Chapter 58.—The Doctrine to Be Applied with Discrimination.

Now, therefore, the definite determination of God’s will concerning predestination is of such a kind that some from unbelief receive the will to obey, and are converted to the faith or persevere in the faith, while others who abide in the delight of damnable sins, even if they have been predestinated, have not yet arisen, because the aid of pitying grace has not yet lifted them up. For if any are not yet called whom by His grace He has predestinated to be elected, they will receive that grace whereby they may will to be elected, and may be so; and if any obey, but have not been predestinated to His kingdom and glory, they are for a season, and will not abide in the same obedience to the end. Although, then, these things are true, yet they must not be so said to the multitude of hearers as that the address may be applied to themselves also, and those words of those people may be said to them which you have set down in your letter, and which I have above introduced: “The definite determination of God’s will concerning predestination is of such a kind that some of you from unbelief shall receive the will to obey, and come to the faith.” What need is there for saying, “Some of you”? For if we speak to God’s Church, if we speak to believers, why do we say that “some of them” had come to the faith, and seem to do a wrong to the rest, when we may more fittingly say the definite determination of the will of God concerning predestination is of such a kind that from unbelief you shall receive the will to obey, and come to the faith, and shall receive perseverance, and abide to the end?

58. Quamvis ergo ita se habeat de praedestinatione definita sententia voluntatis Dei, ut alii ex infidelitate, accepta voluntate obediendi, convertantur ad fidem, vel perseverent in fide; caeteri vero qui in peccatorum damnabilium delectatione remorantur, si et ipsi praedestinati sunt, ideo nondum surrexerunt, quia nondum eos adjutorium gratiae miserantis erexit: si qui enim nondum sunt vocati, quos gratia sua praedestinavit eligendos, accipient eamdem gratiam, qua electi esse velint et sint; si qui autem obediunt, sed in regnum ejus et gloriam praedestinati non sunt, temporales sunt, nec usque in finem in eadem obedientia permanebunt: quamvis ergo haec vera sint, non tamen isto modo dicenda sunt audientibus multis, ut sermo ad ipsos etiam convertatur, eisque dicantur illa istorum verba, quae vestris litteris indidistis, et quae superius interposui: «Ita se habet de praedestinatione definita sententia voluntatis Dei, ut alii ex vobis de infidelitate, accepta obediendi voluntate, veneritis ad fidem.» Quid opus est dici, «alii ex vobis?» Si enim Ecclesiae Dei loquimur, si credentibus loquimur, cur alios eorum ad fidem venisse dicentes, caeteris facere videamur injuriam; cum possimus congruentius dicere: Ita se habet de praedestinatione definita sententia voluntatis Dei, ut ex infidelitate veneritis ad fidem accepta voluntate obediendi, et accepta perseverantia permaneatis in fide?