反亞流神學文集 第 10 章 第 7/9 段

111:2), but also certain evil works of men and angels — which, though to be done in time, He nevertheless, being Himself unchangeable and eternal, foreknew by an unchangeable and perennial knowledge — not only disposed those things which He Himself as good would freely give to whom He willed, but also those things which as just He would repay to both the good and the evil. He therefore predestined the ungodly to be freely justified, and the just to be glorified, whom His mercy would go before and follow after. These are the called according to His purpose: these are those whom God foreknew and predestined to be made conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29). And made by whom, save by Him who promised them to Abraham?

To whom Abraham, being strengthened in faith, gave glory, most fully knowing that whatever He promised, He is able also to perform (Rom. 4:21). He therefore whom He predestined, He made and makes conformed to the image of His Son, who is faithful in all His words and holy in all His works (Ps. 144:13). Of these the Apostle says: Whom He predestined, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified (Rom. 8:30). All these predestined are so called that they may be justified; so justified that they may be glorified. And through this He predestined whom He willed both to good works and to everlasting rewards:

He predestined them to a good life, He predestined them to eternal life; He predestined them to faith, He predestined them to sight; He predestined them to be adopted in this age, He predestined them to be glorified in the kingdom; He predestined them by grace to be made brethren of the Firstborn, He predestined them by grace to be perfected as co-heirs of that same Only-begotten. CHAPTER III. All these things, just as the eternity of predestination contains within itself, so the mercy and just majesty of the predestinating God fulfills. For He could never be ignorant of His future sons, who prepared brethren of predestination for His only Son, whom He begot co-eternal with Himself and without beginning: preparing for us grace freely, giving grace freely;

choosing in Him those whom He would justify, before the foundation of the world, not from human merits, but from the free purpose of His will: making His own good will the cause of our justification, not finding our righteousness the cause of His will. For the Apostle testifies that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). And that He might show that we did not merit to be chosen from works, but from the gift of election received good merits, he immediately added, saying: That we should be holy and unspotted in His sight (ibid.). This election was in the eternal preparation of God, which would be perfected through His grace in time. This eternal preparation of election is itself the divine predestination;

in which the whole is worthily ascribed to the free benefit of the divine goodness, because there alone the charity of the merciful God toward us is found. Therefore the Apostle, following on and plainly impressing this upon us, says: Who in charity predestined us unto the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself (ibid., 5). And that he might teach that the whole descends from the sole purpose of God's good will, he added: According to the purpose of His will. And that he might show this purpose of God's good will to be gratuitous, he went on to add (v. 6): Unto the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He has made us pleasing in His beloved Son.

The predestination of the sons of God is profitably not only known but also proclaimed for this: that in all the good things of human will and work, while the divine predestination is known in the eternal preparation of grace, the effect of that same predestination may nonetheless be recognized in the very bestowal of grace; and through this, in that adoption of the sons of God — which God both prepared by predestining from eternity, and bestows by calling and justifying in time — the grace of God may be glorified and itself praised. For God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight (Eph. 1:4). CHAPTER IV.

He therefore did not find those whom He would choose to be either holy or unspotted, nor foreknew that they would be found such; but He chose them before the foundation of the world that He might make them holy and unspotted. He did not therefore choose us because we were going to be holy and unspotted, but that we might be holy and unspotted. And therefore He predestined us in charity, because, in order to predestine us, He bestowed upon us the effect of gratuitous charity. And He predestined us unto the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself (ibid., 5), not according to the merit of either our will or our work, but according to the purpose of His will.

And because we freely received this adoption of sons from God, by whom we were freely chosen that we should be holy and unspotted, therefore in all these things blessed Paul intimates the praise of the glory of the grace of God: that everyone who is enlightened by the gift of that grace may both understand the true gift of grace from the eternity of predestination, and recognize the eternal predestination of God from the gift of spiritual grace. Of which predestination the eternal firmness and firm eternity so abides, not only in the disposition of works but also in the number of persons, that neither may anyone lose the grace of eternal salvation out of the fullness of that number, nor may anyone beyond the quantity of that number come to the gift of eternal salvation.

For to God, who knows all things before they are made, the number of the predestined is not uncertain, just as the effect of the works disposed is not found doubtful with Him. He who predestined them unto the adoption of sons through Christ holds within Himself the most certain number of the predestined: because He disposed all things in measure and number and weight (Wisd. 11:21). For He promised them to Abraham, saying: Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou canst number them; and He said: So shall thy seed be. And Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice (Gen. 15:5). Of these it is said to Daniel the prophet: And at that time thy people shall be saved, everyone that shall be found written in the book (Dan. 12:1).

To these indeed our Saviour says: Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). Of these it is said in the book of holy Daniel: They that instruct many unto justice shall shine as stars unto perpetual eternities (Dan. 12:3). These are spiritually understood in the psalm where it is said of God: Who numbers the multitude of the stars, and calls them all by their names (Ps. 146:4). Therefore He who numbers the multitude of the stars cannot be ignorant of the number of His sons. CHAPTER V. To that number, then, neither is anyone added nor is anyone taken away; because that same number is fulfilled according to the purpose of the predestinating God.

For because God predestined His saints according to the purpose of His will — concerning which it is written that whatsoever He willed, He did (Ps. 113:3) — so no one can change His predestination, just as no one can overcome His will. But if that number is not certain with God, then either the divine knowledge is deceived, or the divine will is changed, or the divine power is overcome by some adversity. And if only the ungodly can say any of these things — or perhaps not even any ungodly man dares to say any of these — let no one deny divine predestination:

since the predestination of that God is asserted to be utterly true, whose knowledge is found irreproachable, whose will unchangeable, and whose power insuperable. To this predestination belong both the free justification of the Redeemer and the just recompense of the Judge. To this predestination belongs the mercy which Paul obtained that he might be faithful (1 Cor. 7:25), and the crown of justice which the Lord, the just Judge, will render to him in that day: and not to Paul only, but to all who love His coming (2 Tim. 4:8). For all whom God predestined unto adoption are here freely justified from being ungodly, because Christ died for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6);

and, all have sinned and need the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace (Rom. 3:23). For whom, just as through mercy He prepared the free gift of justification, so through justice He prepared the reward of eternal justification. The work of grace, therefore, in all the predestined is begun by gratuitous mercy and perfected by just retribution. He predestined His saints, then, both to the grace of a good life and to the grace of eternal life. Therefore the grace of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 6:23). Therefore the ungodly are justified through the grace of God, that, renouncing ungodliness and worldly desires, they may live soberly and justly and piously in this age;

and that, being justified by His grace, they may be heirs according to the hope of eternal life. God therefore gives the prepared grace, that men may be justified, and live well, and receive eternal life for their right deeds. And so eternal life itself is called the grace of God by the Apostle (Rom. 6:23), because a good life is freely given to men, to which eternal life is justly rendered. But God also prepared eternal fire for the evil: for those, indeed, whom He justly prepared for undergoing punishments, yet did not predestine to the committing of sins. For God predestined what the divine equity would render, not what human iniquity would commit. He therefore predestined for the guilty man not the fault which He hates, but the judgment which He loves.

For it is written that the Lord loves mercy and judgment (Ps. 32:5). And therefore God is about to punish in the evil not only original but also every actual sin, because to evil works He neither supplies a beginning nor ever gives consent. Evil works, therefore, do not please God, because they are not from Him. For if they were from Him, they would not be evil. Accordingly, the good works which God mercifully gives He justly crowns; but the works which He Himself does not bestow He justly punishes: in the former the divine bounty is crowned, but in the latter human transgression is condemned. Thus man has healthfully that which he has received from God; but perniciously that which he has had from himself. CHAPTER VI.

But it is a most wicked thing to say that, if there is predestination, we ought not to pray nor to watch, but to do all the desires of the flesh, on the ground that we have already been predestined. Since indeed that grace which was prepared for us by divine predestination is given to us from God for this very end: that we may watch and pray, and, as in the day, walk honestly, not in revellings and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy; but that we may put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in its desires (Rom. 13:13-14). For how can it come to pass that anyone should receive grace, and yet not do the works of grace while that grace itself works in him? For grace is given through the Holy Spirit;

but the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, longanimity, goodness, benignity, faith, modesty, continence (Gal. 5:22-23). Who therefore, having received the grace of the Holy Spirit, does not pray, does not watch, does not — by the aid and help of that same grace — resist carnal concupiscences? Since indeed our Saviour commands us to watch and pray (Matt. 26:41), and blessed Paul testifies that they who are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences (Gal. 5:24). For it is the same thing if anyone says: If a man is predestined, he ought neither to pray nor to watch, as if he should say to one to whom life has been divinely promised that the supports of life are not to be sought.

For we read that fifteen years were added to the life of King Hezekiah by the gift of divine mercy (2 [4] Kings 20:6). Ought Hezekiah then to have said that, because with him the divine promise was certain, he therefore ought not to take food or drink, nor to think of the things that pertain to the support of life? Since indeed the use of life itself is given for this: that in the heart of the living man the desire of living may persevere; and in that each one loves his own life, he does not reject the supports of life. From life itself, then, we have it that we should solicitously think about the state of that very life.

Accordingly, the grace which God predestined — that is, from eternity prepared for His faithful — works this in us, out of the fact that we have received it: that we should ask that it be preserved in us by the divine gift, and that we should have in our works that which we have received by its bestowal. But in those persons the gifts of that same grace remain, for whom they have been prepared by the gift of divine predestination. It is not therefore to be said: If we are predestined, let us neither watch nor pray. Nay rather, when we watch and pray, let us acknowledge the benefits of God's grace; nor let us deny the eternal origin of those good things whose divine bounty we perceive in ourselves; the predestination of which can no more be doubtful than their everlasting preparation is known.

Wherefore the Apostle says: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God has prepared that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:10). CHAPTER VII. But far be it that, while predestination is asserted, the evangelical and apostolic commandments should be dissolved. Since indeed Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that would believe, and who he was that would betray Him (John 6:65), nor could the knowledge of the Creator be false: and therefore, just as He foreknew His betrayer, and no other betrayed Him save he whom He Himself foreknew, so surely those whom He knew by His own preparation to be predestined to faith, He had known from the beginning would believe. But how do we, by the assertion of predestination, dissolve the apostolic commandments,

when we know, by the Apostle's preaching, that not only those who are members of Christ, but Christ Himself was predestined? For blessed Paul says of Him: Who was made to Him of the seed of David according to the flesh; who was predestined the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of sanctification (Rom. 1:3-4). In another place also he says: But we speak wisdom among the perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought; but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which is hidden, which God predestined before the ages unto our glory (1 Cor. 2:6-7).

Wherefore, what is it to arraign the assertion of predestination, save to blame the apostolic doctrine with deadly impiety? For most certainly Paul had both learned divine predestination and taught it; and what he knew in the Head, he did not deny in the body. For he knew that the eternal and unchangeable God, according to His eternal and unchangeable will, had foreknown all things which He disposed to be done by Himself, and had predestined all things which He foreknew He would mercifully and justly do among His saints. CHAPTER VIII. Whoever therefore DENIES PREDESTINATION, let him first delete it from the apostolic Epistles;

and then, when he shall have shown that the apostle Paul was justly reprehended by him, let him unhesitatingly offer himself to be heard by men. The blessed apostle Paul was unwilling that what he willed to be written should be passed over in silence: but just as in his Epistles he reproves any error which he recognized in men, so he willed that the truth which he inserted in his own letters should be preached to all men. He therefore without doubt dissolves the apostolic commandments who strives either to deny or to oppose the apostolic sayings. For just as the blessed apostle preached predestination as confidently as truly, so he charged us to preach it confidently and truly. Nor did he fear that he might seem to introduce a nativity, or fate, or a constellation:

which if these brethren vainly fear, they are there trembling with dread where there is no dread (Ps. 13:5); and while they are afraid of being reproved along with the ungodly, they do not hesitate to think impiously of God. For who can think worse of the eternal God, of the true God, of the good and blessed God, than he who denies that He knows from eternity what He was going to do in time; or who ascribes a fortuitous course to the divine works, denying that the eternal counsel of His future operation abides in that unchangeable, eternal will of God?

For this assertion, which being truly hostile to the divine counsel, just as it altogether denies that the good wills and works of men are held in the eternal predestination of God, so it affirms that the knowledge of God depends upon human wills and acts. For if God foreknew from eternity all His future works, without doubt He prepared those same works of His by the purpose of His good will, and disposed by the firmness of unchangeable counsel what He was going to work: nor can the order of the divine works run otherwise than it is found to stand fixed in the preparation of His unchangeable knowledge. CHAPTER IX.

Whatever is done changeably in time, this is found naturally eternal and unchangeable in the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, who by the fullness of His knowledge knew all things future, and by the depth of His wisdom prepared all His works, before they were made, in a wondrous order. Otherwise human thought and action would precede the divine wisdom, if the divine knowledge did not comprehend it from eternity. But it is necessary that, if God is unchangeable and eternal, His knowledge also be unchangeable and eternal. And to an unchangeable and eternal knowledge nothing temporal befalls.

For if it is known that anything has befallen Him in time, it necessarily follows that He is subject to a beginning and to changeableness; nor can that nature be without a beginning whose knowledge is found to be subject to a beginning. For he who once was not has begun to be, he in whom knowledge that was lacking has begun to be; nor can he embrace all things at once in the fullness of knowledge, who was once able to be ignorant of something. He, therefore, was ever changeable who stood in need of the fullness of knowledge. Nor does His wisdom 'reach mightily from end to end, and order all things sweetly' (Wis. VIII, 1); nor does it 'attain everywhere by reason of its purity' (Wis. VII, 24), if either anything of a future work lay hidden from it, or if it did not hold in its eternal disposition and predestination that which it does.

Nor does He retain the state of His immutability entire, if to His temporal works He can apply counsel that is not eternal but temporal. 14. Wherefore, knowing God to be immutable and eternal and perfect, the most almighty Creator of creation, and the eternal Knower and Disposer of all things that He was to make, let us confess that He has fore-ordained all His works from eternity, that from eternity He has prepared His gifts and His judgments. For He to whom the prophet says, 'Thou hast made all things in wisdom' (Ps. CIII, 24), in that same wisdom in which He founded all things, disposed from eternity all that He knew He would make, because He was ignorant of none of the things that He was about to do.

God therefore chose by predestining, before the foundation of the world, all those whom—set here in whatever age, at whatever time—He calls and justifies according to His purpose; to these same He also grants perseverance, and He leads them all to eternal life. For all these He wills to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. II, 4). But the will of the Almighty must of necessity be fulfilled in all things. Therefore whatever He has willed to be done comes to pass, He whose will no one resists; for the power of God is not less than His will, and thus He is found to will nothing that He cannot accomplish. Certain things indeed God could do and does not do; yet there is nothing that He ever wills to be done and does not do.

For 'whatsoever the Lord willed, He hath done, in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in all deeps' (Ps. CXXXIV, 6). Accordingly, since among men also He has done whatsoever He willed, He makes to be saved whomsoever He wills to be saved; and since the Truth itself says truly, 'No man comes to me, unless the Father, who sent me, draw him' (John VI, 44), He makes all those to come to the knowledge of the truth whom He Himself mercifully deigns to draw.

Now they are called 'all' for this reason, that they are gathered from every kind of men: from all peoples, from all nations, from all masters, from all servants, from all kings, from all soldiers, from all provinces, from all tongues, from all ages, from all ranks. Thus all are saved whom God wills to be saved, because no one is saved except him whom He has willed to save by gratuitous justification. For since our Saviour has said (Matt. XI, 27), 'No one knows the Son but the Father, neither does any know the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him'—by which saying He surely shows that He wills to reveal Himself to some, and to others is unwilling.

let it be said how He wills those to be saved to whom He was unwilling to reveal His Father and Himself? Indeed it is shown in the Gospel that He so spoke to certain ones in parables that He willed His words to be heard, yet willed them not to be understood. This the Lord Himself opened without doubt. For when the disciples questioned Him, Matthew records that He said this: 'To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to them it is not given' (Matt. XIII, 11). Mark too conveys a not dissimilar response of the Saviour, whose words he attests to be these: 'To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables: that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand;'

'lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins be forgiven them' (Mark IV, 11, 12). Luke also, confirming that the Lord answered the same things, says: 'To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to the rest in parables, that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand' (Luke VIII, 10). 16. Surely, then, it appears that the Lord so spoke to the crowds that nevertheless He was unwilling to open to them the mystery of the kingdom of heaven. And in doing this He was unwilling that His words be understood, for this reason: that in that mystery He was unwilling to be recognized. For that recognition is the recognition of the mystery of Christ, as Paul the apostle testifies, saying:

'Being instructed in charity, and unto all the riches of the fullness of understanding, unto the knowledge of the mystery of Christ Jesus, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' (Col. II, 2, 3). For in another place too it is said: 'That God may open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ' (Col. IV, 3). To the faithful also, making known the earnestness of his prayer, he says: 'I cease not giving thanks for you, making remembrance of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation unto the knowledge of Him' (Eph. I, 16, 17).

If, then, God generally wills all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth, what is it that the Truth itself hides from certain ones the mystery of its own knowledge? And surely to those to whom He denies the knowledge of Himself, He denies also salvation. For in this men are saved, in that they attain to the knowledge of the truth. For of Christ it was said that 'He shall save His people from their sins' (Matt. I, 21); of whom also blessed Peter says that 'there is no other name under heaven given to men, in which we must be saved' (Acts IV, 12). How then was it the will of God to save those from whom the very knowledge of the truth was hidden?

Or is it perhaps said that, by reason of the hardness of their heart, our Saviour was unwilling to open to them the mystery of His knowledge? Here we could reply more at large. But, to use some brief summary for the sake of preserving brevity: whoever say that on account of the hardness of their heart the Truth itself was unwilling to reveal the mystery of its own knowledge—let them meanwhile acknowledge in this that it is not said of absolutely all men that God wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth: since those whom Christ saw to be hard of heart He surely did not will to save, to whom on account of the hardness of their heart He was unwilling to open the mystery of His knowledge.

Either, then, let them who acknowledge that our Saviour was unwilling to give to certain ones the knowledge of the mystery of the kingdom of heaven deny that God wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, and let them pronounce the apostle Paul a liar; or, if the apostle's saying is to be referred universally to absolutely all men, they will be forced to pronounce the holy evangelists liars. For how did He, who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, refuse to grant to certain ones to know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven? Since if He wills absolutely all, He surely wills no one not to be saved; and if He wills all to come to the knowledge of Himself, He ought to show to all the mystery of His knowledge.

But to certain ones He did not grant to know that very mystery. 18. What, then, was it to will to save, and to be unwilling to show the mystery of salvation? What was it, I ask, if the Truth willed that all men should come to the knowledge of Him, and yet was unwilling to show them by what way they should come? What is this, that He should deny life to those whom He invites to the fatherland? For He Himself says: 'I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father but by me' (John XIV, 6). How then does He will those to come to the knowledge of Himself to whom He denies the knowledge of Himself? For what is it to be unwilling to show the mystery of the knowledge of oneself, but to be unwilling to save?