Chapter 13.—Election is of Grace, Not of Merit.
Whosoever, then, are made to differ from that original condemnation by such bounty of divine grace, there is no doubt but that for such it is provided that they should hear the gospel, and when they hear they believe, and in the faith which worketh by love they persevere unto the end; and if, perchance, they deviate from the way, when they are rebuked they are amended and some of them, although they may not be rebuked by men, return into the path which they had left; and some who have received grace in any age whatever are withdrawn from the perils of this life by swiftness of death. For He worketh all these things in them who made them vessels of mercy, who also elected them in His Son before the foundation of the world by the election of grace: “And if by grace, then is it no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace.”56 Rom. xi. 6. For they were not so called as not to be elected, in respect of which it is said, “For many are called but few are elected;”57 Matt. xx. 16. but because they were called according to the purpose, they are of a certainty also elected by the election, as it is said, of grace, not of any precedent merits of theirs, because to them grace is all merit.
13. Quicumque ergo ab illa originali damnatione ista divinae gratiae largitate discreti sunt, non est dubium quod et procuratur eis audiendum Evangelium et cum audiunt, credunt; et in fide quae per dilectionem operatur (Galat. V, 6), usque in finem perseverant; et si quando exorbitant, correpti emendantur, et quidam eorum etsi ab hominibus non corripiantur, in viam quam reliquerant redeunt; et nonnulli accepta gratia, in qualibet aetate, periculis hujus vitae mortis celeritate subtrahuntur. Haec enim omnia operatur in eis, qui vasa misericordiae operatus est eos, qui et elegit eos in Filio suo, ante constitutionem mundi per electionem gratiae. Si autem gratia, jam non ex operibus; alioquin gratia jam non est gratia (Rom. XI, 6). Non enim sic sunt vocati, ut non essent electi; propter quod dictum est, Multi enim vocati, pauci vero electi (Matth. XX, 16): sed quoniam secundum propositum vocati sunt, profecto et electi sunt per electionem, ut dictum est, gratiae, non praecedentium meritorum suorum; quia gratia illis est omne meritum.