PREDESTINATION
382
PREDESTINATION
tion from God's inscrutable will alone. Infralapsa-
rianism was also held by Jansenius (De gratia Christi,
1. X, c. ii, xi sq.), w-ho taught that God had preor-
dained from the massa damnala of mankind one part
to eternal bliss, the other to eternal pain, decreeing at
the same time to deny to those positively damned the
necessary graces by which the}' might be converted
and keep the commandments; for this reason, he
said, Christ died only for the predestined (cf. Denzin-
ger, "Enchiridion", n. 1092-6). Against such blasphe-
mous teachings the Second Sjiiod of Orange in 529 and
again the Council of Trent had pronounced the eccle-
siastical anathema (cf. Denzinger, nn. 200, 827). This
condemnation was perfectly justified, because the
heresy of Predestinarianism, in direct opposition to the
clearest texts of Scripture, denied the universality of
God's sah^fic will as well as of redemption through
Christ (cf. Wis., xi, 24 sq.; I Tim., ii, 1 sq.), nullified
God's mercy towards the hardened sinner (Ezech.,
xxxiii, 11; Rom., ii, 4; II Pet., iii, 9), did away with
the freedom of the will to do good or e\'il, and hence
with the merit of good actions and the guilt of the
bad, and finally destroyed the Divine attributes of
wisdom, justice, veracity, goodness, and sanctity.
The very spirit of the Bible should have sufficed to
deter Calvin from a false explanation of Rom., ix, and
his succe.ssor Beza from the exegetical maltreatment
of I Pet., ii, 7-S. After weighing all the Biblical texts
bearing on eternal reprobation, a modern Protestant ex-
egete arrives at the conclusion : " There is no elect ion to
hell parallel to the election to grace: on the contran,-,
the judgment pronounced on the impenitent supposes
human guUt. . . . It is only after Christ's salva-
tion has been rejected that reprobation follows"
("Realencyk. fiir prot. Theol.", XV, .586, Leipzig,
1904). As regards the Fathers of the Church, there
is only St. Augustine who might seem to cause diffi-
culties in the proof from Tradition. As a matter of
fact he has been claimed by both Calvin and Jansenius
as favouring their view of the question. This is not
the place to enter into an examination of his doctrine
on reprobation; but that his works contain expres-
sions which, to say the least, might be interpreted in
the sense of a negative reprobation, cannot be doubted.
Probably toning down the sharper words of the master,
his "best pupil", St. Prosper, in his apology against
Vincent of Lerin (Resp. ad 12 obj. Vincent.), thus
explained the spirit of Augustine: "Voluntate exierunt,
voluntate ceciderunt, et quia prasciti sunt casuri,
non sunt pra>destinati; essent autem prsedestinati, si
essent reversuri et in sanctitate remansuri, ac per hoc
prsedestinatio Dei multis est causa standi, nemini est
causa labendi" (of their own will the}' went out; of
their own will they fell, and because their fall was fore-
known, they were not predestined; they would how-
ever be predestined if they were going to return and
persevere in holiness; hence, God's predestination is
for many the cause of perseverance, for none the cause
of faUing away). Regarding Tradition cf. Petavius,
"De Deo", X, 7sq.; Jacquin in "Revue de I'histoire
eccl&iastique", 1904, 266 sq.; 1906, '269 sq.; 725 sq.
We may now briefly summarize the whole Catholic
doctrine, which is in harmony with our reason as well
as our moral sentiments. According to the doctrinal
decisions of general and particular synods, God infalli-
bly foresees and immutably preordains from eternity
ail future events (cf. Denzinger, n. 1784), all fatalistic
necessity, however, being barred and human liberty
remaining intact (Denz., n.607). Consequently man is
free whether he accepts grace and does good or whether
he rejects it and does e\'il (Denz., n. 797). Just as it is
God's true and sincere will that all men, no one ex-
cepted, shall obtain eternal happiness, so, too, Christ
has died for all (Denz.,n. 794), not only for the predes-
tined (Denz., n. 1096), or for the faithful (Denz., n.
1294), though it is true that in reality not all avail
themselvesofthebenefitsofredemption (Denz., n. 795).
Though God preordained both eternal happiness and
the good works of the elect (Denz., n. 322), yet, on the
other hand. He predestined no one positively to hell,
much less to sin (Denz., nn. 200, 816). Consequently,
just as no one is saved against his will (Denz., n. 1363),
so the reprobate perish solely on account of their
wickedness (Denz., nn. 318, 321). God foresaw the
everlasting pains of the impious from all eternity, and
preordained this punishment on account of their sins
(Denz., n. 322), though He does not fail therefore to
hold out the grace of conversion to sinners (Denz., n.
807), or pass over those who are not predestined
(Denz., n. 827). As long as the reprobate live on
earth, they may be accounted true Christians and
members of the Church, just as on the other hand the
predestined mav be outside the pale of Christianity
and of the Church (Denz., nn. 628,631). Without
special revelation no one can know with certainty that
he belongs to the number of the elect (Denz., nn.
805 sq., 825 sq.).
III. Theological Contro^'ERSies. — Owing to the infallible decisions laid down by the Church, every orthodox theory on predestination and reprobation must keep within the limits marked out by the follow- ing theses: (a) At lea.st in the order of execution in time (in online executionis) the meritorious works of the predestined are the partial cause of their eternal happiness; (b) hell cannot even in the order of inten- tion (in ordine intentionis) have been positively de- creed to the damned, even though it is inflicted on them in time as the just punishment of their misdeeds; (c) there is absolutely no predestination to sin as a means to eternal damnation. Guided bj' these prin- ciples, we shall briefly sketch and examine three theories put forward by Catholic theologians.
A. The Theory of Predestination ante prcBiisa merita. — This theon,', championed by all Thomists and a fewMolinists (as Bellarmine, >Suarez, Francis de Lugo), asserts that God, by an absolute decree and without regard to any future supernatural merits, predestined from all eternity certain men to the glory of heaven, and then, in consequence of this decree, decided to give them all the graces necessary for its accomplishment. In the order of time, however, the Divine decree is carried out in the reverse order, the predestined re- ceiving first the graces preappointed to them, and lastly the glory of heaven as the reward of their good works. Two qualities, therefore, characterize this theorj': first, the absoluteness of the eternal decree, and second, the reversing of the relation of grace and glory in the two different orders of eternal intention {ordo intentionis) and execution in time (ordo execu- tionis). For while grace (and merit), in the order of eternal intention, is nothing else than the result or effect of glory absolutely decreed, yet, in the order of execution, it becomes the reason and partial cause of eternal happiness, as is required by the dogma of the meritoriousness of good works (see Merit). Again, celestial glory is the thing willed first in the order of eternal intention and then is made the reason or motive for the graces offered, while in the order of execution it must be conceived as the result or effect of supernatural merits. This concession is important, since without it the theory would be intrinsically im- possible and theologically untenable.
But what about the positive proof? The theorj' can find decisive evidence in Scripture only on the supposi- tion that predestination to heavenly glory is unequivo- cally mentioned in the Bible as the Divine motive for "the special graces granted to the elect. Now, al- though there are several texts (e. g. Matt., xxiv, 22 sq.; Acts, xiii, 48, and others) which might without straining be interpreted in this sense, yet these passages lose their imagined force in view of the fact that other ex-planations, of which there is no lack, are either possible or even more probable. The ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans in particular is
