Scotus Academicus, Tomus secundus: De Deo Intelligente et Volente

Note 1. Concerning the certainty of Predestination there have been various errors of the heretics. For from it the Praedestinatians introduced a certain fatal necessity, by which human liberty was altogether overthrown and the way to good works was closed off, since each person's lot, good or evil, had been fixed by an irrevocable decree from eternity: which opinion, that the Massilian presbyters might avoid it, they fell into another no less erroneous one, affirming that the lot of men still fluctuates uncertainly, and that nothing concerning their predestination or reprobation had been defined from eternity: For if they are so predestined, they say (as St. Hilary reports, in his Letter to St. Augustine) to either part, that none can pass over from some to others; to what purpose does so great an urgency of outward correction pertain?.... That is, they likewise do not accept this, that there be a definite number of those to be chosen and of those to be rejected. Calvin, moreover, having entered upon a still worse path, contends in book 3. of the Instit., cap. 24. § 8. that every one of the faithful can and ought to believe with certain faith that he himself is predestined. That we may drive away all these mists of error with the torch of truth, three things especially are to be resolved in the present Question. 1. Whether divine Predestination is so certain and invariable that none of the predestined perishes. 2. Whether God has known a certain number of the predestined individually and has so defined it that none can be added to it. 3. Whether this number is so known to God alone that it is open to no mortal, neither in common nor in particular. That these may be made more evident

Note 2. The certainty of knowledge, of which especially there is speech here, is the firm adherence of the intellect to some proposition or object on account of an infallible motive. This motive, however, in God is nothing other than the divine Essence itself, which, since it is the sea of all entity and perfection, also embraces and represents every being to the divine Intellect; and this either antecedently to every decree of the divine Will, in which way it exhibits things purely possible, or with a prior and presupposed absolute or conditional decree; just as it represents creatures absolutely or conditionally future, as we have taught together with the Doctor, Disput. De Scientia Dei.

Note 3. Future things can become known to us in a threefold way, namely either through demonstration, in the way that Astrologers detect a future eclipse from the certain period of the celestial orbs and their unvarying motion; or through revelation, just as all the Prophets detected and announced things to come from afar when God disclosed them: or finally through certain signs by which one may conjecture the outcomes of things and, as it were, look into them through certain thin rays sent forth. Whether, however, any of us can forefeel by some of these ways that he is to be numbered in the happy lot of the predestined, we shall resolve here: but first let there be

First conclusion. — The Predestination of the elect is so certain and infallible that none of them can perish. This is of faith, and various texts of Sacred Scripture confirm it: Thus John 6. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me. And again in the same place: This is the will of the Father, that I should not lose anything of all that he has given me. And cap. 10. My sheep hear my voice.... and they follow me.... and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand; whence St. Paul, to Rom. 8. Those whom he predestined, he says, these he also glorified, making absolutely no exception between the predestined and the glorified.

The holy Fathers confirm the same thing, especially Augustine in many places, but above all in lib. De correptione et gratia, c. 7. where he says of the elect: If any of these perishes, God is deceived, but none of them perishes, because God is not deceived: if any of these perishes, God is overcome by a human fault: but none of them perishes, because God is overcome by nothing. He has similar things in many places. With him agrees St. Fulgentius in lib. De fide ad Petrum, cap. 35.

Firmly believe, he says, and in no way doubt that all whom God made vessels of mercy by gratuitous goodness, before the constitution of the world, were predestined by God unto the adoption of the sons of God, and that none of those whom God predestined to the kingdom can perish, nor can any of those whom he did not predestine to life be saved by any means.

The reason of this truth is also manifest from the very definition of predestination, in which St. Augustine says in lib. De bono perseverantiae, cap. 14. It is the preparation and foreknowledge of the benefits of God, by which whosoever are freed are most certainly freed: but they are not most certainly freed if any of them could perish: therefore it is necessary that as many as are predestined infallibly obtain eternal life. — Then, most perspicaciously and certainly God knows the things which are future, and has all things in view: therefore he likewise knows who are to depart from sanctifying grace, and who in mortal sin; and so he certainly knows who are to be eternally blessed and who to be damned. — Finally, if one predestined could become reprobate, this would be either at the same and the same time, or at a different one. Not the first; otherwise he would be at once predestined and not predestined, which implies a contradiction. Not the second either; otherwise God would be changed, for he would begin to be reprobating, whereas before he had existed as predestinating.

You will say. One predestined can sin mortally, and soon afterwards die by a sudden and unforeseen accident: therefore he can also be damned.

I deny the consequence. For, as St. Augustine speaks in lib. 5. contra Iulianum, cap. 3., although the Predestined sin mortally, nevertheless none of them can end his life without penance:

From that number of the elect, he says, and also of the predestined, even those who led a most wicked life are brought by God's goodness to penance, by whose power they are not withdrawn from this life in the very perpetration of their crimes; that it may be shown both to themselves and to their other co-heirs, from how deep an evil the grace of God can liberate. None of these perishes, in whatever age he dies. For far be it that one predestined to life be permitted to end this life without the Sacrament of the Mediator.

You will say 2. St. Peter in the second Epist., c. 1. warns: Strive, brothers, to make your calling and election sure through good works; therefore he supposes that Predestination is not certain and infallible. — I deny the consequence. For he does not speak there of the calling of predestination to glory, but of the calling to faith and justice, whose reception and conservation rests with man's free choice; for anyone can, according to his liberty, consent to grace calling him to faith, or dissent; he can likewise keep the faith and justification received together with the very help of grace, and cast away both through sin; and so he is rightly warned to make this twofold calling certain and stable through good works. Or I distinguish. The faithful are warned to make their election certain with respect to God — as if it were uncertain and indeterminate with respect to divine knowledge, I deny: with respect to themselves, namely that they themselves may have some certainty or confidence through their good works that they are of the number of the predestined, I concede: for since it is certain that no one working justly perishes; each one can trust that he is to be counted among the predestined for as long as he lives piously and justly.

You will insist. He who is not predestined can in reality be predestined; therefore not only with respect to us, but also with respect to God predestination is uncertain. The antecedent is proved from that well-worn and common saying, if you are not predestined, see that you become predestined; which seems to be taken from St. Augustine, tract. 26. in Ioann. where, explaining those words no one can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him, he says: do not wish to judge why he draws that one and does not draw that one, if you do not wish to err: accept and understand once, you are not yet drawn; pray that you may be drawn. — I distinguish the antecedent. He who is not predestined incompletely and according to the eternal designation, by which those persevering in grace are destined to obtain glory infallibly, can be newly so destined, I deny: he who is not yet predestined completely and according to the temporal execution of predestination can be predestined, I concede. — To that common saying I say, that it is not to be understood as though someone could be a cause to himself of being predestined, for he cannot prepare for himself the means and benefits by which he is most certainly freed; but that he can be the cause of cooperation and of the use of the means, without which cooperation predestination would not be complete. For although the election and predestination to glory is eternal on the part of God, nevertheless it is not complete from eternity, but to be completed it requires a condition on our part, which to fulfill or not to fulfill is in our power; and accordingly it is also in our power to bring it about that our predestination is completed, as we will prove more fully below. St. Augustine himself approves this manner of speaking in lib. De Articulis sibi falso impositis, art. 12. Because those foreknown, he says, were to fall, they are not predestined: they would, however, be predestined if they were to return, and to remain in holiness and truth. By which words he seems to trace the defect of predestination back to the defect of cooperation; namely in the manner shortly expressed. — To the words of Augustine I answer that he is not to be understood of the predestination by which the Elect are sent and, as it were, drawn to eternal life; but of that efficacious and excellent grace by which hardened sinners of every sort are sometimes stirred up and raised from the mire of sins to the splendor of innocence.

You will say finally. All the Scholastic Doctors, especially the Subtle Doctor in 1. dist. 40. q. unica: affirm that one predestined can be damned; therefore in reality predestination is not certain and infallible. — The Doctor distinguishes the antecedent. That one predestined can be damned in the divided sense, so that he whom God predestined could have not predestined, because he predestined him freely and contingently, he concedes; in the compounded sense, that is, he who is predestined de facto can become reprobate and be damned, he denies: For, he says, a created will cannot impede the ordination of the divine will; it would impede it, however, if the purpose of the divine will stood and the opposite came about through a created will: this, however, is impossible.

You will insist. Whatever God could ever do, he can also do now: but from what has been conceded, God could from eternity not predestine Peter, v. gr.: therefore he can also now not predestine him, and so his predestination is not certain. — I distinguish the major. Whatever God could ever do in the divided sense, he can also now do in the divided sense, that is, if he is not yet determined, I concede: whatever he could do in the first sign of eternity and before every decree, he can also now do in the compounded sense and consequently to a decree posited and formed about a thing to be done or not to be done, I deny; thus antecedently to the positing of the decree about creating the world he was able not to decree the fabric of the world, but once such a decree was posited, he could no longer decree that the world was not to be made; otherwise he would be mutable. The same is to be said by way of comparison about predestination.

Second conclusion. — The number of the predestined is so fixed and determinately known by God that nothing can be added to it or taken away from it. This follows from the preceding one and

It is gathered from Sacred Scripture, Luke 10. Rejoice that your names are written in the book of life: but what is written in that book is determined and cannot be erased, as will be established when treating of the book of life. Likewise John 10. Christ compares himself to the good Shepherd, who knows his sheep and calls them by name; whence the Apostle, 2. to Timothy 2. The Lord knows who are his: hence Apoc. 7. the Predestined are said to be sealed, I heard the number of the sealed, etc. by which it is signified that the predestined are known by God distinctly and definitely. St. Augustine expressly proves this very thing in lib. De Correptione et Gratia cap. 13. I speak of these, he says, who are predestined to the kingdom of God, whose number is so certain that neither is anyone added to them, nor is anyone diminished from them: so also St. Prosper, in the second

On the Calling of the Gentiles, cap. 33. The foreknowledge of God cannot be deceived, he says, it loses nothing of the fullness of the members of the Body of Christ, and the sum foreknown cannot be diminished by any loss.

Reason itself persuades the same: if any of the Predestined could be reprobated and any of the Reprobate predestined, it would follow that divine foreknowledge is fallible and the divine decree mutable: but both are false: therefore also that from which it follows. The minor is evident, for if any of the predestined were to fall away, his fall would either have been foreseen by God, or not: if not, therefore the foreknowledge which would not perceive a future thing would be defective and imperfect: if so, therefore he would have been falsely foreseen and predestined; since indeed he was not to be saved.

You will say. Some predestined person can fall away, and another be substituted in his place: therefore their number is not determined nor distinctly known by God. The consequence is evident. The antecedent is proved from that text of Apoc. 3. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may take your crown. From which St. Augustine in lib. On Correction and Grace cap. 13. infers that another is not to receive it unless you have lost it. With him agree the Gloss and Alexander of Hales on this passage: If anyone slips, he says, another will enter in through mercy, just as through the pride of the Jews the Gentility entered in: whence it is read of Blessed Francis that a certain brother saw in Heaven an empty seat, and it was answered to him, that seat belonged to one of the fallen, and is now kept for the humble Francis. It is likewise confirmed from that text of Job 34. He will crush many and innumerable and will make others stand in their place. — I answer 1. With St. Thomas 1. p. qu. 23. art. 6. ad 1. a crown can be taken in two ways. First, for eternal glory, which the Apostle calls the crown of justice promised to those lawfully striving even to the end: Second, for the merit of grace, by which each one merits a new increase. The former crown can neither be lost by the predestined, nor received by another: For he who will have persevered to the end, this one will be saved. The latter, however, can both be lost and received by another; for he who abuses grace conceded is stripped of the graces prepared and to be conceded to himself, that another may be given them, as Christ testifies most openly, both in the Oracles and in the Parables. In the Oracles indeed, thus speaking to the Jews in Matth. 21. he says: The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits; signifying the Gentiles substituted into the lot of the faithless and rebellious Jews. In the Parables, however, the most famous of which is that of the useless servant hiding and burying the talent in the earth: for the Lord commands in the same place cap. 25. Take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents; for to everyone who has will be given and he will abound: but from him who does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken away from him. And cast the useless servant into the outer darkness. By which it openly appears that graces prepared are taken away from the ungrateful and supplied to the faithful and watchful.

Third conclusion. — No one can know with certainty, apart from revelation, that he is to be counted among the predestined, but only conjecturally and by means of certain signs. Both parts are defined as of the faith at the Council of Trent, sess. 6, Can. 16: If anyone shall say that he will certainly have that great gift of perseverance with absolute and infallible certainty, unless he has learned this by special revelation, let him be anathema. Sacred Scripture proves the same thing. Ecclesiastes 9: Man does not know whether he is worthy of hatred or of love, but all things are kept uncertain for the future: whence the Apostle warns, 1 Corinthians 10: He who thinks himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall: and Rom. 11: Do not be high-minded, but fear: and Philippians 2: Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Hence Apocalypse 5: the book of predestination is said to be sealed with seven seals, and no one opens it except the Lamb alone.

The Church itself clearly proves this in prayer: O God, to whom alone is known the number of the Elect who are to be placed in heavenly happiness: The holy Fathers likewise prove it: Augustine, lib. On Rebuke and Grace, cap. 13: Who, he says, from the multitude of the Faithful, as long as one lives in this mortality, would presume that he is among the number of the Predestined? For it is necessary that this be hidden in this place, where elation must be so guarded against that even the Apostle, lest he be exalted, was buffeted through Satan's angel: and on Ps. 68: Many believe themselves to be written in the book of life, who are nevertheless deceived. Saint Jerome on chapter 9 of Ecclesiastes: the just cannot know whether they are loved by God, but fluctuate in uncertainty; they will know in the future, when they have departed from this life. Finally, St. Bernard, Sermon 1 on Septuagesima: Who shall declare this generation? Who can say: I am of the Elect? I am of the number of the children: while Scripture cries out that man does not know whether he is worthy of love or of hatred?

Reason likewise persuades the same thing. No one can know those things which depend on the mere will of God, unless God himself has revealed them; for, as the Apostle says, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God: but our predestination depends on the gratuitous will of God, which destines us to eternal glory and supplies the necessary means, as has already been proved: therefore, setting aside God's revelation, no one can know whether he is to be enrolled among the predestined. — Next, no one can be certain of his predestination unless he is equally certain that he will persevere in sanctifying grace to the last period of life; for he who perseveres to the end will be saved: but from the cited oracle of the Council of Trent it is established that, setting aside a special revelation of God, no one can have infallible certainty about his perseverance; therefore, etc. — Finally, if anyone could be certain without revelation of his future salvation, it would be above all through a demonstration a priori, or a posteriori, that is, either through the cause or through the effect; but in neither way can predestination become known certainly and infallibly. Not indeed through the cause, because the divine will is not manifest to us: nor through the effects either; for there is no holiness so firm that it cannot fail; whence St. Bernard wisely warns, Sermon 30 on various topics: nowhere is there security, brothers, neither in Heaven, nor in Paradise, much less in the world: for in Heaven the Angel fell in the presence of the Divinity; Adam in Paradise from the place of delight; Judas in the world from the school of the Savior. Therefore, etc.

You will say. St. Paul in Rom. 8 says: I am certain that neither death, nor life, nor principalities, etc. will be able to separate us from the charity of God; therefore the holy Apostle was certain and secure both of his own predestination and of that of the faithful. — I answer 1. That even if these things were true, the Apostle would nonetheless have received that certainty from no other source than the revelation of God, since this infallible certainty could not be evident to him from any other source, as has been proved. Secondly I say that the Latin interpreter wrote certain for I trust, as St. Jerome also renders it, as if to say: I hope and am persuaded; otherwise he would manifestly contradict himself, since he openly teaches in other places that one must always fear and that he does not wish to judge anyone: Thus 1 Cor. 4: Do not judge before the time and again nor do I judge myself; and cap. 9: I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, having preached to others, I myself become a reprobate.

You will ask 1. Whether, how many, and what are the signs of predestination?

I answer first. With St. Bernard, Sermon 2 on the octave of Easter: that God truly supplies certain signs to the Elect by which one may conjecture that he is to be enrolled among the predestined:

For when, he says, would God abandon his Elect without a testimony? Or indeed what consolation could there be for those fluctuating between hope and fear with anxious solicitude, if they merited no testimony at all of their election? But if, as is certain, certainty is wholly denied to us, will not those signs of this election which we can perhaps find be all the more delightful? For what rest can our spirit have while it as yet holds no testimony of its predestination? By this word, surely, consolation is ministered to the Elect and excuse is withdrawn from the Reprobate: for once the signs of life are known, whoever neglects them is manifestly convicted of receiving his soul in vain and of holding the desirable land as nothing.

I answer second. That various signs of predestination are assigned by the holy Fathers, but especially six, which may be gathered from the same St. Bernard: the first three he himself indicates in the cited place, where, having said that there are three who give testimony in Heaven to the holy Angels about their predestination, namely the Father by forming, the Word by preserving, and the Holy Spirit by sanctifying them: he adds that there are likewise three on earth, namely spirit, water, and blood, which supply to us the signs of predestination, so that by spirit he understands the exercise of all spiritual works; by water, the shower of tears washing away sins; and by blood, the martyrdom of unceasing mortification; or, as he himself says, to have testimony from blood and water and spirit is to be continent from sins, to do worthy fruits of penance, to do the works of life. That these three, moreover, are genuine signs of predestination is clearly evident: first indeed, from prompt and unceasing penance, for as the Royal Psalmist says: By this I know that you have willed me, because my enemy will not rejoice over me. As if he said: it seems certain to me that it is an indication of my predestination that, as soon as I sinned, you instilled in me the penance by which I might drive out the enemies of salvation exulting over me. — Mortification likewise, as Paul says to the Galatians 5: Those who are of Christ have crucified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences: whence Bernard well notes on the Canticles: No one can pass from delights to delights, from which he infers: But if some are not in the labor of men in this life, they will surely be in the labor of demons in the next. — Finally, the unceasing exercise of virtue; since: The just will go from virtue to virtue, until the God of gods is seen in Sion. — To these I add that, since God has predestined us to be made conformable to the image of his Son, namely his most sacred humanity, which through its death and passion left us an example, that we should follow his footsteps; we may augur that we shall rise with him into eternal life, if we shadow forth his death in ourselves: For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, says the Apostle to the Romans 6, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: therefore, since Christ himself had three testimonies by which it is established that he truly underwent death for us; namely 1. the Spirit, because bowing his head he gave up the spirit. 2. the water, which flowed from his side pierced by the lance; and the Blood, which flowed from his sacred body even to the last drop: so too we shall have certain omens of eternal life to come, if we send forth the spirit of sin; for sin, even if physically considered it is nothing and a bare privation; nevertheless, morally taken, it could be said to consist of body and spirit; the Apostle saying in the cited place: Our old man has been crucified together with him, that the body of sin may be destroyed. The body, I say, of sin is the very exterior sinful action which must be restrained: the heart of sin is the very affection by which crimes are perpetrated; the spirit, however, is that very habit of sinning by which it happens that sin lives long and reigns in our mortal body. Therefore, so that one may have certain indications of his predestination, the body of sin must be destroyed by the blood of mortification: Always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus, says the Apostle, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh: the heart of sin must be torn out by the tears of sincere penance: Putting away all malice, and all guile, and dissimulations, etc., says St. Peter in the first Epist., cap. 2, so that there may be in us charity from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned, says Paul to Timot. 1. Finally, the spirit of sin must be sent forth: For we have not received the spirit of this world, but the spirit that is of God, 1 Cor. 2. But the Spirit itself gives testimony to our spirit that we are sons of God; and if sons, heirs also, etc., Rom. 8. — The fourth sign of predestination St. Bernard himself gathers, serm. 1 on Septuagesima, from those words of Christ the Lord: He who is of God hears the words of God, which he thus weighs:

Certainly we do not have certainty whether we are of the number of the Elect, but the confidence of hope consoles us lest we be utterly tormented by the anxiety of this doubt: for this reason certain signs and manifest indications of salvation have been given, so that it may be indubitable that he is of the number of the Elect in whom those signs have remained. Moreover, among those things which provide confidence and matter for hope, that one is the greatest of which we have now begun to speak: he who is of God hears the words of God.

— The fifth sign is constant fear and frequent thought of the tremendous judgments of God; for as Ecclesiasticus 7 rightly warns: In all your works remember your last end and you will never sin: whence Tertullian, lib. De cultu foeminarum, cap. 2, says that fear is the foundation of salvation; for by fearing we will be without harm, by being cautious we will be safe; with the divine spirit filling the sails, salvation navigates safe, if cautious; secure, if watchful. With him Peter of Celle agrees, book De Panibus, cap. 14.

Like a keeper, he says, over innumerable treasures, this fear is placed in the last rank of the charisms to preserve the incorruptible graces. Piety is a precious gem, but it is easily stolen away by impiety unless it is guarded by fear. Let us keep the good and beautiful handmaids of the graces, but under the custody of the most diligent pedagogue, namely Fear.

Whence St. Bernard, sermon 54 on the Canticles, weighing those words of Proverbs 28: Blessed is the man who is always fearful, says: In truth I have learned that nothing is equally efficacious for meriting, retaining, and recovering grace, as if at all times you are found before God not to be high-minded, but to fear: fear, therefore, when grace has smiled, fear when it has departed, fear when it returns anew, and this is to be always fearful; let these three fears succeed one another in turn in the mind, according as grace is felt either to deign to be present, or offended to withdraw, or appeased to return again. When it is present, fear lest you do not work worthily from it, for this is what the Apostle warns, saying: see that you do not receive the grace of God in vain... Fear grace withdrawn as one about to fall soon. Fear and tremble before God, whom you feel to be angry with you, fear because your guard has left you..... Now if grace, propitiated anew, has returned, then there is so much the more to be feared, lest it happen that you suffer a relapse, according to that saying in the Gospel: Behold, you are made whole; go and sin no more, lest something worse happen to you. You hear that to relapse is worse than to fall in; accordingly, as the danger grows stronger, let fear also grow stronger. Blessed are you if you have filled your heart with that threefold fear, and fear indeed for grace received, more for grace lost, far more for grace recovered. — The sixth and most powerful indication of predestination is the highest affection and singular devotion toward the most sacred Virgin; for this, says Bernard, is the school of sinners, this is my greatest confidence, this is the whole ground of my hope. And deservedly indeed; for, as St. Anselm adds, just as it is impossible that those from whom she averts the eyes of her mercy should be saved, so it is necessary that those to whom she turns her eyes, pleading for them, should be justified and glorified: whence the Church attributes to her that saying of Proverbs 8: He who finds me will find life and will draw salvation from the Lord.

You will ask 2. Whether the number of the Predestined is greater, or smaller, than the number of the Reprobate?

I answer 1. That if a comparison is instituted among men taken in general, who have lived from the beginning of the world and will live until its end, the lot of the predestined falls far short of the number of the reprobate: for before the coming of Christ the Lord, the worship of God was rare, and the knowledge of him was rare, since: God is known only in Judea; but all the gods of the Gentiles are demons. Indeed, even after the Gospel was preached, there are far more Gentiles, Turks, Jews, and all other infidels than Christians; and among Christians there are more heretics and schismatics than faithful Catholics: therefore, since he who does not believe is already judged, it is openly evident that the number of the Predestined is far smaller than that of the Reprobate: hence the Angel rightly says to Esdras, lib. 4, cap. 8: God made this world for many, but the future one for few: which book, although it is not canonical, nevertheless has great authority; he adds, however: Many indeed have been created, but few will be saved, which Christ openly confirms in Matthew 7: Narrow is the way which leads to life, and few are they who enter through it.

I answer 2. That if a comparison is made only among the Faithful, both infants before the use of reason and adults departing from this life, it is more likely that there will be more Predestined than Reprobate; for it is established that innumerable infants, reborn by the baptismal wave, depart from this life: it is likewise established that among adults, more end their last life with the signs of salutary penance, as well as with the due reception of the Sacraments, by whose power and efficacy there is no doubt that they are justified; and so neither should there be any doubt that, men being compared in this way, the Predestined are more numerous than the Reprobate.

I answer 3. That if a comparison is made among only the faithful adults departing from this life, it seems more probable that there will be more Reprobate than Predestined; as St. Augustine openly teaches, lib. 3 Contra Cresconium, cap. 66, and lib. 4, cap. 13, thus expounding the parable of the wheat and the chaff: The good, and rare, Christians, he says, who are many in themselves, are few in comparison with the evil; just as many grains with which great barns are filled are few in comparison with the chaff. Gregory, hom. 19 on the Gospels, and others thus expound that saying of Matthew 20: Many are called, but few are chosen. But most openly of all, Chrysostom, homil. 4 to the people: How many, he says, do you think there are in this city who will be saved? Of so many thousands, not even a hundred who will be saved can be counted; nay, I even doubt these: for how great is the malice in the young! how great the torpor in the old! etc.

The same thing is proved: First, from the figures by which God wished to delineate that truth in Sacred Scripture: for just as all perished in the waters of the flood, except Noe and his family, or as it is said in 1 Peter 3: Few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water: so after the conflagration of the whole world and the flood of fire, few Predestined will be found who will be saved; just as of the six hundred thousand warriors who went out of Egypt, none except Josue and Caleb entered the land of promise; so of so many faithful departing from this world as from Egypt, few will enter the heavenly land of promise and homeland. — Second, from comparisons; for in Genesis 22 God, speaking to Abraham, says: Like the stars of heaven and like the sand of the sea, so will your seed be; where by the stars of heaven St. Augustine, lib. 13 contra Faustum, understands the Elect, and by the sand of the sea the Reprobate: from which he infers that, just as the number of sands far exceeds the number of stars, so the number of the Reprobate will be far greater than the number of the Elect. Then in Isaiah 17 and 24 the number of the Elect is compared to the very few ears of corn which fall from the reapers, and to the rarest olives which remain on the tree after the olives have been shaken off, and to the very few grains of grapes which remain in the vineyard when the vintage is finished: which words Jerome, weighing them there, says:

So great will be the paucity of the Saints, of whom the Lord speaks in the Gospel, many called and few chosen, that their paucity is compared to the rarest olives, which, when they have been shaken off and harvested, hardly a few remain at the top of the branches: and just as when the vintage is finished, the poor, compelled by want, are wont to go around the empty vines and gather a few grains of grapes.

— Thirdly and finally, the same thing is evident from the oracles, and above all Luke 13, where, to one asking: Lord, are there few who are saved?, speaking to the Apostles, he answers three things worthy of note: First, strive, he says, to enter: as if he said: if the Apostles, who had left all things and had followed Christ the Lord, must still strive and exert themselves with their utmost strength in order to enter heaven through the narrow gate: what then will become of those Christians who do no violence to their own impulses and affections, but wholly indulge their inclination? Secondly he adds: Through the narrow gate, which, namely, those swollen with pride, distended with luxury, and laden with avarice and riches cannot pass through. By these affections worldly men are most of all held; for: Whatever is in the world is either the concupiscence of the flesh, or the concupiscence of the eyes, or the pride of life. Thirdly, finally, he adds: for I say to you, many will seek to enter and will not enter: Alas! what then will become of those who scarcely, or at least rarely, think seriously of their salvation?