Chapter 20 [IX.]—Some are Children of God According to Grace Temporally Received, Some According to God’s Eternal Foreknowledge.

Nor let it disturb us that to some of His children God does not give this perseverance. Be this far from being so, however, if these were of those who are predestinated and called according to His purpose,—who are truly the children of the promise. For the former, while they live piously, are called children of God; but because they will live wickedly, and die in that impiety, the foreknowledge of God does not call them God’s children. For they are children of God whom as yet we have not, and God has already, of whom the Evangelist John says, “that Jesus should die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God which were scattered abroad;”78    John xi. 51, 52. and this certainly they were to become by believing, through the preaching of the gospel. And yet before this had happened they had already been enrolled as sons of God with unchangeable stedfastness in the memorial of their Father. And, again, there are some who are called by us children of God on account of grace received even in temporal things, yet are not so called by God; of whom the same John says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us, because if they had been of us they would, no doubt, have continued with us.”79    1 John ii. 19. He does not say, “They went out from us, but because they did not abide with us they are no longer now of us;” but he says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us,”—that is to say, even when they appeared among us, they were not of us. And as if it were said to him, Whence do you prove this? he says, “Because if they had been of us, they would assuredly have continued with us.”80    Rom. viii. 29. It is the word of God’s children; John is the speaker, who was ordained to a chief place among the children of God. When, therefore, God’s children say of those who had not perseverance, “They went out from us, but they were not of us,” and add, “Because if they had been of us, they would assuredly have continued with us,” what else do they say than that they were not children, even when they were in the profession and name of children? Not because they simulated righteousness, but because they did not continue in it. For he does not say, “For if they had been of us, they would assuredly have maintained a real and not a feigned righteousness with us;” but he says, “If they had been of us, they would assuredly have continued with us.” Beyond a doubt, he wished them to continue in goodness. Therefore they were in goodness; but because they did not abide in it,—that is, they did not persevere unto the end,—he says, They were not of us, even when they were with us,—that is, they were not of the number of children, even when they were in the faith of children; because they who are truly children are foreknown and predestinated as conformed to the image of His Son, and are called according to His purpose, so as to be elected. For the son of promise does not perish, but the son of perdition.81    John xvii. 12.

CAPUT IX.

20. Nec nos moveat, quod filiis suis quibusdam Deus non dat istam perseverantiam. Absit enim ut ita esset, si de illis praedestinatis essent 0928 et secundum propositum vocatis, qui vere sunt filii promissionis. Nam isti cum pie vivunt, dicuntur filii Dei: sed quoniam victuri sunt impie et in eadem impietate morituri, non eos dicit filios Dei prae scientia Dei. Sunt enim filii Dei, qui nondum sunt nobis, et sunt jam Deo; de quibus ait evangelista Joannes, Quia Jesus moriturus erat pro gente, nec tantum pro gente, sed etiam ut filios Dei dispersos congregaret in unum (Joan. XI, 51, 52): quod utique credendo futuri erant per Evangelii praedicationem; et tamen antequam esset factum, jam filii Dei erant in memoriali Patris sui inconcussa stabilitate conscripti. Et sunt rursus quidam, qui filii Dei propter susceptam vel temporaliter gratiam dicuntur a nobis, nec sunt tamen Deo: de quibus ait idem Joannes, Ex nobis exierunt, sed non erant ex nobis; quod si fuissent ex nobis, permansissent utique nobiscum (I Joan. II, 19). Non ait, ex nobis exierunt, sed quia non manserunt nobiscum, jam non sunt ex nobis; verum ait, Ex nobis exierunt, sed non erant ex nobis; hoc est, Et quando videbantur in nobis, non erant ex nobis. Et tanquam ei diceretur, Unde id ostendis? Quod si fuissent, inquit, ex nobis, permansissent utique nobiscum. Filiorum Dei vox est: Joannes loquitur, in filiis Dei loco praecipuo constitutus. Cum ergo filii Dei dicunt de his qui perseverantiam non habuerunt, Ex nobis exierunt, sed non erant ex nobis; et addunt, Quod si fuissent ex nobis, permansissent utique nobiscum: quid aliud dicunt, nisi, Non erant filii, etiam quando erant in professione et nomine filiorum? non quia justitiam simulaverunt; sed quia in ea non permanserunt. Neque enim ait, Nam si fuissent ex nobis, veram, non fictam justitiam tenuissent utique nobiscum: sed, si fuissent, inquit, ex nobis, permansissent utique nobiscum. In bono illos volebat procul dubio permanere. Erant itaque in bono, sed quia in eo non permanserunt, id est non usque in finem perseveraverunt, non erant, inquit, ex nobis, et quando erant nobiscum; hoc est, non erant ex numero filiorum, et quando erant in fide filiorum: quoniam qui vere filii sunt, praesciti et praedestinati sunt conformes imaginis Filii ejus, et secundum propositum vocati sunt ut electi essent. Non enim perit filius promissionis, sed filius perditionis (Joan. XVII, 12).