without choice at length disclose by his calling, which a man may therefore call the testifying of it. For, whom he has foreknown, them he has also foreappointed to be fashioned like the image of his son: whom he has foreappointed, them he has also called: whom he has called, them he has also justified, that in time to come he may glorify them. When the Lord has by electing already adopted his own into the number of his children: yet we see how they enter not into possession of so great a benefit, but when they be called: on the other side, how being called they do now enjoy a certain communicating of his election. For which reason Paul calls the Spirit which they receive, both the Spirit of adoption, and the seal, and earnest of the inheritance to come: namely because it does with the testimony thereof establish and seal to their hearts the assurance of the adoption to come. For though the preaching of the Gospel spring out of the fountain of election: yet because it is also common to the reprobate, therefore it could not by itself be a sure proof thereof. But God effectually teaches his elect, that he may bring them to faith: as we have before cited out of the words of Christ. Whoever is of God, he and none other sees the Father. Again, I have shown your name to the men whom you have given me: Whereas he says in another place, No man can come to me, unless my Father draw him. Which place Augustine wisely weighs, whose words are these. If (as Truth says) every one that has learned, comes: whoever does not come, certainly neither has he learned. It does not therefore follow that he which can come, also comes, unless he have both willed and done it. But every one that has learned of the father, not only can come, but also comes, when now there is present both the profit of coming, and the affection of willing, and the [illegible] with this light, that they should refuse to look upon election? Yet in the mean time I do not deny, that to the end we may be certain of our salvation, we must begin at the word, and that our trust ought therewith to be content, that we may call upon God by the name of Father. For some quite contrary to right order, that they may be certified of the counsel of God (which is near to us, in our mouth and in our heart) do covet to fly above the clouds. Therefore that rashness is to be restrained with sobriety of faith, that it may suffice us that God in his outward word is a witness of his hidden grace: to that the conduit pipe out of which there flows water largely for us to drink, does not hinder but that the springhead may have his due honor.

Therefore as they do wrongfully, who hang the strength of election upon the faith of the gospel, by which faith we feel that election pertains to us: so we shall keep the best order, if in seeking the certainty of our election, we stick fast in these later signs, which are sure witnessings of it. Satan [reconstructed: assails] us with no temptation either more grievously, or more dangerously to astonish the faithful, than when disquieting them with doubt of their election he does also move them with a perverse desire to seek it out of the way. I call it looking out of the way, when a wretched man undertakes to break into the hidden secrets of the wisdom of God, and to pierce even to the highest eternity to understand what is determined of himself at the judgment seat of God. For then he throws himself headlong to be swallowed up into the depth of the immeasurable devouring pit, then he wraps himself with innumerable snares and such as he cannot wind out of: then he overwhelms himself with the bottomless depth of blind darkness. For so it is right that the foolishness of the wit of man be punished with so horrible ruin, when he attempts of his own force to rise up to the height of the wisdom of God. And so much more deadly is this temptation, as there is none to which we are commonly all more bent. For there is most rarely any man to be found, whose mind is not sometime struck with this thought. From where do you have salvation, but from the election of God? And of election what revelation have you? Which thought, if it has once taken place in any man, either perpetually vexes the miserable man with terrible torments, or utterly dismays him. Truly I would have no surer argument than this experience to prove, how wrongfully such men imagine of predestination. For the mind can be infected with no error more pestilent, than that which plucks down and thrusts the conscience from her peace and quietness toward God. Therefore if we fear shipwreck, we must diligently beware of this rock, which is never struck upon without destruction. And though the disputing of predestination be esteemed like a dangerous sea, yet in passing through it there is found a safe and quiet, indeed even pleasant sailing, unless a man does willfully covet to be in danger. For as they do drown themselves in the deadly bottomless depth, who to be certified of their election do inquire of the secret counsel of God without his word: so they who do rightly and orderly search it in such sort as it is contained in the word, receive thereof a singular fruit of comfort. Let this therefore be our way to search it, that we begin at the calling of God, and end in the same. However this does not withhold the faithful from thinking that the benefits which they daily receive at the hand of God, do descend from that secret adoption: as they say in Isaiah, You have done marvels, your thoughts are old, true, and faithful: inasmuch as by that adoption as by a token, the Lord's will is to confirm so much as is lawful to be known of his counsel. But lest any man should think this a weak testimony, let us consider how much both clearness and certainty it brings us. Of which thing Bernard speaks fitly. For after that he had spoken of the reprobate, he says: The purpose of God stands, the sentence of peace stands upon them that fear him, both covering their evils, and rewarding their good things: so as to them after a marvelous manner not only good things, but also evil does work together to good. Who shall accuse the elect of God? It suffices me to all righteousness, to have him alone merciful, to whom alone I have sinned. All that he has decreed not to impute to me, is so as if it never had been. And a little after: O place of true rest, and to which not unworthily I may give the name of a bedchamber, in which God is seen not as troubled with wrath, not as withheld with care, but his will is proved in him good, and well pleasing, and perfect. This sight does not make afraid, but calms: does not stir up unquiet curiosity, but appeases it: does not weary the senses, but quiets them. Here is quiet truly taken. God being appeased, appeases all things: and to behold him quiet, is to be quiet.

First if we seek a fatherly kindness and favorable mind of God, we must turn our eyes to Christ, in whom alone the soul of the Father rests. If we seek salvation, life, and the immortality of the heavenly kingdom, we must then also flee to no other: for as much as he alone is both the fountain of life, and author of salvation, and heir of the kingdom of Heaven. Now what purpose does election serve, but that being adopted of the heavenly Father into the degree of children, we may by his favor obtain salvation and immortality? However in seeking you toss it and shake it, yet you shall find that the uttermost mark of it extends no further. Therefore whom God has taken to his children, it is not said that he has chosen them in themselves, but in his Christ: because he could not love them but in him, nor give them the honor of the inheritance of his kingdom, unless they had first been made partakers of him. If we be chosen in him, we shall not find in ourselves the certainty of our election: no, nor yet in God the Father, if we imagine him naked without the Son. Christ therefore is the mirror, in whom we both must, and without deceit may behold our election. For since it is he into whose body the Father has appointed to graft all those whom from eternity he has willed to be his, that he may take for his children so many as he acknowledges among his members: we have a witness plain and sure enough, that we are written in the book of life, if we communicate with Christ. And that sure communion of himself he gave us, when by the preaching of the Gospel he testified that he was given to us of the Father, that he with all his good things should be ours. We are said to put on him, and to grow together into him, that we may live: because he lives. So often is this doctrine repeated, The Father spared not his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him, may not perish. But he that believes in him, is said to have passed from death into life. In which sense he calls himself the bread of life, which whoever eats, he will not die forever. He (I say) has been a witness to us, that they shall be received of the heavenly Father in place of his children, of whom he has been received by faith. If we covet any more than to be accounted among the children and heirs of God, then we may climb above Christ. If this be our uttermost mark: how much are we mad in seeking without him that which we have already obtained in him, and which may be found in him alone? Moreover since he is the eternal wisdom, the unchangeable truth, and firmly settled counsel of the Father: it is not to be feared lest that which he declares to us in his word, should vary anything be it never so little from that will of the Father which we seek: but rather he faithfully opens it to us, such as it was from the beginning, and ever shall be. The practice of this doctrine ought also to be in use in prayers. For though the faith of election does encourage us to call upon God: yet when we make our prayers, it were disorderly done to thrust it into the presence of God, or to covenant with this condition: Lord, if I be elected, hear me: for as much as he wills us to be content with his promises, and nowhere else to seek whether he will be approachable to us or not. This wisdom shall deliver us from many snares, if we know how to apply that to a right use which has been rightly written: but let us not indiscreetly draw here and there that which ought to have been restrained.

There is also for establishing of our faith another stay of election, which we have said to be joined with our calling. For, whom Christ takes being enlightened with the knowledge of his name into the bosom of his Church, them he is said to receive into his faith and protection. And whoever he receives, they are said to be committed to him of the Father, and delivered to his trust, that they may be kept into eternal life. What do we mean? Christ cries out with a loud voice, that so many as the Father wills to be saved, he has delivered them into his protection. Therefore if we wish to know whether God has care of our safety, let us seek whether he has committed us to Christ, whom he has made the only savior of all his. Now if we doubt whether we are received of Christ into his faith and keeping, he prevents our doubting, when he voluntarily offers himself to be our shepherd, and pronounces that we shall be in the number of his sheep if we hear his voice. Let us therefore embrace Christ, being liberally set open for us, and coming to meet us: he shall number us in his flock, and shall keep us enclosed within his fold. But there enters into us a carefulness of our state to come. For as Paul teaches that they are called, which were before chosen: so Christ shows that many are called, but few are chosen — indeed and also Paul himself in another place dissuades us from carefulness: Let him that stands (says he) look that he fall not. Again, Are you grafted into the people of God? Be not proud, but fear: for God is able to cut you off again that he may graft in others. Finally we are sufficiently taught by experience itself, that calling and faith are of small value, unless there be adjoined continuance which happens not to all men. But Christ has delivered us from this care: for truly these promises have respect to the time to come. All that my Father gives me, shall come to me: and him that shall come to me, I will not cast him out of doors. Again, This is the will of him that sent me, the Father, that I lose nothing of all things that he has given me, but may raise them up again in the last day. Again — My sheep hear my voice and they follow me: I know them, and I give them eternal life, and they shall not perish forever, neither shall any man take them out of my hand. The Father which gave them to me, is greater than all: and no man can take them out of the hand of my Father. Now when he pronounces, Every tree which my Father has not planted, shall be plucked up by the root: he signifies on the contrary side, that they can never be plucked from salvation, which have root in God. With which agrees that saying of John, If they had been of us, they had not at all gone out from us. Hereupon also comes that noble glorying of Paul against life and death, present things and things to come: which glorying must needs be grounded upon the gift of continuance. Neither is it any doubt that he directs this saying to all the faithful. In another place the same Paul says, He that has begun in you a good work, shall end it even until the day of Christ. As also David, when his faith fainted, leaned upon this stay: You shall not forsake the work of your hands. And now neither is this doubtful, that Christ when he prays for all the faithful, asks the same thing for them which he asks for Peter, that their faith may never faint. Whereby we gather, that they are out of danger of falling away, because the Son of God, asking steadfast continuance for their godliness, suffered no denial. What would Christ have us to learn hereby, but that we should trust that we shall perpetually be safe, because we are once made his?

But it daily happens, that they which seemed to be Christ's, do again revolt from him and fall, indeed and in the very same place where he affirms that none had perished of them which were given him of the Father, yet he excepts the son of perdition. That is true indeed: but this is also as certain, that such did never [reconstructed: cleave] to Christ with that [reconstructed: affiance] of heart with which I say that the assuredness of our election is established. They went out from us (says John) but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they had still tarried with us. Neither do I deny that they have like signs of calling as the elect have: but I do not grant that they have that sure establishment of election which I bid the faithful to fetch out of the word of the Gospel. Therefore let not such examples move us but that we quietly rest upon the promise of the Lord, where he pronounces, that all they are given to him of the Father, which receive him with true faith, of whom since he is their keeper and Pastor, none shall perish. Of Judas we shall speak hereafter. Paul does not counsel Christians from assuredness altogether, but from careless and loose assuredness of the flesh, which draws with it, pride, presumption, and disdain of others, and quenches humility and the reverence of God, and brings forgetfulness of grace received. For he speaks to the Gentiles, whom he teaches, that they ought not proudly and ungently to reproach the Jews for this, that the Jews being disinherited, they were set in their stead. Fear also he requires, not with which they should be dismayed and stagger, but which framing us to the humbler receiving of the grace of God, should abate nothing of the faith thereof, as we have said in another place. Besides that, he does not there speak to every man particularly, but to the sects themselves generally. For when the Church was divided into two parts, and envy bred dissension, Paul puts the Gentiles in mind that their being supplied into the place of the peculiar and holy people, ought to be to them a cause of fear and modesty. And among them there were many puffed up with glory, whose vain boasting it was profitable to beat down. But we have in another place showed, that our hope is extended to the time to come even beyond death, and that nothing is more contrary to the nature of it, than to doubt what shall become of us.

That saying of Christ, of many being called but few chosen, is very ill taken after that manner. There shall be nothing doubtful if we hold fast that which ought to be clear by the things above spoken, that there are two sorts of callings. For there is a universal calling whereby through the outward preaching of the word, God calls all together to him, even those also to whom he sets it forth to the savor of death, and to matter of more grievous condemnation. The other is a special calling which for the most part he vouchsafes to give only to the faithful, when by the inward enlightening of his Spirit he makes the word preached be settled in their hearts. Yet sometimes he makes them also partakers of it whom he enlightens but for a time, and afterward by the deserving of their unthankfulness forsakes them and strikes them with greater blindness. Now when the Lord saw the Gospel to be published far and wide, and to be despised of many, but to be had in due price of few: he describes to us God under the person of a King, who preparing a solemn feast sends his messengers round about to bid a great multitude to be his guests, and yet can get but a few, because every one alleges hindrances for his excuse, so that at length he is compelled upon their refusal, to call out of the highways every one that he meets. To this point every man sees that the parable must be understood of the outward calling. He adds afterward that God does like a good maker of a feast, who goes about the tables, to cheer his guests. If he finds any not clothed with a wedding garment, he will not suffer him with his uncleanness to dishonor the solemnity of the feast. This part of the parable, I grant, is to be understood of those who enter into the Church by the profession of faith, but are not clothed with the sanctification of Christ. Such dishonors and as it were blemishes of his Church, the Lord will not suffer forever: but, as their filthiness deserves he will cast them out. Therefore few are chosen out of a great number of those that are called, but yet not with the calling by which we say that the faithful ought to judge their election. For, that general calling is also common to the wicked: but this special calling brings with it the Spirit of regeneration, which is the earnest and seal of the inheritance to come, with which our hearts are sealed up against the day of the Lord. In sum, since hypocrites boast of godliness as well as the true worshipers of God, Christ pronounces that at length they shall be cast out of the place which they wrongfully possess: as it is said in the Psalm (Psalm 15:1), Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle? The innocent in hands, and the man of a pure heart. Again in another place (Psalm 24): This is the generation of those that seek God, of those that seek the face of the God of Jacob. And so does the Spirit exhort the faithful to endurance, that they take it not grievously that the Israelites be mingled with them in the Church: for at length their mask shall be plucked from them and they shall be cast out with shame.

The same reason is of the exception even now alleged, where Christ says that none perished but the son of perdition. It is indeed an improper speech, but yet not obscure. For he was not counted among the sheep of Christ, for that he was one in deed, but because he kept the place of one. And where in another place the Lord affirms that he was chosen with the Apostles, that is spoken only in respect of the ministry. Twelve (says he) have I chosen, and one of them is a Devil: that is, he had chosen him to the office of an Apostle. But when he speaks of choosing to salvation, he denies him far away from the number of the chosen saying (John 13:18): I speak not of all: I know whom I have chosen. If a man does in both places confound the word of Choosing, he shall miserably entangle himself: if he makes difference, nothing is more plain. Therefore Gregory teaches very ill and pestilently when he says that we know only our calling, but are uncertain of our election: whereby he moves all men to fear and trembling: using also this reason, that because we know what we are today, but what we shall be we know not. But in that place he sufficiently declares, how he stumbled at this block. For, because he hung election upon the merits of works, he had matter enough and more to discourage the minds of men: but he could not strengthen them, who did not remove them from themselves to the trust in the goodness of God. From this the faithful have some taste of that which we have determined at the beginning: that predestination, if it be rightly thought upon, brings not a shaking of faith, but rather the best strengthening of it. And yet I deny not, that the Holy Ghost frames his talk to the small measure of our sense. As when he says (Ezekiel 13:9): In the secret of my people they shall not be, and in the roll of my servants they shall not be written. As though God did begin to write in the book of life, those whom he reckons in the number of his: whereas yet we know, even by the witness of Christ, that the names of the children of God are from the beginning written in the book of life. But in these words is only expressed the casting away of those who seemed the chief among the elect: as it is said in the Psalm (Psalm 69:29): Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and let them not be written with the righteous.

But the elect are neither immediately from the womb, nor all at one time, by calling gathered together into the flock of Christ, but as it pleases God to distribute his grace to them. But before they are gathered together to that chief shepherd, they are scattered abroad and stray in the common desert, and differ nothing from others, except that they are defended by the singular mercy of God, from falling into the extreme headlong downfall of death. Therefore if you look upon themselves, you shall see the offspring of Adam, which savors of the common corruption of the whole mass. That they are not carried into extreme and dispersed ungodliness, this does not come to pass by any goodness naturally planted in them: but because the eye of God watches, and his hand is stretched out to their salvation. For they who dream that from their very nativity there is planted in their hearts I know not what seed of election, by the virtue whereof they are always inclined to godliness and to the fear of God, they both are not helped to prove it by the authority of Scripture, and also are confuted by experience itself. They do indeed bring forth a few examples to prove that the elect even before their enlightening, were not utterly strangers from religion: that Paul in his being a Pharisee lived irreproachable (Philippians 3:5; Acts 10:2), that Cornelius was by alms and prayers accepted of God: and such others. Of Paul, we grant to them: of Cornelius, we say that they are deceived. For it appears that he was then already enlightened and regenerate, so that he wanted nothing but the clear revealing of the Gospel. But what will they wring out by these few examples? That all the elect are always endued with the spirit of godliness? No more than if a man by showing the uprightness of Aristides, Socrates, Xenocrates, Scipio, Curius, Camillus, and others, should thereof gather that all they that are left in blindness of idolatry, were desirous followers of holiness and honesty. Yes, and the Scripture in more places than one, openly cries out against them. For the state which Paul describes of the Ephesians before their regeneration (Ephesians 2:2), shows not one grain of this seed. "You were" (says he) "dead with defaults and sins, in which you walked according to the time of this world, according to the prince of the air, which now works in the obstinate children: among whom we all also were sometime conversant in the lusts of our flesh, doing those things that pleased our flesh and mind." "And we were by nature the children of wrath, as others also were." "Again, Remember that you were sometime without hope, and lacked God in the world." "Again, You were sometime darkness: but now you are light in the Lord: walk as the children of light (Ephesians 5:8; Ephesians 4:23)." But perhaps they will have these things to be referred to the ignorance of the true God, with which they deny not that the elect are held before that they are called. Although this were a shameless caviling, since he thereof concludes, that they ought now no more either to lie or to steal: yet what will they answer to other places? As is that place to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 6:9), where when he had pronounced that neither whoremongers, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor weaklings, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous men, shall be heirs of the kingdom of God: he by and by adds that they were wrapped in the same heinous offenses before that they knew Christ: but now that they are both washed by his blood and made free by his Spirit. Again another place to the Romans (Romans [illegible]:19): "As you have given your members in bondage to uncleanness, and to iniquity to iniquity, now yield them in bondage to righteousness." "For what fruit had you of those things, in which you are now worthily ashamed?" etc.

What manner of seed of election, I pray you, did then bud in them, who being manifoldly defiled in all their life, as it were with desperate wickedness, wallowed in the most abominable and accursed sin of all? If he would have spoken after their opinion, he should have shown how much they were bound to the bountifulness of God, by which they had been preserved from sliding into so great filthiness. So Peter also should have exhorted his people to thankfulness for the perpetual seed of election. But he on the contrary puts them in mind that the time past sufficed to make an end of the lusts of the Gentiles (1 Peter 4:3). What if we come to examples? What bud of righteousness was there in Rahab the harlot, before faith (Joshua 2:1)? In Manasseh, when Jerusalem was dipped and in a manner drowned in the blood of the Prophets (2 Kings 12:17)? In the thief, who among his last gasps began to think of repentance (Luke 22:16)? Away therefore with these arguments, which silly curious men do rashly devise to themselves without the Scripture. But let that abide certain with us, which the Scripture has, that all have strayed like lost sheep, every one has swerved into his own way, that is, perdition (Isaiah 53:6). Out of this gulf of perdition, whom the Lord has determined once to pluck forth, them he defers until his fit time: only he preserves them, that they fall not to unpardonable blasphemy.

As the Lord by the effectiveness of his calling toward the elect makes perfect the salvation to which he had by eternal counsel appointed them, so he has his judgments against the reprobate, whereby he executes his counsel of them. Those whom he has therefore created to the shame of life and destruction of death, that they should be instruments of his wrath and examples of his severity — from them, that they may come to their end, sometimes he takes away the power to hear his word, and sometimes by the preaching of it he more blinds and amazes them. Of the first manner, whereas there are innumerable examples, let us choose out one more clear and notable than all the rest. There passed away about four thousand years before Christ, in which he hid from all the Gentiles the light of his health-bringing doctrine. If any man answer that he therefore did not make them enjoy so great a benefit because he judged them unworthy, those who come after shall not be proved any more worthy. Of which thing, beside the experience, Malachi is a substantial witness, who, reproving infidelity mingled with gross blasphemies, yet declares that there shall come a redeemer (Malachi 4:1). Why therefore is he rather given to these than to those? He shall trouble himself in vain who shall here search for a cause higher than the secret and unsearchable counsel of God. Neither is it to be feared lest any scholar of Porphyry should freely gnaw at the righteousness of God while we answer nothing in defense of it. For when we say that none perish undeserving, and that it is of the free bountifulness of God that some are delivered, there is largely enough said for the setting forth of his glory, so that it needs not our shifting. The sovereign judge therefore makes a way for his predestination, when those whom he has once rejected, being deprived of the communicating of his light, he leaves in blindness. Of the other manner there are both daily examples, and also many contained in the Scripture. One self same preaching is commonly made to a hundred; twenty receive it with ready obedience of faith: the rest do either set naught by it, or scorn it, or hiss it out, or abhor it. If any man answer that this diversity proceeds from their malice and perverseness, he shall not yet satisfy us, because the others' wit also should be possessed with the same malice, unless God did amend it with his goodness. Therefore we shall still be encumbered, unless we call to mind that which Paul says (1 Corinthians 4:7), Who makes you to differ? Whereby he signifies that some excel others, not by their own virtue, but by the only grace of God.

Why therefore does he in granting grace to those pass over these? Of those, Luke shows a cause, because they are ordained to life. Of these, what shall we think, but because they are the vessels of wrath to dishonor? Therefore let it not grieve us to say with Augustine: God (says he) might turn the will of the evil into good, because he is almighty. He might indeed. Why therefore does he not do it? Because he would not. Why he would not, is in himself. For we ought to be no more wise than we ought to be. And that is much better than to shift with Chrysostom, and say that he draws him that is willing and reaches his hand, that the difference may not seem to stand in the judgment of God, but in the only will of men. Truly it so stands not in the proper motion of man, so that even the godly and those that fear God have need of a singular instruction of the Spirit. Lydia the purple seller feared God, and yet it was necessary that her heart should be opened, that she might listen to the doctrine of Paul and profit in it (Acts 16:14). This is not spoken of one woman alone, but that we should know that the profiting of every man in godliness is the secret work of the Spirit. Truly this cannot be brought into question, that the Lord sends his word to many, whose blindness he will have to be more enforced. For to what purpose does he have so many commandments carried to Pharaoh? Was it because he hoped that with often-repeated messages he would be appeased? No, but before he began, he foreknew and foretold the end. Go (said he to Moses) and declare to him my will, but I will harden his heart, that he obey not (Exodus 21). So when he stirs up Ezekiel, he warns him beforehand that he sends him to a rebellious and stubborn people, to the end that he should not be afraid if he perceives himself to sing to deaf men (Ezekiel 2:3; 12:2). So he foretells to Jeremiah that his doctrine should become a fire, to destroy and waste the people like stubble (Jeremiah 1:10). But the prophecy of Isaiah yet more enforces it. For he is thus sent of the Lord: Go and say to the children of Israel — With hearing hear, and understand not; with seeing see, and know not. Make obstinate the heart of this people, and make heavy their ears, and plaster over their eyes, lest perhaps they may see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, that being turned they may be healed (Isaiah 6:9). Behold, he directs his voice to them, but that they may wax more deaf, he lights a light but that they may be made more blind; he shows forth doctrine but that they may be made more dull; he lays to them a remedy, but not that they may be healed. And John, alleging this prophecy, affirms that the Jews could not believe the doctrine of Christ, because this curse of God lay upon them (John 12:39). Neither can this also be in controversy, that to those whom God will not have to be enlightened, he delivered his doctrine wrapped up in dark speeches, that they may nothing profit thereby but be thrust into greater dullness. Christ also testifies that he therefore expounds only to the Apostles the parables in which he had spoken to the multitude, because to them it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the common people not so (Matthew 13:11). What does the Lord mean (you will say) in teaching them, of whom he provides that he may not be understood? Consider where the fault is, and you will cease to ask. For in the word, whatever darkness there may be, yet there is always light enough to convince the conscience of the wicked.

Now remains for us to see, why the Lord does what it is plain that he does. If it is answered that it is so done because men have so deserved by their ungodliness, wickedness, and unthankfulness: the same shall indeed be well and truly said: but because there appears not yet the reason of this diversity, why when some are brought to obedience, others continue hardened, in searching it we must needs go to that which Paul has noted out of Moses, namely that God has raised them up from the beginning, that he might show his name in the whole earth. Whereas therefore the reprobate do not obey the word of God opened to them, that shall be well imputed to the malice and perverseness of their heart, so that this be therewith added that they are therefore given into this perverseness, because by the righteous but yet unsearchable judgment of God they are raised up to set forth his glory with their damnation. Likewise when it is said of the sons of Eli, that they hearkened not to wholesome warnings, because the Lord willed to kill them: it is not denied that the stubbornness proceeded of their own naughtiness: but it is therewith touched why they were left in stubbornness, when the Lord might have softened their hearts, namely because his unchangeable decree had once appointed them to destruction. To the same purpose serves that saying of John, When he had done so great signs, no man believed in him: that the word of Isaiah might be fulfilled, Lord, who has believed our hearing? For though he does not excuse the stiff-necked from blame, yet he is content with that reason, that the grace of God is unsavory to men, till the Holy Ghost brings taste. And Christ alleging the prophecy of Isaiah, They shall all be taught of God, tends to no other end but to prove that the Jews are reprobate and strangers from the Church, because they are unapt to learn: and he brings no other cause thereof but for that the promise of God does not pertain to them. Which thing this saying of Paul confirms, that Christ which to the Jews is an offense, and to the Gentiles foolishness, is to the called the strength and wisdom of God. For when he has told what commonly happens so often as the Gospel is preached, namely that some it makes more obstinate, and of some it is despised, he says that it is had in price of the only which are called. He had indeed a little before named them believers, but he meant not to take away the due degree from the grace of God which goes before faith, but rather he added this second saying by way of correction, that they which had embraced the Gospel should give the praise of their faith to the calling of God. As also a little after he teaches that they are chosen of God. When the ungodly hear these things, they cry out that God with inordinate power abuses his poor creatures for a sport to his cruelty. But we who know that all men are so many ways endangered to the judgment seat of God, that being asked of a thousand things they can not satisfy in one, do confess that the reprobate suffer nothing which agrees not with the most just judgment of God. Whereas we do not clearly attain the reason thereof, let us not be discontent to be ignorant of somewhat, where the wisdom of God lifts up itself into so great height.

But forasmuch as there are a few places of scripture commonly objected, in which God seems to deny that it is done by his ordinance that the wicked do perish, but rather that, he crying out against it, they willfully [reconstructed: bring] death upon themselves: let us by briefly declaring these places, show that they make nothing against the sentence above set. There is brought forth a place of Ezekiel, that God will not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may be touched and live. If they will extend this to all mankind: why does he not move many to repentance, whose minds are more pliable to obedience, than theirs which at his daily allurements were harder and harder? With the Sodomites (as Christ witnesses) the preaching of the Gospel and miracles would have brought forth more fruit than in Judea. How does it come to pass therefore, if God will all to be saved, that he does not open the gate of repentance to those miserable men that would have been more ready to receive grace? Hereby we see that the place is violently wrested, if the will of God, of which the Prophet makes mention, be set against his eternal counsel, whereby he has severed the elect from the reprobate. Now if we seek for the true natural meaning of the Prophet: his purpose is to bring hope of pardon to the penitent. And this is the sum, that it is not to be doubted but that God is ready to forgive as soon as the sinner turns. Therefore he wills not his death, inasmuch as he wills his repentance. But experience teaches that he so wills them to repent whom he generally calls to him, that yet he does not touch all their hearts. Yet is it therefore to be said that he deals deceitfully, because although that outward voice does but make them inexcusable which hear and do not obey it, yet it is truly accounted the testimony of the grace of God, by which testimony he reconciles men to himself. Therefore let us hold this for the meaning of the Prophet, that the death of a sinner pleases not God: that the godly may have confidence, that as soon as they shall be touched with repentance, there is pardon ready for them with God: and the wicked may feel that their fault is doubled, because they answer not to so great merciful kindness and gentleness of God. The mercy of God therefore will always meet repentance, but to whom repentance is given, both all the Prophets, and Apostles, and Ezekiel himself do plainly teach. Secondly there is alleged a place of Paul, where he says that God wills all men to be saved, which although it has a diverse meaning from the other, yet in something they agree together. I answer, first that by the rest of the text it is made plain how he wills. For Paul couples together, that he wills them to be saved, and to come to the acknowledging of the truth. If they will have this to be determined by the eternal counsel of God, that they receive the doctrine of salvation: what means that saying of Moses, What nation is so noble, that God comes near to it as he does to you? How does it come to pass that God restrained from many peoples the light of the Gospel, which order enjoyed? How does it come to pass that the pure knowledge of godliness never came to some, and some scarcely tasted so much as any dark principles of it? From this it shall now be easy to gather, where Paul tends. He had commanded Timothy to make solemn prayers in the Church for kings and princes. But when it seemed somewhat an absurdity that prayers should be made to God for a kind of men in a manner despaired of (because they were not only strangers from the body of Christ, but also endeavored with all their forces to suppress his kingdom) he added, that the same is acceptable to God which wills all men to be saved. Whereby he verily signifies nothing else but that he has stopped up the way to salvation to no degree of men: but rather that he has so poured out his mercy that he wills no man to be void of it. The other sentences do not declare what God has by his secret judgment determined of all men: but do show that there is pardon ready for all sinners which do only turn themselves to require it. For if they more stubbornly stand upon this that it is said that he will have mercy upon all, I will on the contrary side answer them with that which is written in another place, That our God is in heaven where he does whatever he will. This word therefore must so be expounded that it may agree with the other, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. He that chooses out them whom he will have mercy on, does not give it to all. But since it clearly appears that in that place is spoken not of all particular men, but of degrees of men, we will make no longer disputing about it. Howbeit it is also to be noted, that Paul does not affirm what God does always and everywhere and in all men: but leaves it to him at his liberty at length to make kings and magistrates partakers of the heavenly doctrine, although by reason of their blindness they do now rage against it. They seem to press us more strongly with objecting the place of Peter, that God wills none to perish, but receives all to repentance. But the undoing of this knot does by and by offer itself in the second word, because the will to receive cannot be understood to be any other than that which is everywhere taught. Truly the turning is in the hand of God: whether he will turn all or no, let himself be asked, when he promises that he will give to a certain few men a fleshly heart, leaving to others a stony heart. It is true indeed, that unless he were ready to receive them which call upon his mercy, this saying should be false, Turn to me, and I will turn to you. But I say that none of all mortal men does come to God but he that is prevented by God. And if repentance were in the will of man, Paul would not say, If perhaps he give them repentance. Indeed, unless the same God which with word exhorts all men to repentance, did with secret moving of his spirit bring the chosen to it: Jeremiah would not say, Turn me, Lord, and I shall be turned: for when you have turned me, I have repented.

But (you will say) if it be so, there shall be small truth in the promises of the gospel, which when they testify of the will of God, affirm that he wills that which is against his inviolable decree. Not so. For however the promises of salvation be universal, yet they nothing disagree with the predestination of the reprobate, so that we direct our minds to the effect of them. We know that then and not till then the promises are effectual to us, when we receive them by faith, on the other side when faith is made void, the promise is therewith abolished. If this be the nature of them, let us then see whether these things disagree together: that it is said that God has from eternity ordained whom he will embrace with love, and upon whom he will exercise wrath: and that he promises salvation to all without difference. Truly I say that they agree very well. For in so promising he means nothing else than that his mercy is set open for all which do covet and crave it: which thing none do but they whom he has enlightened. And them he enlightens, whom he has predestined to salvation. They (I say) have the truth of the promises sure and unshaken, so as it cannot be said that there is any disagreement between the eternal election of God, and the testimony of his grace which he offers to the [illegible]. But why does he name all? Verily that the consciences of the godly may the more safely rest, when they understand that there is no difference of sinners, so [illegible] be present: and that the wicked may not cavil for their excuse, that they [illegible] sanctuary where to they may withdraw themselves from the bondage of sin, when with their own unthankfulness they refuse that being offered them. Therefore when the mercy of God is by the gospel offered to both sorts, it is faith, that is to say the enlightening of God, which makes difference between the godly and ungodly, so as the one sort feels the effectualness of the gospel, and the other sort obtains no fruit thereof. The enlightening itself also has the eternal election of God for the rule thereof. The complaint of Christ, which they allege, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often have I willed to gather together your chickens, but you would not? (Matthew 23:37) makes nothing for them. I grant that Christ there speaks not only in the person of man, but also reproaches them that in all ages they have refused his grace. But we must define the will of God which is treated of. For neither is it unknown, how diligently God endeavored to keep still that people, and with how great stiffness they even from the first to the last being given to their wandering desires refused to be gathered together: but it follows not thereof that the counsel of God was made void by the malice of men. They answer and say that nothing less agrees with the nature of God than to have a double will in him. Which I grant to them, so that they fitly expound it. But why do they not consider so many testimonies, where God putting upon him the affections of man descends beneath his own majesty? He says that he has with stretched out arms called the rebellious people, that he has early and late labored to bring them back to him. If they will apply all these things to God, and not consider the figure, there shall arise many superfluous contentions, which this one solution brings to agreement, that the property of man is figuratively applied to God. However the solution which we have brought in another place largely suffices, that although the will of God be, as to our sense manifold: yet he does not in himself diversely will this and that, but according to his wisdom, which is diversely manifold (as Paul calls it) (Ephesians 3:10) he amazes our senses, till it shall be given us to know that he marvelously wills that which now seems to be against his will. They also mock with cavilations, that since God is the father of all, it is unrighteous that he should disinherit any that has not before with his own fault deserved this punishment. As though the liberality of God stretches not even to hogs and dogs. But if they speak only of mankind, let them answer why God bound himself to one people, to be the father thereof: and why also out of the same people he picked a small number as it were a flower. But their own lust of evil speaking hinders these railers that they consider not that God so brings forth his sun to shine upon the good and evil, that the inheritance is laid up for a few, to whom it shall one day be said, Come you blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom, etc. They object also that God hates none of these things that he has made. Which although I grant them, yet this remains safe which I teach, that the reprobate are hateful to God, and that very rightly, because they being destitute of his Spirit can bring forth nothing but cause of curse. They say further, that there is no difference of the Jew and the Gentile (Romans 9:24), and therefore that the grace of God is without difference set before all men: namely if they grant (as Paul determines) that God calls as well out of the Jews as out of the Gentiles, according to his good pleasure, so that he is bound to no man. After this manner also is that wiped away which they object in another place, that God has enclosed all things under sin, that he may have mercy upon all (Romans 11:32): namely because he will that the salvation of all them that are saved be ascribed to his mercy, although this benefit be not common to all. Now when many things are alleged on both parts, let this be our conclusion, to tremble with Paul at so great depth, and if wanton tongues shall be busy, that we be not ashamed of this his crying out, O man, what are you that strives with God? (Romans 9:20) For Augustine truly affirms that they do perversely which measure the righteousness of God by the measure of the righteousness of man.

But to make the matter more clear, we must treat both the calling of the elect and the blinding and hardening of the wicked. I have already addressed the first of these when I refuted the error that the generality of the promises extends equally to all humanity. But this election, which God otherwise keeps hidden within Himself, He at length discloses clearly by His calling — which may therefore be called the testimony of election. For those He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son. Those He foreordained, He also called. Those He called, He also justified — so that in time He may glorify them. When the Lord has already adopted His own into the number of His children through election, we see how they do not enter into possession of so great a benefit until they are called. And on the other side, once called, they now enjoy a certain sharing in His election. For this reason Paul calls the Spirit they receive both the Spirit of adoption and the seal and guarantee of the inheritance to come — because it confirms and seals to their hearts the assurance of the coming adoption through its testimony. For though the preaching of the Gospel springs from the fountain of election, yet because it is also common to the reprobate, preaching alone cannot by itself be a sure proof of election. But God effectually teaches His elect so as to bring them to faith — as we have already cited from the words of Christ. 'Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me' (John 6:45). And: 'I have made Your name known to the men whom You gave Me' (John 17:6). He also says in another place: 'No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him' (John 6:44). Augustine weighs this passage wisely, in these words: 'If, as Truth says, everyone who has learned comes — then whoever does not come has certainly not learned. It does not therefore follow that the one who can come does in fact come, unless he has both willed and done it. But everyone who has learned from the Father not only can come but does come — since now both the benefit of coming, and the desire to will it, are present together.' Yet in the meantime I do not deny that to be certain of our salvation we must begin with the Word, and that our confidence should be satisfied there — so that we may call upon God by the name of Father. For some, seeking to be certain of God's counsel — which is near us, in our mouth and in our heart — wrongly try to fly up above the clouds. Therefore that rashness must be restrained by the sobriety of faith, so that it is enough for us that God in His outward Word is a witness of His hidden grace. Just as a channel that carries water for us to drink in abundance does not diminish the honor due to the spring itself.

Therefore, just as those who anchor the force of election to the faith of the Gospel — through which faith we sense that election applies to us — are doing wrong, so we will follow the best order if in seeking the certainty of our election we hold firmly to these later signs, which are sure testimonies of it. Satan assails us with no temptation more severely or more dangerously to unsettle the faithful than when he troubles them with doubt about their election and moves them with a perverse desire to seek it in the wrong way. I call it seeking in the wrong way when a miserable person undertakes to break into the hidden secrets of God's wisdom and pierce all the way up to eternity to discover what has been determined for him at God's judgment seat. For then he plunges headlong to be swallowed up in the immeasurable abyss. He wraps himself in countless snares from which he cannot escape. He buries himself in bottomless and blinding darkness. It is right that the foolishness of the human mind should be punished with such terrible ruin when it attempts by its own strength to scale the height of God's wisdom. And this temptation is all the more deadly because there is almost no one who is not at some point driven by it. Rarely is there a person whose mind is not at some moment struck by this thought: 'Where does your salvation come from if not from God's election? And what revelation do you have of your election?' Once this thought takes root in a person, it either torments the miserable soul with constant dread or crushes it completely. Truly I would have no more certain proof that such thinking about predestination is wrong than this very experience. For the mind can be infected with no error more deadly than one that drags and pushes the conscience away from its peace and rest in God. Therefore if we fear shipwreck, we must carefully steer clear of this rock — which is never struck without destruction. And though debating predestination may seem like sailing a dangerous sea, yet in passing through it one finds a safe, calm, and even pleasant voyage — unless a person deliberately seeks out danger. For just as those who — to confirm their election — search God's secret counsel apart from His Word drown in a deadly abyss, so those who rightly and orderly search it as it is contained in the Word find in it a remarkable fruit of comfort. Let our course of inquiry therefore be this: begin with the calling of God, and end in the same. Yet this does not prevent the faithful from recognizing that the benefits they daily receive from God descend from that secret adoption. As they say in Isaiah: 'You have done wonderful things; Your plans from long ago are faithful and true' — because through that adoption as through a sign, the Lord wills to confirm as much of His counsel as may lawfully be known. And lest anyone think this a weak testimony, let us consider how much clarity and certainty it brings. Bernard speaks fittingly about this. After speaking of the reprobate, he says: 'The purpose of God stands, the sentence of peace stands upon those who fear Him — both covering their evils and rewarding their good things: so that to them, in a marvelous way, not only good but even evil works together for good. Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is enough for all my righteousness to have Him alone merciful to me — the One against whom alone I have sinned. Whatever He has decreed not to count against me is as if it had never been.' And a little later: 'O place of true rest, to which I may not unworthily give the name of a bedchamber, where God is seen — not troubled with wrath, not weighed down with care, but His will is proved in Him good, and well-pleasing, and perfect. This sight does not frighten but calms. It does not stir up restless curiosity but quiets it. It does not weary the senses but brings them rest. Here is true rest. God being at peace, brings peace to all things. To behold Him at rest is to be at rest.'

First, if we seek the fatherly kindness and favorable disposition of God, we must turn our eyes to Christ — in whom alone the soul of the Father rests. If we seek salvation, life, and the immortality of the heavenly kingdom, we must also flee to none other — for He alone is both the fountain of life, the author of salvation, and the heir of the kingdom of heaven. Now what is the purpose of election but this: that being adopted by the heavenly Father into the place of children, we may obtain salvation and immortality by His grace? However you turn it over and examine it, you will find that the ultimate aim of election extends no further than this. Therefore when God takes people as His children, He is not said to have chosen them in themselves, but in His Christ — because He could not love them except in Him, nor grant them the honor of the inheritance of His kingdom unless they had first been made partakers of Him. If we are chosen in Him, we will not find the certainty of our election in ourselves — nor in God the Father, if we imagine Him apart from the Son. Christ therefore is the mirror in which we both must, and without deception may, behold our election. For since it is into His body that the Father has appointed to graft all those whom from eternity He willed to be His — that He might count as His children all those He acknowledges among His members — we have a clear and sure witness that we are written in the book of life, if we have communion with Christ. And He gave us that sure communion with Himself when, through the preaching of the Gospel, He testified that He had been given to us by the Father — that He, with all His good things, should be ours. We are said to put Him on and to grow into Him, that we may live — because He lives. This doctrine is repeated again and again: 'The Father did not spare His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish.' And he who believes in Him is said to have passed from death into life. In this sense He calls Himself the bread of life — whoever eats of it will not die forever. He, I say, has been our witness: that those who receive Him by faith will be received by the heavenly Father as His children. If we desire anything more than to be counted among the children and heirs of God, then we may try to climb above Christ. But if this is our ultimate goal — how foolish we are to seek without Him what we already possess in Him and can only be found in Him! Moreover, since He is the eternal wisdom, the unchangeable truth, and the firmly established counsel of the Father, there is no need to fear that what He declares to us in His Word will vary in the slightest from the Father's will that we seek. Rather, He faithfully opens it to us just as it was from the beginning and ever will be. The practical use of this doctrine must also govern our prayers. For though the knowledge of election encourages us to call upon God, when we actually pray it would be disorderly to force it into God's presence and pray conditionally: 'Lord, if I am elected, hear me' — since He wills us to be content with His promises, and nowhere else to inquire whether He will be favorable toward us. This wisdom will deliver us from many snares, if we know how to apply what has been rightly written to its right use — and do not carelessly pull it into places where it was never meant to go.

There is also another support for establishing faith in our election — which we said is joined with our calling. For those whom Christ draws into the bosom of His church, enlightened with the knowledge of His name, He is said to receive into His faith and protection. And all whom He receives are said to have been entrusted to Him by the Father and delivered into His care to be kept unto eternal life. What do we mean? Christ cries out loudly that all those the Father wills to be saved, He has delivered into His protection. Therefore if we wish to know whether God cares for our salvation, let us consider whether He has entrusted us to Christ, whom He has made the only Savior of all who are His. Now if we doubt whether Christ has received us into His faith and keeping, He removes our doubt by voluntarily offering Himself as our Shepherd and declaring that we shall be among His sheep if we hear His voice. Therefore let us embrace Christ — who is freely opened to us and comes to meet us. He will number us in His flock and keep us enclosed in His fold. Yet concern about our future state enters in. For as Paul teaches that those who were chosen beforehand are called, so Christ declares that many are called but few are chosen. And Paul himself in another place warns us against false security: 'Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall' (1 Corinthians 10:12). And again: 'You are grafted into the people of God — do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For God is able to cut you off and graft in others in your place' (Romans 11:20-21). Experience itself teaches sufficiently that calling and faith are worth little unless perseverance accompanies them — and perseverance does not come to all. But Christ has relieved us of this anxiety — for truly these promises look toward the future. 'All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out' (John 6:37). 'This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day' (John 6:39). 'My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish — and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand' (John 10:27-29). When He also says, 'Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted' (Matthew 15:13), He implies on the other side that those who are rooted in God can never be torn away from salvation. This agrees with John's statement: 'If they had been of us, they would have remained with us' (1 John 2:19). From this also comes Paul's magnificent confidence against life and death, present things and things to come — which confidence must be grounded on the gift of perseverance. There is no doubt he directs this to all the faithful. The same Paul says in another place: 'He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus' (Philippians 1:6). And when David's faith faltered, he leaned on this support: 'Do not forsake the works of Your hands' (Psalm 138:8). It is also certain that when Christ prays for all the faithful, He asks the same thing for them that He asked for Peter — that their faith may never fail (Luke 22:32). From this we conclude that they are out of danger of falling away, because the Son of God, asking for their steadfast perseverance, was met with no refusal. What would Christ have us learn from this but that we should trust we will be perpetually safe, because we have once been made His?

But it happens daily that those who seemed to be Christ's revolt from Him and fall away. And in that very passage where He affirms that none of those given to Him by the Father have perished, He excepts the son of destruction. That is true. But this is equally certain: such people never clung to Christ with that heartfelt trust through which I say the assurance of our election is established. 'They went out from us,' says John, 'but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us' (1 John 2:19). I do not deny that they showed the same outward signs of calling as the elect. But I do not grant that they had that sure establishment of election that I urge the faithful to draw from the Word of the Gospel. Therefore let such examples not disturb us. Let us quietly rest on the Lord's promise, where He declares that all who receive Him through true faith have been given to Him by the Father — and since He is their keeper and Shepherd, none of them will perish. Of Judas we will speak later. Paul does not warn Christians against assurance altogether, but against the careless and loose assurance of the flesh, which brings pride, presumption, contempt of others, and quenches humility and reverence toward God, and leads to forgetfulness of received grace. For he is speaking to the Gentiles, teaching them that they must not proudly and harshly reproach the Jews for being disinherited while they were put in their place. The fear he requires is not a fear that dismays and staggers, but one that shapes us to receive God's grace with greater humility — without diminishing faith in it, as we said elsewhere. Besides, he is not there speaking to every individual, but to different groups generally. When the church was divided into two parts and envy stirred up conflict, Paul reminded the Gentiles that being grafted in to take the place of God's special and holy people ought to be a cause of fear and modesty for them. Among them were many puffed up with self-glory, whose empty boasting needed to be brought down. But we have shown elsewhere that our hope stretches even beyond death into the future, and that nothing is more contrary to the nature of hope than doubting what will become of us.

The saying of Christ about many being called but few being chosen is being badly misread. If we hold firmly to what should be clear from what has been said above, there will be nothing doubtful — for there are two kinds of calling. There is a universal calling, by which God calls all people to Himself through the outward preaching of the Word — including those for whom it becomes the aroma of death and the occasion of still heavier condemnation. The other is a special calling, which for the most part He grants only to the faithful — when by the inward illumination of His Spirit He causes the preached Word to take root in their hearts. Yet He sometimes grants it even to those whom He enlightens only for a time, and afterward — through the deserving of their ingratitude — forsakes and strikes with greater blindness. When the Lord saw the Gospel being widely proclaimed but despised by many and properly valued by few, He portrayed God through the figure of a king who prepares a great banquet and sends his servants to invite a large crowd — but can gather only a few, because everyone makes excuses. He is finally forced by their refusal to call in anyone he can find from the roads and lanes. Everyone can see that the parable must be understood as referring to the outward calling. He then adds that God is like a watchful host at a feast who goes through the tables to look after his guests. If he finds anyone not wearing wedding clothes, he will not allow that person's uncleanness to dishonor the celebration. This part of the parable, I grant, refers to those who enter the church through the profession of faith but are not clothed with the sanctification of Christ. Such disgraces and stains on the church the Lord will not endure forever — but as their filthiness deserves, He will cast them out. Therefore, out of the great number of those who are called, few are chosen — but this is the general calling, not the kind of calling by which we say the faithful ought to judge their election. For that general calling is common to the wicked as well. But the special calling brings with it the Spirit of regeneration, who is the guarantee and seal of the inheritance to come — with which our hearts are sealed up against the day of the Lord. In short, since hypocrites boast of godliness just as true worshipers of God do, Christ declares that they will in the end be cast out from the place they wrongly occupy — as the psalm says: 'O Lord, who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity and works righteousness' (Psalm 15:1-2). And in another psalm: 'This is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face — the God of Jacob' (Psalm 24:6). The Spirit thus exhorts the faithful to endurance, so that they do not be troubled that Israelites by outward profession are mingled with them in the church — for in the end their mask will be stripped off and they will be cast out with shame.

The same reasoning applies to the exception just cited, where Christ says that none perished except the son of destruction. It is an improper way of speaking, though not an unclear one. Judas was not counted among Christ's sheep because he truly was one, but because he held the place of one. And where the Lord says elsewhere that He chose him along with the apostles, that refers only to the apostolic office. 'I chose the twelve of you,' He says, 'and one of you is a devil' (John 6:70) — meaning He chose him for the office of apostle. But when He speaks of choosing to salvation, He excludes Judas entirely from the number of the chosen: 'I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen' (John 13:18). If one confuses the word 'choosing' in both passages, he will tie himself in hopeless knots. If he distinguishes them, nothing is more plain. Gregory therefore teaches badly and perniciously when he says that we know only our calling but are uncertain of our election — thereby moving all people to fear and trembling. He also uses this reasoning: that we know what we are today, but not what we will be. In that passage, he plainly shows how he stumbled over this obstacle. Because he made election depend on the merits of works, he had more than enough material to discourage people's minds — but he could not strengthen them, since he did not move them away from themselves to trust in God's goodness. From this the faithful receive some taste of what we established at the beginning: that predestination, rightly understood, does not shake faith but rather strengthens it most effectively. I do not deny, however, that the Holy Spirit sometimes shapes His language to the small measure of our understanding. For instance, He says in Ezekiel: 'They shall not be in the council of My people, nor shall they be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel' (Ezekiel 13:9) — as though God first begins writing in the book of life those He counts among His own, whereas we know from Christ's own testimony that the names of God's children are written in the book of life from the beginning. But these words simply express the casting away of those who appeared to be among the elect — as the psalm says: 'May they be blotted out of the book of life and may they not be recorded with the righteous' (Psalm 69:28).

But the elect are not gathered into the flock of Christ immediately from the womb, nor all at once — but as it pleases God to distribute His grace to them. Before they are gathered to that chief Shepherd, they wander scattered in the common wilderness and differ nothing from others, except that the singular mercy of God protects them from falling into the final plunge of death. Therefore if you look at them in themselves, you see offspring of Adam who share in the common corruption of the whole human race. That they are not carried away into extreme and open ungodliness does not come from any goodness naturally planted in them — but from the watchful eye of God and His hand stretched out for their salvation. Those who dream that some kind of seed of election is planted in their hearts from birth — by whose power they are always inclined toward godliness and the fear of God — have no scriptural support for this and are refuted by experience itself. They do bring forward a few examples to prove that the elect, even before their enlightenment, were not complete strangers to religion — that Paul as a Pharisee lived blamelessly (Philippians 3:5), that Cornelius was accepted by God for his alms and prayers (Acts 10:2), and so on. Regarding Paul, we grant the point. Regarding Cornelius, we say they are mistaken. For it appears that he was already enlightened and regenerate at that point — lacking only the clear proclamation of the Gospel. But what do they prove from these few examples? That all the elect are always endowed with the spirit of godliness? No more than if someone, by pointing to the integrity of Aristides, Socrates, Xenocrates, Scipio, Curius, Camillus, and others, concluded that all those left in the blindness of idolatry were eager pursuers of holiness and virtue. Moreover Scripture cries out against this in more than one place. The condition that Paul describes for the Ephesians before their regeneration (Ephesians 2:2) shows not a single grain of this supposed seed. 'You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.' And again: 'Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.' And again: 'You were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light' (Ephesians 5:8; 4:23). Perhaps they will say these passages refer only to ignorance of the true God, which they do not deny characterizes the elect before they are called. But even if that were not shameless special pleading — since Paul draws from this that they must no longer lie or steal — what will they say to other passages? For instance, to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 6:9), where after declaring that neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the covetous shall inherit the kingdom of God, he adds that they had been entangled in these same shameful offenses before they knew Christ — but now they have been both washed by His blood and made free by His Spirit. And again, to the Romans: 'As you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness.' And: 'For what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed?' (Romans 6:19-21).

What kind of seed of election was budding in those who, being defiled in every area of life with what might as well have been deliberate wickedness, wallowed in the most abominable and accursed sins imaginable? If Paul had intended to speak along these people's lines, he would have shown how deeply those converts owed their gratitude to God's generosity — by which they had been preserved from slipping into such great filthiness. So Peter also would have urged his readers to give thanks for the perpetual seed of election. But instead Peter reminds them that the past time was more than enough for carrying out the desires of the Gentiles (1 Peter 4:3). What if we turn to examples? What bud of righteousness was there in Rahab the harlot before faith (Joshua 2)? In Manasseh, when Jerusalem was saturated and virtually drowned in the blood of the prophets (2 Kings 21:16)? In the thief, who in his dying gasps began to think of repentance (Luke 23:42)? Away, then, with these arguments that foolish and overly curious people rashly invent for themselves without Scripture. Let what Scripture does say stand firm: that all have strayed like lost sheep, each turning to his own way — that is, to destruction (Isaiah 53:6). Out of that pit of destruction, those whom the Lord has determined to pluck forth He delays until His fitting time. Until then, He only keeps them from falling into unpardonable blasphemy.

Just as the Lord perfects the salvation of the elect through His effectual calling — according to His eternal counsel — so He executes His counsel against the reprobate through His judgments. Those whom He has created for dishonor and destruction, to serve as instruments of His wrath and examples of His severity — from them He sometimes withdraws the very ability to hear His word, and sometimes He uses the preaching of it to blind and confuse them all the more. Of the first way, there are countless examples, but let us choose one that is clearer than all the rest. For roughly four thousand years before Christ, God hid the light of His saving doctrine from all the Gentiles. If someone answers that He withheld this great benefit because He judged them unworthy, then those who came later cannot be shown to be any more worthy. Malachi himself is a clear witness to this — for even while rebuking unbelief mixed with blatant blasphemy, he foretells that a Redeemer will come (Malachi 4:1). Why then was this Redeemer given to some nations and not others? Anyone who searches for a cause higher than the secret and unsearchable counsel of God will only exhaust himself in vain. There is no need to fear that critics like Porphyry will attack God's justice while we offer no defense. When we say that no one perishes undeservingly, and that it is purely by God's free generosity that some are delivered — that is more than enough to display His glory, and no clever reasoning is needed beyond it. The sovereign Judge therefore clears the way for His predestination: those He has once rejected He leaves in blindness, deprived of the light of His truth. Of the second way, there are both daily examples and many found in Scripture. The same message is preached to a hundred people; twenty receive it with ready faith and obedience — the rest either ignore it, mock it, hiss it away, or despise it. If someone says this difference comes from the others' own wickedness and stubbornness, that still does not satisfy us — because the first group had the same wickedness, unless God corrected it with His grace. We will remain stuck in the question unless we recall what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:7: 'Who makes you different?' By this he means that some excel others not by their own virtue, but solely by the grace of God.

Why then does God grant grace to some and pass over others? For those who receive it, Luke gives the reason: they were appointed to life. For those who do not — what shall we think, except that they are vessels of wrath made for dishonor? So let it not trouble us to say with Augustine: 'God could turn the will of evil people to good, because He is almighty.' He could indeed. Why then does He not do it? Because He does not will to. Why He does not will to is something known only to Himself. We should not try to be wiser than we ought to be. This answer is far better than Chrysostom's way of handling it — saying that God draws only the willing and reaches out His hand to those who extend theirs — as if the difference lay not in God's sovereign will but only in human choice. The truth is that it does not rest in any natural human movement, for even the godly and God-fearing need a special work of the Spirit. Lydia the seller of purple feared God, and yet her heart still needed to be opened so that she could truly listen to Paul's teaching and benefit from it (Acts 16:14). This is not said about her alone — it shows us that every person's growth in godliness is a secret work of the Spirit. It is beyond question that the Lord sends His word to many people whose blindness He intends to deepen. Consider why He sent so many commands to Pharaoh. Was it because He hoped that repeated messages would eventually soften him? No — before He even began, He knew the outcome and announced it in advance. He said to Moses: 'Go and declare My will to him — but I will harden his heart so that he will not obey' (Exodus 21). When He sent Ezekiel, He warned him ahead of time that he was being sent to a rebellious and stubborn people — so that he would not be discouraged when he found himself speaking to deaf ears (Ezekiel 2:3; 12:2). He also told Jeremiah that his message would become a fire to destroy and consume the people like stubble (Jeremiah 1:10). But Isaiah's prophecy makes the point most forcefully of all. He was sent by the Lord with these words: 'Go and say to the children of Israel — Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the hearts of this people hard, and their ears dull, and close their eyes — otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed' (Isaiah 6:9). He is told to direct his voice to them — but so that they grow even deafer; to light a lamp — but so that they become even blinder; to deliver doctrine — but so that they grow even more dull; to offer a remedy — but not so that they are healed. John, quoting this prophecy, declares that the Jews could not believe the teaching of Christ because this curse of God was upon them (John 12:39). It is also beyond dispute that to those whom God does not will to enlighten, He delivers His word in darkened speech — so that they gain nothing from it but instead sink into greater dullness. Christ also explains why He expounded the parables only to the apostles and not the crowds: because to the apostles it had been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the people at large it had not (Matthew 13:11). You may ask: what does the Lord intend in teaching people He has determined will not understand? Look where the fault lies, and you will stop asking. For however much darkness there may be in the word, there is always enough light to convict the conscience of the wicked.

We still need to ask why the Lord does what He clearly does. If someone answers that men deserve this treatment through their own ungodliness, wickedness, and ingratitude — that is true and well said. But it still does not explain the underlying difference: why some are brought to obedience while others remain hardened. To find the answer, we must go where Paul goes when he draws on Moses — namely, that God raised certain people up from the beginning in order to display His name throughout the whole earth. The reprobate do not obey God's word when it is opened to them, and their disobedience can rightly be attributed to the wickedness and stubbornness of their hearts. But this must be added alongside: they are given over to that stubbornness because, by God's righteous though unsearchable judgment, they were raised up to display His glory through their condemnation. Similarly, when Scripture says that the sons of Eli did not listen to wholesome warnings because the Lord had decided to put them to death — it does not deny that their stubbornness came from their own wickedness. But it touches on why they were left in that stubbornness when God could have softened their hearts: His unchangeable decree had appointed them to destruction. The same point is made in John: 'Though He had done so many signs, no one believed in Him — so that the word of Isaiah might be fulfilled: Lord, who has believed our report?' (John 12:37-38). John does not excuse the hardness of heart, but he is content with this explanation: God's grace is distasteful to people until the Holy Spirit creates a receptive heart. When Christ quotes Isaiah's prophecy — 'They shall all be taught of God' — His purpose is to show that the Jews were rejected and excluded from the church precisely because they were unwilling to learn, and the only reason He gives is that God's promise did not belong to them. Paul confirms this when he says that Christ — who is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles — is to those who are called the power and wisdom of God. After describing what commonly happens when the Gospel is preached — that it hardens some and is despised by others — Paul says it is valued only by those who are called. Paul had just spoken of them as believers, but he did not intend to take away the honor due to the grace of God that comes before faith. He added the second description as a clarification: those who embraced the Gospel should credit their faith to God's calling. And shortly after he makes clear that they were chosen by God. When ungodly people hear these things, they cry out that God is abusing His poor creatures for sport through some arbitrary display of cruelty. But we know that all people stand liable before God's judgment seat in countless ways — that if asked about a thousand things they could not give a satisfactory account of even one. We therefore acknowledge that the reprobate suffer nothing that does not fit perfectly with God's most just judgment. Where we cannot fully grasp the reason, let us not be disturbed to remain ignorant of something that lies where God's wisdom rises to a height far beyond us.

A few Scripture passages are commonly raised as objections — passages where God seems to deny that the wicked perish by His decree, and instead appears to protest their willful choice of death. Let us briefly examine these passages and show that they do not contradict what we have established. The passage from Ezekiel is brought forward: God does not will the death of a sinner, but rather desires that the sinner turn and live. If they mean to apply this to all humanity without exception — then why does God not move many to repentance whose hearts would be more receptive than those He daily calls and who only grow harder? Christ Himself testifies that the preaching of the Gospel and miracles would have produced more fruit in Sodom than in Judea. How then, if God wills all people to be saved, did He not open the door of repentance to those people who would have been more ready to receive grace? From this it is clear that the passage is being forced into a meaning it cannot bear, if this will of God is set against His eternal counsel by which He has separated the elect from the reprobate. The true natural meaning of the prophet is this: he is offering hope of pardon to those who repent. The heart of it is simply that God is ready to forgive as soon as a sinner turns. He does not will that sinner's death because He wills that sinner's repentance. But experience shows that while He generally calls people to repentance, He does not move all their hearts. Yet it would be wrong to say He is being deceptive — for the outward call, while it only leaves those who hear and refuse it without excuse, is genuinely the testimony of His grace by which He offers reconciliation to people. Therefore the meaning of the prophet is this: God takes no pleasure in a sinner's death. The godly can be confident that as soon as they are moved to repentance, pardon is ready with God. And the wicked should feel that their guilt is doubled because they do not respond to such great mercy and gentleness. God's mercy will always meet repentance — but to whom repentance is given, all the prophets, apostles, and Ezekiel himself clearly teach. Second, there is Paul's passage saying that God wills all people to be saved. Though its meaning differs somewhat from the Ezekiel passage, they have something in common. My first answer is that the very context shows how He wills this — because Paul joins together that He wills people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. If they insist this means God's eternal counsel is that all receive the doctrine of salvation — then what does Moses mean when he asks, 'What nation is so great that God is near to them as He is to you?' How is it that God withheld the light of the Gospel from so many nations for so long? How is it that the pure knowledge of godliness never reached some people, and others barely encountered even the faintest traces of it? From this it becomes easy to see where Paul is going. He had instructed Timothy to offer solemn prayers in the church for kings and rulers. But since it seemed strange to pray for people who seemed almost beyond hope — people who were not only strangers to the body of Christ but were actively working to destroy His kingdom — Paul added that such prayer is acceptable to God, who wills all people to be saved. By this he means simply that God has not shut the door of salvation to any rank of people, but has so poured out His mercy that He does not wish any group to be excluded from it. These passages do not declare what God has determined in His secret judgment about every individual — they show that pardon is available to all sinners who simply turn and seek it. But if they press the point more stubbornly, insisting that God wills mercy on all, I will answer from another Scripture: 'Our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases' (Psalm 115:3). That text must be reconciled with this one: 'I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion' (Romans 9:15). He who selects those on whom He will have mercy does not give it to everyone. But since it is clear that Paul in that passage is speaking not of every individual person but of different ranks and classes of people, we will not belabor the point further. It should also be noted that Paul is not stating what God always and universally does in every person — he is leaving it to God's freedom to eventually bring kings and rulers into the light of heavenly doctrine, even though they currently rage against it in their blindness. The passage from Peter seems to press us more forcefully: God wills that no one should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the answer to this is found immediately in the second part of the statement — for 'the will to receive' cannot mean anything other than what is taught consistently throughout Scripture. Repentance is in God's hand. Whether He will turn all or not — let Him be asked about that, since He promises to give some a heart of flesh while leaving others a heart of stone. It is true that if He were not ready to receive those who call on His mercy, the promise 'Turn to Me and I will turn to you' would be false. But the point is that no one at all comes to God unless God has first come to them. If repentance were a matter of human will, Paul would not write, 'If perhaps God will grant them repentance' (2 Timothy 2:25). And unless the very same God who calls all people outwardly to repentance also inwardly moves His chosen ones by His Spirit — Jeremiah would not have said, 'Turn me, Lord, and I shall be turned; for after You turned me, I repented' (Jeremiah 31:18).

But you may ask: if this is true, then the promises of the Gospel contain little truth — for they testify to a will of God that conflicts with His inviolable decree. Not so. However universal the promises of salvation may be, they do not contradict the predestination of the reprobate — as long as we pay attention to how the promises actually take effect. The promises become effective only when we receive them by faith. When faith is absent, the promise yields nothing. Given this, let us consider whether these two things conflict: that God from eternity ordained those He would embrace with love and those on whom He would exercise wrath — and that He offers salvation to all without distinction. I say they agree perfectly. In making these universal promises, God means nothing other than that His mercy is open to all who desire and seek it — but only those whom He has enlightened actually do seek it. And those He enlightens are those He predestined for salvation. For them, the promises stand firm and unshaken — which is why there is no contradiction between God's eternal election and the testimony of His grace, which He offers to all. But why does He address everyone? He does so for two reasons: first, so that the consciences of the godly may rest more securely when they understand that there is no distinction among sinners as such — that the offer is genuinely open. Second, so that the wicked have no excuse — they cannot claim there was no refuge available to them from the bondage of sin, when they have refused it by their own ingratitude. When the mercy of God is offered through the Gospel to both groups, it is faith — that is, God's enlightening — that makes the difference between the godly and the ungodly. One group experiences the power of the Gospel; the other receives no fruit from it. And that enlightening itself is governed by God's eternal election. The complaint of Christ that they raise against this — 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!' (Matthew 23:37) — does not help their case. I grant that Christ there speaks not only in His human nature but is also reproaching Jerusalem for having refused His grace throughout all ages. But we must be clear about which will of God is being discussed here. It is well known how diligently God worked to hold that people together, and how stubbornly they resisted from first to last, always running after their own desires and refusing to be gathered. But it does not follow from this that God's eternal counsel was overturned by human wickedness. They object that it is inconsistent with God's nature to have two conflicting wills. I grant this, provided they state it properly. But why do they not notice the many passages where God speaks of Himself using human emotions and condescends below His own majesty? He says He stretched out His arms all day to a rebellious people, that He rose early and labored late to bring them back. If they take all such language literally without considering the figure of speech, endless false arguments arise. The one solution that resolves them all is this: human attributes are figuratively applied to God. But the solution I have offered elsewhere is more than adequate: although God's will appears to us to be varied and complex, in Himself He does not will different and conflicting things. Rather, by His wisdom — which Paul calls 'manifold' (Ephesians 3:10) — He confounds our understanding, until we are given to see that He marvelously wills what now appears to contradict His will. They also mock with the objection that since God is the Father of all, it is unjust for Him to disinherit anyone who has not first deserved such punishment by their own fault. As if God's generosity did not already extend even to pigs and dogs. But if they are speaking only of humanity, let them explain why God bound Himself to one people to be their Father — and why, even from within that people, He chose only a small number as a remnant. Their own eagerness to speak evil blinds these critics to the obvious: God causes His sun to shine on both the good and the evil, yet the inheritance is reserved for a few to whom it will one day be said, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom.' They also object that God hates nothing He has made. I grant this too — and yet what I teach still stands: the reprobate are hated by God, and rightly so, because destitute of His Spirit they produce nothing but cause for condemnation. They further argue that there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile (Romans 9:24), and therefore that God's grace is offered equally to all — but only if they grant what Paul actually establishes: that God calls from both Jews and Gentiles according to His good pleasure, so that He is bound to no one. In the same way, the other objection is answered: that God has locked everyone under sin so that He might have mercy on all (Romans 11:32). This means He wills that the salvation of all who are saved be credited to His mercy alone — but it does not mean this benefit is given to everyone. After everything that has been said on both sides, let this be our conclusion: to tremble with Paul at depths so great. And when reckless tongues attack, let us not be ashamed of Paul's words: 'O man, who are you who answers back to God?' (Romans 9:20) For Augustine rightly says that those who measure the righteousness of God by the standard of human righteousness have gone astray.