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"
Auxilium," says St. Augustin,
AND THEIR REFUTATION. 289
"
quibuscumque datur, iniseri-
cordia datur ; quibus autem non datur, ex justitia non datur" (32).
In all that, we must only adore the Divine Judgments, and say,
with the Apostle :
"
0, the depth of the riches, of the wisdom,
and of the knowledge of God. How incomprehensible are his
judgments, and how unsearchable his ways" (Rom. xi, 33). But
all that does not, in the least, strengthen Calvin s position,
for he
says that God predestines man to hell, and that he first predes
tines him to sin ; but this is not the case, as St. Fulgentius (33)
says :
"
Potuit Deus praedestinare quosdam ad gloriam, quosdam
ad pcenam, sed quos praedestinavit ad gloriam, praadestinavit ad
justitiam ; quos praedestinavit ad pcenum, non pra3destinavit ad
culpam."
Some charged St. Augustin with the same error, and,
" Non dubitabo cum Augustino fateri,
therefore, Calvin says :
voluntatem Dei esse rerum necessitatem" that is, the necessity
a man has to perform what is either good or bad (34). St.
Prosper, however, clears his venerable master from this charge :
"
Praedestinationem Dei sive ad bonum, sive ad malum in horni-
nibus operari, ineptissime dicitur" (35). The Fathers of the
Council of Oranges also defended St. :
Augustin
"
Aliquos ad
malum Divina potestate praodestinatos esse, non solum non
credimus, sed etiam si sint qui tantum malum credere velint,
cum omni detestatione illis anathema dicimus."
68. Calvin objects, in the third place Do not you Catholics
teach that God, by the supreme
dominion he has over all crea
tures, can exclude, by a positive act, some from eternal life : is
not this the
"
Negative Reprobation" defended by your theo
logians ? We answer, that it is quite one thing to exclude some
from eternal life, and another to condemn them to everlasting
death, as it is one thing for a Sovereign to exclude some of his
subjects from his table, and another to condemn them to prison ;
and, besides all, our theologians do not teach this opinion the
greater part reject it. Indeed, for my own part,
I cannot under
stand how this positive exclusion from life everlasting can be in
conformity with the Scripture, which says :
" Thou
lovest all
things that are, and hatest none of the things which thou hast
(32) St. Aug. I. de Corrept. et Grat. (34) Calvin, /. 3, c. 21, sec. 7.
c. 5 &6, ad 1. (35) St. Trosp. in libell. ad Capit.
(33) St. Fulgen. I. 1, ad Monim. c. 16. Gallor. c 6.