Faith that is according to its proper covenants or rather according to its single covenant evolved in different periods, collects together, by the will of one God through one Lord, those already ordained: WHOM GOD HATH PREDESTINATED, AS KNOWING, BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, THAT THEY WOULD BE JUST *.

Here we have the Prescientific Solution propounded fully and unequivocally and, at a subsequent time, we find it set forth with equal distinctness by the Pseudo-Ambrose.

Those are called according to God's purpose,

WHO, HE foreknew, would, by BELIEVING, BE FIT

FOR HIM: So that, before they believed, they should be known. For, whom he foreknew, those also he predestinated. HE ELECTED, TO RECEIVE THE

PROMISED REWARDS, THOSE, WHO, HE FOREKNEW, WOULD BE Devoted to HIM †.

*

No doubt can be entertained as to the import of

Μόνην εἶναι φαμὲν ἀρχαίαν καὶ καθολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν, εἰς ἑνότητα πίστεως μιᾶς τῆς κατὰ τὰς οἰκείας διαθήκας, μᾶλλον δὲ κατὰ τὴν διαθήκην τὴν μίαν διαφόροις τοῖς χρόνοις, ἑνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ τῷ βουλήματι δι ̓ ἑνὸς τοῦ Κυρίου, συνάγουσαν τοὺς ἤδη κατατεταγμένους, οὓς προώρισεν ὁ Θεὸς, δικαίους ἐσομένους πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου ἐγνωκώς. Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. vii. Oper. p. 765.

Hi autem secundum propositum vocantur, quos credentes præscivit Deus futuros sibi idoneos: ut, antequam crederent, scirentur. Nam, quos præscivit, et prædestinavit. Istos, quos præscivit futuros sibi devotos, ipsos elegit ad promissa præmia capessenda. Comment. in Epist. ad Rom. viii. in Oper. Ambros. p. 1846.

this language: and, after the time of Clement and down to the time of Augustine, the solution before us may be broadly said to have met with something very like universal acceptation.

Yet, even during this period, such was the vitality of the most ancient Scheme of CAUSATION, we occasionally encounter an appearance either of hesitation or of inconsistency, by whatever name we may choose to call it.

I shall exemplify my meaning by the case of the celebrated Jerome: who was contemporary with, though in part somewhat prior to, Augustine.

(1.) The language of Jerome, in more than one place, is such, that we might well pronounce him to have adopted unreservedly the Prescientific Solution recommended by Clement of Alexandria.

To predestinate is the same as to foreknow. Those therefore, who, God foresaw, would be conformed to the image of his Son in life, he willed should also be conformed to it in glory *.

Who, he foreknew, would believe, those he called. But vocation gathers together the willing, not the unwilling. Or, at least, whatever difference is made, it is made, not in the persons, but in the time t.

* Prædestinare idem est quod præscire. Ergo, quos prævidit conformes futuros in vita, voluit ut fierent conformes in gloria. Hieron. Comment. in Rom. viii. 29. Oper. vol. viii. p. 177.

+ Quos præscivit credituros, hos vocavit. Vocatio autem volentes colligit, non invitos. Aut certè discretio, non in personis,

The goodness and clemency of God hardens the vessels of wrath which are fitted to destruction, that is to say, the people of Israel: but the vessels of mercy, which he hath prepared for glory and which he hath called, that is to say, us, who are not only of the Jews but also of the Gentiles, he saves, not without reason and without truth of judgment, but from preceding causes; namely, because some received not the Son of God, but others willingly received him of their own accord. These vessels of mercy are, not only the people of the Gentiles, but likewise those who out of the Jews were willing to believe for the two were made one people of believers. Whence it is shewn that not the nations, but the wills, of men, are elected *.

:

The love and hatred of God, as illustrated by the Apostle in the case of Jacob and Esau, spring,

sed in tempore, est. Hieron. Comment. in Rom. viii. 30. Oper. vol. viii. p. 177.

* Bonitas et clementia Dei, vasa iræ, quæ apta sunt in interitum, id est, populum Israel, indurat: vasa autem misericordiæ, quæ præparavit in gloriam, quæ vocavit, hoc est, nos, qui non solum ex Judæis sumus sed etiam ex gentibus, non salvat irrationabiliter et absque judicii veritate, sed causis præcedentibus; quia alii non susceperunt Filium Dei, alii autem recipere sua sponte voluerunt. Hæc autem vasa misericordiæ non solum populus gentium est, sed etiam ii qui ex Judæis credere voluerunt : et unus credentium effectus est populus. Ex quo ostenditur : non gentes eligi, sed hominum voluntates. Hieron. ad Hedib. Epist. cl. quæst. 10. Oper. vol. iii. p. 353.

either from his foreknowledge of things future, or from men's works. Otherwise, we know: that God loves all things, nor hates any of the things which he created; but that he properly claims, for the exercise of his love, those, who are enemies and opponents of vice; and, on the contrary, that he hates those, who wish to build up again what God has destroyed*.

(2.) And yet this very Jerome occasionally theologises in a directly opposite strain: and, what is very remarkable as shewing the strong hold which the primitive System of CAUSATION long retained upon the minds and memories of men, he even specially alleges, that that System exhibits the ecclesiastical sense of the words of the Apostle Paul.

No one, from the beginning of the world, is elected and fitted to the celestial edifice, through his own virtue: but he is rather so elected, through the operation of him, who, appointing all things in weight and measure, distributes to each one, AS HE HATH WILLED, the measure of faith and graces †.

* Dilectio et odium Dei, vel ex præscientia nascitur futurorum, vel ex operibus: alioquin novimus, quod omnia Deus diligat, nec quidquam eorum oderit quæ creavit ; sed propriè eos suæ vindicet charitati, qui vitiorum hostes sunt et rebelles; et, e contrario, illos odit, qui a Deo destructa cupiunt rursum extruere. Hieron. Comment. in Malac. i. 2, 3. Oper. vol. v. p. 276.

† Nullus igitur, ab initio sæculi, sua virtute electus et cœlesti ædificio aptus est: sed potius ejus opere, qui, omnia in pondere

T

The attestation of the Apostle, that We were elected in order that we might be holy and immaculate before God, appertains to God's foreknowledge: for, to him, all future things are already done; and all things are known, before they come to pass. But another writer, Origen to wit, attempts to prove the justice of God, on the ground: that He elects each person, not from his simple exercise of inherent foreknowledge, but from the merit of the individuals elected. - Paul, however, says not: He elected us before the foundation of the world, when we were holy and immaculate. But he says: He elected us, that we might be holy and immaculate. In other words: God elected us, who were not previously holy and immaculate, in order that hereafter we might become so*.

et mensura et numero constituens, unicuique, sicut voluit, mensuram fidei et gratiarum distribuit. Hieron. Comment. in Proverb. xvi. 11. Oper. vol. viii. p. 95.

* Quod autem electos nos, ut essemus sancti et immaculati coram ipso, hoc est Deo, ante fabricam mundi, testatus est; ad præscientiam Dei pertinet: cui omnia futura jam facta sunt; et, antequam fiant, universa sunt nota.-Alius vero, qui Deum justum conatur ostendere, quod, non ex præjudicio scientiæ suæ, sed ex merito electorum, unumquemque eligat.-Non autem ait Paulus: Elegit nos ante constitutionem mundi, cum essemus sancti et immaculati; sed Elegit nos, ut essemus sancti et immaculati; hoc est, qui sancti et immaculati ante non fuimus, ut postea essemus. Hieron. Comment. in Epist. ad Ephes. i.

Oper. vol. vi. p. 162.