Annotation CCXIV

”I have manifested thy name to men.” — John 17:6

Whether only the predestined believe.

John Ferus, in the commentary, teaches that by these words of Christ it is insinuated that not all men would believe, but those only who had been chosen by eternal predestination. Michael Medina, vindicating the present exposition from the reprehensions of Soto, writes thus in the Apologeticum: “This doctrine — whether it be taken of unformed credulity, or of faith working through love — Domingo de Soto pronounces [to be] no less than a manifest heresy, since the reprobate too are very often in the grace and charity of God, from which afterward, having fallen, they go to perdition. But to condemn this is openly to condemn the doctrine of Paul,¹ who, writing to the Thessalonians, thus says: ‘For the rest, brethren, pray for us, that the word of God may run, and be glorified, as [it is] among you, and that we may be delivered from importunate and evil men — for not all have faith.’² This passage, doubtless, is understood of evil Christians who — although they seem (as blessed Thomas says on this passage) to have faith — yet do not have [it]. Nay, and in the same sense he adduces there that [passage] to the Romans, ‘Not all believe the gospel’; and that which Paul there brings forward from Isaiah, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’ And so, since the author speaks, with a perpetual tenor, of the true faith [and] of Christian truth, and by this truth only that is judged [to be] true faith which has the efficacy of obtaining salvation (according to that [saying], ‘He who believes in me has eternal life, and comes not into death,’ etc.), he could rightly say that the predestined alone would believe — because they alone will believe with a true and stable faith. For by this truth (which, however, is most frequent in the plain and theological manner of speaking), the faith which is for an hour [temporary], even if [it be] a mutable and

—[the faith formed by an in]constant love (such as is the faith of the reprobate) is not called true faith. True faith assuredly consists of true love; but that love is called “true” only by moral truth, which has perseverance and permanence. Therefore, only the faith of the elect will be called true faith. The reprobate believe, I confess, but for an hour; for at the time of temptation they withdraw that faith — inasmuch as it has not driven [down] roots. Holy Scripture does not call [it] true faith; and it belongs also to the nature of true faith to produce fruit. But the fruit — Christ teaching — is one thirtyfold, another fiftyfold, another sixtyfold,³ by which difference the diverse degrees of beatitude are signified. The faith, therefore, which produces not the fruit of glory, will not be a true faith toward Christ. Finally, for this reason the reprobate are accused of unbelief in holy Scripture — because, although according to the outward face they may seem to have believed, yet they truly did not believe, because they either lacked true love, or constancy, which (as we have said) is so connected with true faith that in Scripture “faith” is taken for “faithfulness.” “Behold,” says the apostle Peter,⁴ “I will place in Sion a chief cornerstone, approved, elect, precious: and he who believes in him shall not be confounded. To you, therefore, who believe, [is] honor and glory; but to the unbelieving, the stone which the builders rejected, this is made the head of the corner, and a stone of offense, and a rock of scandal, to those who stumble at the word, and do not believe.” Here, certainly, “faith” is taken not for any [kind of] faith, but for that which effectively confers the reward of eternal felicity. For [that] which he says, “He who believes in him shall not be confounded,” cannot be understood of any other [faith]; for sinners believing with an hourly [temporary] faith are at last confounded. And the same [thing] he then teaches more openly, when he says, “To you, therefore, who believe, honor and glory.” For to a temporary faith honor and glory is by no means owed, but to a constant and faithful [faith], according to that [saying], “Be faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of glory.” To believe, therefore, absolutely, or “faith” absolutely — since it is taken for “to believe perfectly,” or [for] a constant faith — will belong only to those who by the divine decree are summoned to heavenly beatitude. For even if the reprobate sometimes believe, or love, yet, because they do not believe or love unto the end, they are said not to believe truly, or to love truly. Whence it is rightly subjoined, “But to the unbelieving, the stone which they rejected,” etc. He calls those “unbelieving” to whom Christ was made a stone of offense and a rock of scandal — [those] who are, without doubt, the reprobate. Paul too,⁵ writing to Timothy concerning certain reprobate, says: “And [the Lord] shall destroy [him] by the brightness of his coming — [him] whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and in all seduction of iniquity to those who perish, because they received not the charity of the truth, that they might be saved. Therefore God shall send them the operation of error, that they may believe a lie, and that all may be judged who believed not the truth, but consented to iniquity.” Those who believe not the truth, who consented to iniquity, the apostle here calls the same [reprobate]; and this [is what] he calls “the reprobate.” And finally the apostle Jude:⁶ “I wish to admonish you,” he says, “knowing all [things] once [for all], that Jesus, saving the people out of the land [of Egypt], secondly destroyed those who believed not.”

Here assuredly he speaks of the reprobate, whom yet he pronounces not to have believed absolutely. And so it would here have to be asked of Soto whether that conviction of the Holy Spirit, of which Christ speaks in John,⁷ saying, “He shall convince the world of sin, because they believed not in me,” is to be taken of all sinners. And if it is to be so taken, then sinners, Christ being witness, believe not in Christ. Then it would have to be asked whether he be called “faithful,” or “a friend,” who had been joined to him by an hourly friendship or faith. And if he would not be [so] called — since it belongs to the nature of true faith and true charity to have permanence and constancy — then those [who are] truly believing in Christ will not be called sinners. But the man [Soto] certainly labors under the same disease — namely, [from] a defect of human phrasing; for he confounds all [things] by a physical or metaphysical [manner of] speaking. There is not, therefore, in this part, a manifest heresy in the author’s doctrine, but the express sentence of Christ and of the apostles.