Chapter 34 [XVII.]—The Special Calling of the Elect is Not Because They Have Believed, But in Order that They May Believe.

Let us, then, understand the calling whereby they become elected,—not those who are elected because they have believed, but who are elected that they may believe. For the Lord Himself also sufficiently explains this calling when He says, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.”113    John xv. 16. For if they had been elected because they had believed, they themselves would certainly have first chosen Him by believing in Him, so that they should deserve to be elected. But He takes away this supposition altogether when He says, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” And yet they themselves, beyond a doubt, chose Him when they believed on Him. Whence it is not for any other reason that He says, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” than because they did not choose Him that He should choose them, but He chose them that they might choose Him; because His mercy preceded them according to grace, not according to debt. Therefore He chose them out of the world while He was wearing flesh, but as those who were already chosen in Himself before the foundation of the world. This is the changeless truth concerning predestination and grace. For what is it that the apostle says, “As He hath chosen us in Himself before the foundation of the world”? 114    Eph. i. 4. And assuredly, if this were said because God foreknew that they would believe, not because He Himself would make them believers, the Son is speaking against such a foreknowledge as that when He says, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you;” when God should rather have foreknown this very thing, that they themselves would have chosen Him, so that they might deserve to be chosen by Him. Therefore they were elected before the foundation of the world with that predestination in which God foreknew what He Himself would do; but they were elected out of the world with that calling whereby God fulfilled that which He predestinated. For whom He predestinated, them He also called, with that calling, to wit, which is according to the purpose. Not others, therefore, but those whom He predestinated, them He also called; nor others, but those whom He so called, them He also justified; nor others, but those whom He predestinated, called, and justified, them He also glorified; assuredly to that end which has no end. Therefore God elected believers; but He chose them that they might be so, not because they were already so. The Apostle James says: “Has not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love Him?”115    Jas. ii. 5. By choosing them, therefore; He makes them rich in faith, as He makes them heirs of the kingdom; because He is rightly said to choose that in them, in order to make which in them He chose them. I ask, who can hear the Lord saying, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” and can dare to say that men believe in order to be elected, when they are rather elected to believe; lest against the judgment of truth they be found to have first chosen Christ to whom Christ says, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you”?116    John xvi. 16.

CAPUT XVII.

34. Intelligamus ergo vocationem qua fiunt electi: non qui eliguntur quia crediderunt, sed qui eliguntur ut credant. Hanc enim et Dominus ipse satis aperit, ubi dicit: Non vos me elegistis, sed ego elegi vos (Joan. XV, 16). Nam si propterea electi erant, quia crediderant; ipsi eum prius utique elegerant credendo in eum, ut eligi mererentur. Aufert autem hoc omnino, qui dicit, Non vos me elegistis, sed ego vos elegi. Et ipsi quidem procul dubio elegerunt eum, quando crediderunt in eum. Unde non ob aliud dicit, Non vos me elegistis, sed ego vos elegi; nisi quia non elegerunt eum ut eligeret eos, sed ut eligerent eum elegit eos: quia misericordia ejus praevenit eos (Psal. LVIII, 11) secundum gratiam, non secundum debitum. Elegit ergo eos de mundo cum hic ageret carnem , sed jam electos in se ipso ante mundi constitutionem. Haec est immobilis veritas praedestinationis et gratiae. Nam quid est quod ait Apostolus, Sicut elegit nos in ipso ante mundi constitutionem (Ephes. I, 4)? Quod profecto si propterea dictum est, quia praescivit Deus credituros, non quia facturus fuerat ipse credentes; contra istam praescientiam loquitur Filius, dicens, Non vos me elegistis , sed ego vos elegi:0986 cum hoc potius praescierit Deus, quod ipsi eum fuerant electuri, ut ab illo mererentur eligi. Electi sunt itaque ante mundi constitutionem ea praedestinatione, in qua Deus sua futura facta praescivit: electi sunt autem de mundo ea vocatione, qua Deus id quod praedestinavit, implevit. Quos enim praedestinavit, ipsos et vocavit; illa scilicet vocatione secundum propositum: non ergo alios, sed quos praedestinavit, ipsos et vocavit: nec alios, sed quos ita vocavit, ipsos et justificavit: nec alios, sed quos praedestinavit, vocavit, justificavit, ipsos et glorificavit (Rom. VIII, 30); illo utique fine qui non habet finem. Elegit ergo Deus fideles, sed ut sint, non quia jam erant. Apostolus Jacobus dicit: Nonne Deus elegit pauperes in hoc mundo, divites in fide, et haeredes regni, quod repromisit Deus diligentibus se (Jacobi II, 5)? Eligendo ergo facit divites in fide, sicut haeredes regni. Recte quippe in eis hoc eligere dicitur, quod ut in eis faciat, eos eligit . Rogo, quis audiat Dominum dicentem, Non vos me elegistis, sed ego vos elegi; et audeat dicere, credere homines ut eligantur, cum potius eligantur ut credant, ne contra sententiam veritatis priores inveniantur elegisse Christum, quibus dicit Christus, Non vos me elegistis, sed ego vos elegi?