Chapter 31.—Christ Predestinated to Be the Son of God.

Therefore in Him who is our Head let there appear to be the very fountain of grace, whence, according to the measure of every man, He diffuses Himself through all His members. It is by that grace that every man from the beginning of his faith becomes a Christian, by which grace that one man from His beginning became Christ. Of the same Spirit also the former is born again of which the latter was born. By the same Spirit is effected in us the remission of sins, by which Spirit it was effected that He should have no sin. God certainly foreknew that He would do these things. This, therefore, is that same predestination of the saints which most especially shone forth in the Saint of saints; and who is there of those who rightly understand the declarations of the truth that can deny this predestination? For we have learned that the Lord of glory Himself was predestinated in so far as the man was made the Son of God. The teacher of the Gentiles exclaims, in the beginning of his epistles, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God (which He had promised afore by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures) concerning His Son, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was predestinated the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of sanctification by the resurrection of the dead.”99    Rom. i. 1 ff. Therefore Jesus was predestinated, so that He who was to be the Son of David according to the flesh should yet be in power the Son of God, according to the Spirit of sanctification, because He was born of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary. This is that ineffably accomplished sole taking up of man by God the Word, so that He might truly and properly be called at the same time the Son of God and the Son of man,—Son of man on account of the man taken up, and the Son of God on account of the God only-begotten who took Him up, so that a Trinity and not a Quaternity might be believed in. Such a transporting of human nature was predestinated, so great, so lofty, and so sublime that there was no exalting it more highly,—just as on our behalf that divinity had no possibility of more humbly putting itself off, than by the assumption of man’s nature with the weakness of the flesh, even to the death of the cross. As, therefore, that one man was predestinated to be our Head, so we being many are predestinated to be His members. Here let human merits which have perished through Adam keep silence, and let that grace of God reign which reigns through Jesus Christ our Lord, the only Son of God, the one Lord. Let whoever can find in our Head the merits which preceded that peculiar generation, seek in us His members for those merits which preceded our manifold regeneration. For that generation was not recompensed to Christ, but given; that He should be born, namely, of the Spirit and the Virgin, separate from all entanglement of sin. Thus also our being born again of water and the Spirit is not recompensed to us for any merit, but freely given; and if faith has brought us to the laver of regeneration, we ought not therefore to suppose that we have first given anything, so that the regeneration of salvation should be recompensed to us again; because He made us to believe in Christ, who made for us a Christ on whom we believe. He makes in men the beginning and the completion of the faith in Jesus who made the man Jesus the beginner and finisher of faith;100    Heb. xii. 2. for thus, as you know, He is called in the epistle which is addressed to the Hebrews.

31. Appareat itaque nobis in nostro capite ipse fons gratiae, unde secundum uniuscujusque mensuram se per cuncta ejus membra diffundit. Ea gratia fit ab initio fidei suae homo quicumque christianus, qua gratia homo ille ab initio suo factus est Christus: de ipso Spiritu et hic renatus, de quo est ille natus; eodem Spiritu fit in nobis remissio peccatorum, quo Spiritu factum est ut nullum haberet ille peccatum. Haec se Deus esse facturum profecto praescivit. Ipsa est igitur praedestinatio sanctorum, quae in Sancto sanctorum maxime claruit: quam negare quis potest recte intelligentium eloquia veritatis? Nam et ipsum Dominum gloriae , in quantum homo factus est Dei Filius, praedestinatum esse didicimus . Clamat Doctor Gentium in capite Epistolarum suarum, Paulus servus Jesu Christi, vocatus apostolus, segregatus in Evangelium Dei, quod ante promiserat per Prophetas suos in Scripturis sanctis de Filio suo, qui factus est ei ex semine David secundum carnem, qui praedestinatus est Filius Dei in virtute, secundum Spiritum sanctificationis ex resurrectione mortuorum (Rom. I, 1-4). Praedestinatus est ergo Jesus, ut qui futurus erat secundum carnem filius David, esset tamen in virtute Filius Dei secundum Spiritum santificationis; quia natus est de Spiritu sancto et virgine Maria. Ipsa est illa ineffabiliter facta hominis a Deo Verbo susceptio singularis, ut Filius Dei et filius hominis simul, filius hominis propter susceptum hominem, et Filius Dei 0983 propter suscipientem unigenitum Deum veraciter et proprie diceretur; ne non trinitas, sed quaternitas crederetur. Praedestinata est ista naturae humanae tanta et tam celsa et summa subvectio, ut quo attolleretur altius, non haberet: sicut pro nobis ipsa divinitas quo usque se deponeret humilius, non habuit, quam suscepta natura hominis cum infirmitate carnis usque ad mortem crucis. Sicut ergo praedestinatus est ille unus, ut caput nostrum esset: ita multi praedestinati sumus, ut membra ejus essemus. Humana hic merita conticescant, quae perierunt per Adam: et regnet quae regnat Dei gratia per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum, unicum Dei Filium, unum Dominum . Quisquis in capite nostro praecedentia merita singularis illius generationis invenerit, ipse in nobis membris ejus praecedentia merita multiplicatae regenerationis inquirat. Neque enim retributa est Christo illa generatio, sed tributa, ut alienus ab omni obligatione peccati, de Spiritu et Virgine nasceretur. Sic et nobis ut ex aqua et Spiritu renasceremur, non retributum est pro aliquo merito, sed gratis tributum: et si nos ad lavacrum regenerationis fides duxit, non ideo putare debemus, priores nos dedisse aliquid, ut retribueretur nobis regeneratio salutaris; ille quippe nos fecit credere in Christum, qui nobis fecit in quem credimus Christum; ille facit in hominibus principium fidei et perfectionem in Jesum, qui fecit hominem principem fidei et perfectorem Jesum: sic enim est appellatus, ut scitis, in Epistola quae est ad Hebraeos (Hebr. XII, 2).