§ 158. THE DOCTRINE OF PKEDESTINAllON. 853
In Augustine's system the doctrine of predestination is not, as in Calvin's, the starting-point, but the consummation. It is a deduction from his views of sin and grace It is therefore more practical than speculative. It is held in check by his sacramental views. If we may anticipate a much later terminology, it moves within the limits of infralapsarianism, but philosophically is less consistent than supralapsarianism. While the infralapsarian theory, starting with the consciousness of sin, excludes the fall — the most momentous event, except redemption, in the history of the world — from the divine purpose, and places it under the category of divine permission, making it dependent on the free will of the first man ; the supralapsarian theory, starting with the conception of the absolute sovereignty of God, includes the fall of Adam in the eternal and unchangeable plan of God, though, of course, not as an end, or for its own sake (which would be blasphemy), but as a temporary means to an opposite end, or as the Tiegative condition of a revelation of the divine justice in the reprobate, and of the divine grace in the elect. Augustine, therefore, strictly speaking, knows nothing of a double decree of election and reprobation, but recognizes simply a decree of election to salvation ; though logical instinct does sometimes carry him to the verge of supralapsarianism. In both systems, liowever, the decree is eternal, unconditioned, and immutable ; the difference is in the subject, which, according to one system, is man fallen^ according to the other, man as such. It was a nobln inconsistency which kept Augustine from the more stringent and speculative system of supralapsarianism; his deep moral convictions revolted against making any allowance foi Bin by tracing its origin to the divine will ; and by his peculiar view of the inseparable connection between Adam and the race, he could make every man as it were individually respon- Bible for the fall of Adam. But the Pelagian?, who denied this connection, charged him with teaching a kind of fatalism.
The first sin, according to Augustine's theory, was an act of freedom, which could and should have been avoided. But
in vita, voluit ut fierent conformes in gloria. . . . Quos praescivit credituroa, boa Tocavit, vocatio autem volentes coUigit, non invitos."
B54 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-59o.
once committed, it subjected the whole race, -which was germinallj in the loins of Adam, to the punitive justice of God. All men are only a mass of perdition,' and deserve, both fof tlieir innate and their actual sin, temporal and eternal death. God is but just, if Pie leave a great portion, nay (if all heathen and unbaptizcd children are lost), the greatest portion, of mankind to their deserved fate. But lie has resolved from yternity to reveal in some His grace, by rescuing them from tlie mass of perdition, and without tlieir merit saving them.
This is the election of grace, or predestination. It is related to grace itself, as cause to effect, as preparation to execution.^ It is the ultimate, unfathomable ground of salvation. It is distinguished from foreknowledge, as will from intel ligence; it always implies intelligence, but is not always implied in it.' God determines and knows beforehand what He will do ; the fall of man, and the individual sins of men. He knows perfectly even from eternity, but He does not determine or will them, He only permits them. There is thus a point, where prescience is independent of predestination, and where human freedom, as it were, is interposed. (Here lies the phil osophical weakness, but, on the other liand, the ethical strength of the infralapsarian system, as com])ared with tlie suprahipsarian). The predetermination has reference only to good, not to evil. It is equivalent to election, while predestination, in the supralapsarian scheme, includes the decretum electionis and the decretum reprohationis. Augustine, it is true, speaks
' Massa perditionis, a favorite expression of Augustine.
- De pncdest. sanct. c. 10 (or ^ 19, torn. x. f. SOo) : " Inter gratiam et prasdestinationem hoc tantum interest, quod pra;dcstinatio est gratiie pra;paratio, gratia verjam ipsa donatio. Quod itaque ait apostolus : Nou ex opcrilnis 71c forte quis cxtoUctur^ ipsius enitii suinus J'ujnioduin, crcati Mt Christo Jesu in ojxTibus botiis (Eph. ii. 0), gratia est ; quod autem sequitur : Qiuv 2i'>'<'^^ciravit Deus, nt in illis ambiilctnxs praidestinatio est, qua; sine pra3scientia nou potest esse.'' Further on in the same chapter : " Gratia est ipsius prasdestinationis effeetus."
" Dc pried, sanctorum, cap. 10 : " Praedestinatio . . . sine pra-scicntia non potest esse ; potest autera esse sine prosdestinatione prajscientia. Pr;edestinatione quippo Deus ea prnescivit, qua- fucrat ipse faoturus . . . pra^scire antein potens est otiaux qua; ipse non facit, sicut quascumquc peccata." Comp. De dono perseverautia), 0. lS(f. 847 iq).