Chapter 62.—Prayer to Be Inculcated, Nevertheless.

But I do not think that manner which I have said should be adopted in the preaching of predestination ought to be sufficient for him who speaks to the congregation, except he adds this, or something of this kind, saying, “You, therefore, ought also to hope for that perseverance in obedience from the Father of Lights, from whom cometh down every excellent gift and every perfect gift,143    Jas. i. 17. and to ask for it in your daily prayers; and in doing this ought to trust that you are not aliens from the predestination of His people, because it is He Himself who bestows even the power of doing this. And far be it from you to despair of yourselves, because you are bidden to have your hope in Him, not in yourselves. For cursed is every one who has hope in man;144    Jas. xvii. 5. and it is good rather to trust in the Lord than to trust in man, because blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.145    Ps. cxviii. 8. Holding this hope, serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling.146    Ps. ii. 12. Because no one can be certain of the life eternal which God who does not lie has promised to the children of promise before the times of eternity,—no one, unless that life of his, which is a state of trial upon the earth, is completed.147    Job vii. 1. But He will make us to persevere in Himself unto the end of that life, since we daily say to Him, ‘Lead us not into temptation.’”148    Matt. vi. 13. When these things and things of this kind are said, whether to few Christians or to the multitude of the Church, why do we fear to preach the predestination of the saints and the true grace of God,—that is, the grace which is not given according to our merits,—as the Holy Scripture declares it? Or, indeed, must it be feared that a man should then despair of himself when his hope is shown to be placed in God, and should not rather despair of himself if he should, in his excess of pride and unhappiness, place it in himself?

62. Illum etiam modum, quo utendum esse in praedestinationis praedicatione nos diximus, loquenti apud populum non existimo debere sufficere, nisi hoc vel hujusmodi aliquid addat, ut dicat: Vos itaque etiam ipsam obediendi perseverantiam a Patre luminum, a quo descendit omne datum optimum et omne donum perfectum (Jacobi I, 17), sperare debetis, et quotidianis orationibus poscere, atque hoc faciendo confidere, non vos esse a praedestinatione populi ejus alienos; quia etiam hoc ut faciatis, ipse largitur. Absit autem a vobis, ideo desperare de vobis, quoniam spem vestram in ipso habere jubemini, non in vobis. Maledictus enim omnis qui spem habet 1031 in homine (Jerem. XVII, 5): et bonum est confidere in Domino quam confidere in homine (Psal. CXVII, 8); quia beati omnes qui confidunt in eum. Hanc spem tenentes, servite Domino in timore, et exsultate ei cum tremore (Psal. II, 13, 11): quoniam de vita aeterna, quam filiis promissionis promisit non mendax Deus ante tempora aeterna, nemo potest esse securus, nisi consummata fuerit ista vita, quae tentatio est super terram (Job VII, 1): sed faciet nos perseverare in se usque in ejus vitae finem, cui quotidie dicimus, Ne nos inferas in tentationem (Matth. VI, 13). Haec atque hujusmodi cum dicuntur, sive paucis christianis sive multitudini Ecclesiae, cur metuimus sanctorum praedestinationem et veram Dei gratiam, id est, quae non secundum merita nostra datur, sicut eam sancta Scriptura praedicat, praedicare? An vero timendum est, ne tunc de se homo desperet, quando spes ejus ponenda demonstratur in Deo, non autem desperaret, si eam in se ipso superbissimus et infelicissimus poneret?