§ 158. THE DOCTKINE OE PKE DESTINATION, 855
also in some places of a predestination to perdition (in consequence of sin), but never of a predestination to sin.^ Tlie eleo tion of grace is conditioned by no foi'eseen merit, but is abso lutely free. God does not predestinate His cliildren on account of tlieir faith, for their faith is itself a gift of grace; but He predestinates them to faith and to holiness.'*
Thus also the imputation of teaching that a man may be {?lect, and yet li^e a godless life, is precluded.* Sanctifieation is the infallible efiect of election. Those who are thus predestinated as vessels of mercy, may fall for a while, like David and Peter, but cannot finally fall from grace. They must at last be saved by the successive steps of vocation, justification, and glorification, as certainly as God is almighty and His promises Yea and Amen ; * while the vessels of wrath are lost through their own fault. To election necessarily belongs the gift of perseverance, the dormm perseverantiae^ which is attested by a happy death. Those who fall away, even though they liave been baptized and regenei-ated, show thereby, that they
' De auinia et ejus origine (written a. d. 419), 1. iv. c. 11 (or § 16, torn. x. f. 395); "Ex uuo homine omnes homines ire in condemnationem qui naseuiitur ex Adam, nisi ita renascantur in Christo . . . quos prcedestinavit ad cete)'nam vitam misericordissimus gratiae largitor: qui est et illis quos prcedeslinavli ad asternam mortern, justissinms supplicii retributor." Comp. Tract, in Joann. xlviii. 4 : "ad sempiternum irderitum prsedestinatos," and similar passages.
"^ De prasd. sanct. c. 18 (§ 37, x. f. 815): " Elegit ergo nos Deus in Christo ante mundi constitutionem, prajdestinans nos in adoptionem filiorum : non quia per noa sancti et immaculati futuri eramus, sed elegit prcedestinavitque ut cssemus." Augustine then goes on to attack the Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian theory of a predestination conditioned upon the foreseen hoUness of the creature. Cap. 19 (§ 38); "Nee quia credidimus, sed ut credamus, vocamur."
^ This imputation of some monks of Adrumetum in Tunis is met by Augustine particularly in his treatise De correptione et gratia (a. d. 427), in which he shows tiiat as gratia and the liberum arbitrium, so also correptio and gratia, admonition and grace, are by n > means mutually exclusire, but rather mutually condition each other.
'' De corrept. et grat. c. 7 (§ 14): "Nemo eorum [electorum] perit, quia non fallitur Deus. Horum si quisquam perit, vitio humano vincitur Deus ; sed nemo eorum perit, quia nulla re vincitur Deus." Ibid. c. 9 (§23, f. 763): "Quicunqua ergo in Dei providentissima dispositione prajscHti, prajdestinati, vocati, justiScati, glorificati sunt, non dico etiam nondum renati, sed etiam nondum nati, jam nlii Dei 3unt, et omnino perire non possunt," For this he appeals to Rom. viii. 31 ff. : John vi 37, 39, etc.
856 THBRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-500.
never belonged to the number of tlie elect.' Hence we cannot certainly know in this life wlio are of the elect, and we must nail all to repentance and oflE'er to all salvation, though the vocatioi. of grace only proves effectual to some.
Augustine, as already remarked, deduced this doctrine from his view of sin. If all men are by nature utterly incompetent to good, if it is grace that works in us to will and to do good, if faith itself is an undeserved gift of grace : the ultimate ground of salvation can then be found only in the inscrutable counsel of God. He appealed to the wonderful leadings in the lives of individuals and of nations, some being called to tha gospel and to baptism, while others die in darkness. Why precisely this or that one attains to faith and others do not, is, indeed, a mystery. We cannot, says he, in this life explain the leadings of Providence ; if we only believe that God is righteous, we shall hereafter attain to perfect knowledge.
He could cite many Scripture texts, especially the ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Komans, for his doctrine. But other texts, which teach tlie universal vocation to salvation, and make man responsible for his reception or rejection of the gospel, he could only explain by forced interpretations. Thus, for instance, he understands in 1 Tim. ii. 4 by the all men, whom God will have to be saved, all manner of men, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, or he wrests the sense into: All who are saved, arc saved only by the will of God.^ AVhen he finds no other way of meeting objections, he appeals to the inscrutable wisdom of God.
Augustine's doctrine of predestination was the immediate occasion of a theological controversy which lasted almost a hundi-ed years, developed almost every argument for and against the doctrine, and called forth a system holding middle ground, to which we now turn.
' De corrcpt. et gratia, c. 9 (§ 23, x. f. 763) : " Ab illo [Deo] datur etiam per- Beverantia in bono usque in finem ; neque enim datur nisi eis qui non peribuur : quoniam qui non perseverant peribunt." Ibid. c. 11 (§36, f. 7*70): "Qui auteiii caduut et pereunt, in praedcstinatorum numero non fuerunt."
' Oi)U8 imperf. iv. 124; De corrcpt. et gratia, i. 28 ; De praed. sanct. 8; Encliir c. 10:5 ; EpisL 217, c. 6. Comp. Wiggers, 1. c. pp. 365 and 4G3 ffi