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Outside the Catholic Church, There is No Salvation Part II - Invincible
Ignorance We present here quotes from the Bible, the early
Fathers of the Church, Saints, Popes and Doctors teaching that only a small
elect will be saved and that all who die ignorant of Catholicism will be
damned, even if their ignorance is invincible. “3 And if our gospel be also hid, it is hid to them that perish [pereunt].” (II Corinthians 4) A multitude lost through ignorance Deliverance from ignorance and
damnation a gift Reprobation of the nations before
Christ Salvation only through God’s mercy Faith is a gift not given to all The predestination of the saints The Reprobation of the multitude of
Jews - A multitude lost through ignorance - Pope St. Pius X: “Our Predecessor, Benedict XIV,
had just cause to write: “We declare that a great number of those who
are condemned to eternal punishment suffer that everlasting calamity because
of ignorance of those mysteries of faith which must be known and believed
in order to be numbered among the elect.”” (Acerbo Nimis) “14 How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way
that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!” (St.
Matthew 7) “24 Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many,
I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able.” (St. Luke
13) St. Thomas Aquinas: “There is a select few
who are saved.” (Summa Theologica 1, 23, 7) “38 But if any man know not, he shall not
be known.” (I Corinthians 14) IV Lateran Council, ex cathedra: “One indeed is
the universal Church of the Faithful, outside of which no one at all
is saved.” St. Louis De Montfort: “My heart is penetrated
with grief when I think of the almost infinite number of souls who are
damned for lack of knowing the true God and the Christian religion. The greatest misfortune, O my God, is not
to know thee, and the greatest of punishments not to love thee.” (Love of
Eternal Wisdom) Pope Pius XI: “Behold how many souls are lost
every hour! Behold the countless millions of those who live in barbarous
regions and do not know Jesus Christ!” (Raccolta 628) - Deliverance from ignorance and damnation a gift - St. Thomas Aquinas: “Unbelief has a double
sense. First, it can be taken purely
negatively; thus a man is called an unbeliever solely because he does not
possess faith. Secondly, by way of
opposition to faith; thus when a man refuses to hear of the faith or even
contemns it, according to Isaiah, Who has believed our report? This is where the full nature of unbelief,
properly speaking is found, and where the sin lies. If, however, unbelief be taken just negatively, as in those
who have heard nothing about the faith, it bears the character, not of
fault, but of penalty, because their ignorance of divine things is
the result of the sin of our first parents. Those who are unbelievers in this sense are not condemned for
the sin of unbelief, but they are condemned on account of other sins, which
cannot be forgiven without faith.” (Summa Theologica 2, 2, 10, 1) “7 For behold I was conceived in iniquities;
and in sins did my mother conceive me.” (Psalm 50) “12 By one man sin entered into this world (and
by sin death; and so death passed upon all men) in whom all have
sinned.” (Romans 5) “16 And he commanded him, saying: Of every tree
of paradise thou shalt eat: 17 But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil,
thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt
die the death.” (Genesis 2) Council Lyons II, ex cathedra: “The souls of
those who die in mortal sin or with original sin only immediately
descend into hell, to be punished however with disparate punishments.” “35 And thou hast said: “I am without sin and am
innocent: and therefore let thy anger be turned away from me.” Behold, I will
contend with thee in judgement, because thou hast said: I have not sinned.”
(Jeremias 2) St. Augustine: “The Lord Himself also says in the
Gospel: ‘If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but
now they have no excuse for their sin.’ Surely He does not mean that they
have no sin, when they are full of many great sins, but He wishes us to know
that, if He had not come, they would not have had this sin of having heard
Him and not having believed in Him. He protests that they lack the
excuse which would let them say: ‘We have not heard, therefore we have
not believed.’ […] And although they think they have an excuse, God
does not accept this excuse, because He knows that He made man right and
gave him a commandment to obey, and that this sin, which passed upon his
descendants, came from his having made a bad use of his free will. And we
cannot say that those who have not sinned are damned, since that first sin
passed upon all from one, in whom all sinned together before they committed
any separate sins of their own. […] If their excuse were valid, it would
not be grace but justice that redeemed them. But, since only grace redeems
man, it finds nothing just in him whom it redeems, neither will, nor act, nor,
least of all, that excuse, for if it were a just excuse the one using it would
not truly be redeemed by grace.” (Letter 194, to St. Sixtus) “4 Incline not my heart to evil words; to make
excuses in sins.” (Psalm 140) St. Prosper of Aquitaine: “Let us give thanks to
God, who has granted us the spirit of faith and virtue, of continence
and charity, of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and fortitude, of
knowledge and godliness, and of His fear. Had not He who “worketh all in all”
given us these, we should not have any of them, we should be sitting in
darkness and in the shadow of death together with them who knew not God or
when they knew Him, have not glorified Him as God or given thanks, but
ascribing that knowledge to their own wisdom, became fools; their hearts
darkened, they became vain in their thoughts. Yet, even in that miserable
state we should not be justified in complaining of this punishment nor in
giving excuses for this ignorance, nor should we find any remedy for it
in our fallen nature.” (Answers to the Genoese 8) St. Augustine: “From this misery, most righteously
inflicted on sinners, God’s grace delivers; because man of his own accord,
that is, by free will, could fall, but could not also rise. To this misery of
just condemnation belong the ignorance and the difficulty which every man
suffers from the beginning of his birth, and no one is delivered from that
evil except by the grace of God. And this misery the Pelagians will not
have to descend from a just condemnation, because they deny original sin;
although even if the ignorance and difficulty were the natural beginnings of
man, God would not even thus deserve to be reproached, but to be praised.”
(The Gift of Perseverance 27) “4 Who can make him clean that is conceived of
unclean seed? is it not thou who only art?” (Job 14) “1 Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, and whose sins are covered.” (Psalm 31) St. Augustine: “Even if none were
delivered therefrom, there would be no just cause for finding fault with
God.” (Predestination of the Saints 16) “8 For by grace you are saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God.”
(Ephesians 2) St. Prosper of Aquitaine: “How could the faith
which Adam lost be found in any of his sons unless it be imparted to them by
the same Spirit who worked all in all? Accordingly, if the posterity of
Adam did not lose what he lost, then his sin only harmed him personally, it
did not harm the human race. But all have sinned in one: in punishment of
Adam's sin the whole race was condemned. Therefore, all have lost what Adam
lost. He lost faith in the first place; and if faith is the first gift we
all lost, it is also the first gift we have to receive again. Let us,
then, hold on to the doctrine of grace which says that faith is a gift of
God, and we shall be proof against the deceits of the Pelagian error; for
it is in order to prove that grace is due to man that the Pelagians refuse
to say that faith is a gift of God.” (Answers to Extracts of the Geonese) “23 For the wages of sin is death. But the
gift of God, life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6) “22 Even the justice of God, by faith of Jesus
Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe in him: for there is no
distinction: 23 For all have sinned, and do need the
glory of God. 24 Being justified freely by his grace,
through the redemption, that is in Christ Jesus, 25 Whom God hath proposed to be a propitiation, through
faith in his blood, to the shewing of his justice, for the remission of
former sins.” (Romans 3) St. Augustine: “They who are not liberated
through grace, either because they are not yet able to hear or because
they are unwilling to obey; or again because they did not receive, at the
time when they are unable on account of youth to hear, that bath of
regeneration, which they might have received and through which they might
have been saved, are indeed justly condemned; because they are not
without sin, either that which they have derived from their birth, or that
which they have added from their own misconduct. “For all have sinned” -
whether in Adam or in themselves – “and come short of the glory of God.””
(Nature and Grace 4) St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori: “How thankful we
ought to be to Jesus Christ for the gift of faith! What would have become of us if we had been born in Asia,
Africa, America, or in the midst of heretics and schismatics? He who does not believe is lost. This, then, was the first and greatest
grace bestowed on us: our calling to the true faith. O Saviour of the world, what would have
become of us if Thou hadst not enlightened us? [...] We would all
have perished.” (Preparation for Death) - Reprobation of the nations before Christ - “4 For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself:
Israel for his own possession.” (Psalm 133) St. Prosper of Aquitaine: “To assert that
throughout the ages God’s will concerning the salvation of the human race and
its call to the knowledge of the truth is universal and equal for all,
in the sense that it never passed over any individual, is to trespass
on the unfathomable depths of God’s judgements. For why is it that in times passed God suffered all nations
to walk in their own ways, when He chose Jacob unto Himself, and
did not do in like manner to every nation and did not make manifest to
them His judgements. Why is it
that that which was no people is now the people of God, and that to
those on whom He had no mercy He is now merciful? […] Nor should one think that any man was made
just, either before the law or under the law, by another grace or another
faith than the grace and the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Answers to the
Gauls, article 8)
“15 Who in times past suffered all nations to
walk in their own ways.” (Acts 14) St. Prosper of Aquitaine: “But up to the day that
the seed should come of which it had been said, In thy seed all the nations
of the earth shall be blessed, this faith remained confined to the people
of one race, and there with the true Israelites the hope of our
Redemption was kept alive. For although there were some men of other races
whom, whilst the Law was in force, the truth deigned to enlighten, yet they
were so few that we can hardly know whether there were any. But not
withstanding the fact that the abundance of grace which now floods the whole
world did not then flow with equal bounty, this does not excuse the Gentiles
who, being aliens from the conversation of Israel, having no hope, and
without God in this world, have died in the darkness of their ignorance.”
(Call of All Nations II:14) “11 For which cause be mindful that you, being
heretofore Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which
is called circumcision in the flesh, made by hands; 12 That you were at that time without Christ,
being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the testament,
having no hope of the promise, and without God in this world.”
(Ephesians 2) St. Jerome: “Or lastly make your own the
favourite cavil of your [Pelagian] associate Porphyry, and ask how God can be
described as pitiful and of great mercy when from Adam to Moses and from
Moses to the coming of Christ He has suffered all nations to die in
ignorance of the Law and of His commandments. For Britain, that province
so fertile in despots, the Scottish tribes, and all the barbarians round
about as far as the ocean were alike without knowledge of Moses and the
prophets. Why should Christ's coming have been delayed to the last times?
Why should He not have come before so vast a number had perished? Of this
last question the blessed apostle in writing to the Romans most wisely disposes
by admitting that he does not know and that only God does. Do you too, then,
condescend to remain ignorant of that into which you inquire. Leave to God
His power over what is His own; He does not need you to justify His actions.
I am the hapless being against whom you ought to direct your insults, I who
am for ever reading the words: “by grace ye are saved,” and “blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.””
(Letter 133, 9) “11 For there is no respect of persons with God. 12 For whosoever have sinned without the law,
shall perish without the law; and whosoever have sinned in the law, shall be
judged by the law. […] 23 For all have sinned, and do need the
glory of God.” (Romans 2, 3) St. Augustine: “But God forbid there be true
virtues in anyone unless he is just, and God forbid he be truly just unless
he lives by faith, for ‘He who is just lives by faith.’ Who of those wishing
to be considered Christians, except the Pelagians alone, or, perhaps, you
alone among the Pelagians, will call an unbeliever just, and an ungodly man
just, and say a just man is in bondage to the Devil?-whether he be Fabricius,
whether he be Scipio, whether he be Regulus, whose names you thought would
frighten me, as though we were speaking before the ancient court of Rome.
You may also appeal to the school of Pythagoras, or that of Plato, where the
most erudite and learned in a philosophy far excelling the others in nobility
said there are not true virtues except those in some way impressed on the mind
by the form of the eternal and unchangeable substance which is God. In spite
of this, I proclaim against you with all my divinely given liberty of
godliness: ‘True justice is not in those men’ and ‘He who is just lives by
faith, faith comes from hearing, and hearing is by the word of Christ. For Christ is the
consummation of the Law unto justice for everyone who believes.’” (Against
Julian IV:17) “16 The people that sat in darkness, hath
seen great light: and to them that sat in the region of the shadow of
death, light is sprung up.” (St. Matthew 4) St. Prosper of Aquitaine: “One section of mankind
attains salvation, the other perishes. Were we to ascribe this to individual
merits and say that grace left off the wicked and chose the good, then we
would be faced with the case of countless peoples to whom for so many ages
no messenger of the heavenly doctrine has appeared. And we should not say
that their posterity were better than they, for it is written of them: The
nation of the Gentiles that was sitting in darkness has seen a great
light; and to them that were sitting in darkness and the shadow of death,
light is risen; and it is to these that the Apostle Peter says: But you are a
chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people,
that you may declare His virtues, who hath called you out of darkness
into His marvellous light; who in time past were not a people, but are now
the people of God; on whom once He had no mercy, but now He shows
mercy. Therefore, what the fathers did not merit, the sons did not receive on
account of their merits. For indeed, fathers and sons alike were steeped in
irreligion, the blindness of ignorance plunged them both in the same
errors.” (Call of All Nations I: 15) “9 Who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvellous light: 10 Who in time past were not a people: but are
now the people of God. Who had not obtained mercy; but now have
obtained mercy.” (I St. Peter 2) “24 Even us, whom also he hath called, not only
of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles. 25 As in Osee he saith: I will call that which
was not my people, my people; and her that was not beloved, beloved; and her
that was without mercy, one that hath obtained mercy.” (Romans 9) “23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth, and
I will have mercy on her that was without mercy.” (Osee 2) St. Prosper of Aquitaine: “From this profession
of faith in God’s grace some draw back for fear lest, if they accept the
doctrine on grace as in Holy Scripture and manifested by the effects of its
power, they be compelled to admit also that of all men born in the course of
the centuries the number of the predestined, chosen according to the design
of God’s call, is fixed and definite with God. But it is as much against holy
religion to deny this as it is to gainsay grace itself. For it is no
secret, but evident to all who open their eyes, how for so many centuries
countless thousands of men were left to their errors and impieties and died
without any knowledge of the true God. This is shown, in the Acts of the
Apostles, by the words of Barnabas and Paul, who told the Lycaonians: Ye
men, why do ye do these things? We also are mortals, men like unto you,
preaching to you to be converted from these vain things to the living God,
who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all things that are in
them, who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.
[…] What, then, about the trite objection from the Scripture text, God
will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth?
Only they who fail to see its meaning think it goes against us. All those
who, from the past ages till today, died without having known God, are they
of the number of “all men”? And if it is said, wrongly, that in the case
of adults the evil works they did of their own free will were the obstacle to
their salvation, as though grace saved the good and not the wicked, what
difference in merit could there be between infants that are saved and others
that are not?” (Letter to Rufinus) “2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh,
that he may give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: That they may know
thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (St.
John 17) “39 And he spoke also to them a similitude: Can
the blind lead the blind? do they not both fall into the pit?” (St. Luke 5) “14 How then shall they call on him, in whom they
have not believed? Or how shall they believe him, of whom they have not
heard? And how shall they hear, without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they be sent,
as it is written: How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel. 17 Faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by
the word of Christ.” (Romans 10) Origen: “When every nation shall have heard the
preaching of the Gospel, then shall come the end of the world. For at this time there are many
nations, not of barbarians only, but of our own, who have not yet heard the
word of Christianity.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea on Mt. 24:14) “14 And this gospel of the kingdom, shall be
preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, and then shall
the consummation come.” (St. Matthew 24) St. Augustine: “For there are among us, that
is, in Africa, innumerable barbarian tribes, among whom the Gospel has not
yet been preached. We learn this by the daily evidence before our eyes of
those who are taken captive from there, and are now subjected to slavery by
the Romans. [...] Those in the interior, however, who are not under Roman
authority are manifestly not in contact with the Christian religion in
any of their members. […] It is to some of its shores in the West that we
know the Church has come, and whatever shores it has not yet reached
it will eventually reach. […] “How then shall they call on him, in whom
they have not believed? Or how shall they believe him, of whom they have not
heard? And how shall they hear, without a preacher? And how shall they preach
unless they be sent?” […] There are still nations, as we are well
assured, in which there is only a beginning and some in which there is not
yet a beginning of fulfilment […] If it is hidden from us when the whole
world will be filled by the Church bringing forth fruit and growing,
undoubtedly it is hidden from us when the end will be, but it certainly will
not be before that..” (Letter 199) “10 And unto all nations the gospel must first be
preached. […] 33 Take ye heed, watch and pray. For ye know not
when the time is. 34 Even as a man who going into a far country,
left his house; and gave authority to his servants over every work, and
commanded the porter to watch.” (St. Mark 13) St. Augustine: “‘And this Gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all nations,
and then shall the consummation come.’ What else does ‘then it shall
come’ mean but that it will not come before then? How long after that it will come is unknown to us, but,
obviously, we ought not to doubt that it will not come sooner. Therefore, if the servants of God were to
undertake the labour of travelling all over the earth so as to gather in as
many as they can, we could certainly estimate how long a time remains before
the end of the world by the remaining number of nations to whom the Gospel
has not yet been preached. But, if anyone believes that it is not
possible for the servants of God to travel over the whole earth because some
regions are inaccessible and inhospitable, and therefore a truthful report
cannot be made on the number and importance of the nations still deprived
of the Gospel of Christ, I think it much less possible to understand from
the Scriptures how much time there will be before the end.” (Letter 197) St. Prosper of Aquitaine: “Likewise, he who says
that not all men are called to grace is above reproach if he speaks of those
only to whom Christ has not been announced. We know, indeed, that the
gospel is meant to reach all parts of the world, but we do not think it
has already been preached in all countries. Nor can the call of grace be
said to have reached where no men are as yet reborn into the fold of Mother
Church. [...] Yet, we actually know with a firm faith that the Church shall
spread to all parts of the world and that the world shall not end before the
gospel has been announced in all regions of the earth.” (Answers to the
Gauls, qualification to article 4, qualification to article 10) St. Fulgentius: “Grace is not properly esteemed
by any one who supposes that it is given to all men, when not only does the
faith not pertain to all, but even at the present time some nations may
yet be found to whom the preaching of the faith has not yet come. But the
Blessed Apostle says: “How then are they to call upon Him in whom they
have not believed? or how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard?
but how are they to hear, without preaching?” Grace, then, is not
given to all; for certainly they cannot be participants in that grace,
who are not believers; nor can they believe if it is found that the preaching
of the faith has never come to them at all.” (Synodal Epistle of St.
Fulgentius and other African Bishops) St. Augustine: “But even the ignorance, which is not
theirs who refuse to know, but theirs who are, as it were, simply ignorant,
does not so far excuse any one as to exempt him from the punishment of
eternal fire, though his failure to believe has been the result of his not
having at all heard what he should believe; but probably only so far as
to mitigate his punishment. For it was not said without reason: “Pour out Thy
wrath upon the nations that have not known Thee;” nor again according to what
the apostle says: “When He shall come from heaven in a flame of fire to take
vengeance on them that know not God.”” (Grace and Free Will 5) “6 Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that have
not known thee: and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.”
(Psalm 78) “25 Pour out thy indignation upon the nations
that have not known thee, and upon the provinces that have not called upon
thy name” (Jeremiah 10) The Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of
the Faith, under Pope St. Pius X, in 1907, in answer to a question as to
whether Confucius could have been saved, replied: “It is not allowed
to affirm that Confucius was saved.
Christians, when interrogated, must answer that those who die as
infidels are damned.” Council of Florence, ex cathedra: “The Holy,
Catholic, and Apostolic Church firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that
none of those outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but neither
Jews, nor heretics and schismatics, can become participants in eternal
life, but will depart “into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil
and his angels”, unless before the end of life they have been added to the
Church.” “47 And the Lord added to the Church daily such
as should be saved.” (Acts 2) St. Francis Xavier: “Before their Baptism,
certain Japanese were greatly troubled by a hateful scruple: that God did not
appear merciful, because He had never made Himself known to the Japanese
people before, especially as those who had not worshiped God were doomed to
everlasting Hell. They grieve over the fate of their departed children,
parents, and relatives; so they ask if there is any way to free them by
prayer from the eternal misery. And I am obliged to answer: there is
absolutely none.” St. Francis Xavier: “I intend to write what I
have found, not only to India, but to the Universities of Portugal, of Italy,
and above all of Paris, and admonish them, while they are devoting themselves
heart and soul to learned studies, not to think themselves so free and
disengaged from responsibility as to take no trouble at all about the
ignorance of the heathen and the loss of their immortal souls.” St. Charles Borromeo: “Infidels are
outside the Church because they never belonged to, and never knew
the Church, and were never made partakers of any of her Sacraments. [...]
Among these figures of the Church, the ark of Noah holds a conspicuous place.
It was built by the command of God, in order that there might be no doubt
that it was a symbol of the Church, which God has so constituted that all who
enter therein through Baptism, may be safe from danger of eternal death,
while such as are outside the Church, like those who were not in the ark, are
overwhelmed by their own crimes.” (Catechism of Trent, 1:9) Pope Leo XIII: “By Christopher Columbus’ toil
another world emerged from the unsearched bosom of the ocean. Hundreds
of thousands of mortals have, from a state of blindness been raised to
the common level of the human race, reclaimed from savagery to gentleness and
humanity; and, greatest of all, by the acquisition of those blessings of
which Jesus Christ is the author, they have been recalled from destruction
to eternal life. […] When he learned from the lessons of astronomy and
the record of the ancients, that there were great tracts of land lying
towards the West, beyond the limits of the known world, lands hitherto
explored by no man, he saw in spirit a mighty multitude, cloaked
in miserable darkness, given over to evil rites, and the superstitious
worship of vain gods. Miserable it is to live in a barbarous state and with
savage manners: but more miserable to lack the knowledge of that which is
highest, and to dwell in ignorance of the one true God. […] He was
carried away, as we think, with joy, when on his first return from the Indies
he wrote to Raphael Sanchez: “That to God should be rendered immortal thanks,
Who had brought his labors such prosperous issues; that Jesus Christ rejoices
and triumphs on earth no less than in Heaven, at the approaching salvation
of nations innumerable, who were before hastening to destruction.”
[…] He must needs have succumbed under labors so vast and overwhelming if he
had not been sustained by the consciousness of a nobler aim, which he knew
would bring much glory to the Christian name, and salvation to an
infinite multitude.” (Quarto Abeunte Saeculo, On the Columbus
Quadricentennial) St. Augustine: “If, according to the word of
truth, no one is delivered from the condemnation which was incurred through
Adam except through faith in Jesus Christ, and yet from this
condemnation they shall not deliver themselves who shall be able to say that
they have not heard the gospel of Christ, on the ground that “faith
cometh by hearing,” how much less shall they deliver themselves who shall
say, “We have not received perseverance!” For the excuse of those who say, “We
have not received hearing,” seems more equitable than that of those who
say, “We have not received perseverance;” since it may be said, O man, in
that which thou hadst heard and kept, in that thou mightest persevere if thou
wouldest; but in no wise can it be said, That which thou hadst not heard
thou mightest believe if thou wouldest.
And, consequently, both those who have not heard the gospel,
and those who, having heard it and been changed by it for the better, have
not received perseverance, and those who, having heard the gospel, have
refused to come to Christ, that is, to believe on Him - since He Himself
says, “No man cometh unto me, except it were given him of my Father,” - and
those who by their tender age were unable to believe, but might be
absolved from original sin by the sole laver of regeneration, and yet have
not received this laver, and have perished in death: are not made to differ
from that lump which it is plain is condemned, as all go from one into
condemnation. Some are made to differ, however, not by their own merits, but
by the grace of the Mediator; that is to say, they are justified freely in
the blood of the second Adam.” (On Correction and Grace 11-12) “16 But knowing that man is not justified by the
works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. We also believe in
Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the
works of the law: because by the works of the law no flesh shall be
justified.” (Galatians 2) St. Augustine: “Therefore the nature of the human
race, generated from the flesh of the one transgressor, if [as the
Pelagians falsely contend] it is self-sufficient for fulfilling the law and
for perfecting righteousness, ought to be sure of its reward, that is, of
everlasting life, even if in any nation or at any former time faith in the
blood of Christ was unknown to it. For [say the Pelagians] God is not so
unjust as to defraud righteous persons of the reward of righteousness,
because there has not been announced to them the mystery of Christ's
divinity and humanity, which was manifest in the flesh. For how could
they believe what they had not heard of; or how could they hear without a
preacher? For “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
But I say (adds he): Have they not heard? “Yea, verily; their sounds went out
into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” Before,
however, all this had been accomplished, before the actual preaching of the
gospel reaches the ends of all the earth - because there are some remote
nations still, although it is said that they are very few, to whom the
preached gospel has not found its way, - what must human nature do, or
what has it done - for it has either not heard that all this was to take
place, or has not yet learned that it was accomplished - but believe in
God who made heaven and earth, by whom also it perceived by nature that it
had been created, and lead a right life, and thus accomplish His will,
uninstructed with any faith in the death and resurrection of Christ? Well,
if this could have been done, or can still be done, then for my part I have
to say what the apostle said in regard to the law: “Then Christ died in
vain.” For if he said this about the law, which only the nation of the Jews
received, how much more justly may it be said of the law of nature, which the
whole human race has received, “If righteousness come by nature, then Christ
died in vain.” If, however, Christ did not die in vain, then human nature cannot
by any means be justified and redeemed from God's most righteous wrath -
in a word, from punishment - except by the faith and the sacrament of the
blood of Christ” (On Nature and Grace 2) “22 But the scripture hath concluded all under
sin, that the promise, by the faith of Jesus Christ, might be
given to them that believe.” (Galatians 3) - Salvation only through God’s mercy - St. Prosper of Aquitaine: “God forbid that this
should ever enter Catholic minds! God forbid such ungodliness that we should
ever think that anyone “is delivered from the power of darkness and
translated into the kingdom of the Son of God” by an adoption which is a
reward he deserved and not a pure grace! Adam was lost by a grave sin
of his, and all men were lost in him. Eternal perdition is what is owing
in Adam to every man who is born from this cursed stem. And just as we
have no right to complain because in past ages God left all nations to
walk in their own ways, so also we would have no reason for complaint if
God even now withholding His grace allowed us to perish together with those
whose condition is the same as ours.” (Answers to the Genoese 6) “35 Or who hath first given to him, and
recompense shall be made him?” (Romans 11) St. John Marie Vianney: “The angels sin, and are
cast into Hell. Man sins, and God
promises him a Deliverer. What have
we done to deserve this favour?
What have we done to deserve to be born in the Catholic religion,
while so many souls are every day lost in other religions? What have we done to deserve to be
baptized, while so many little children in France, as well as in China and
America, die without baptism?” (The Little Catechism of the Curé of Ars)” St. Peter Julian Eymard: “Unfortunate are the
nations that do not live in the Church of Jesus Christ. They are like men outside the Ark at the
time of the flood. Outside the
Church, these poor travellers wander without a guide in the
desert. They are like a sailor on a
boat without either rudder or pilot.
Alas, unfortunate children, abandoned on the road, without a
mother to nourish and love them; they will soon die of cold and hunger! The gift of the Church as our mother
and teacher in the Faith is therefore the greatest grace Jesus Christ could
bestow upon us. And the greatest
charity we can do to a man is to lead him to the true Church, outside which
there is no salvation.” (Eucharistic Handbook) St. Thomas Aquinas: “Objection: It seems that man is not bound to believe
anything explicitly. For no man is bound to do what is not in his power.
Now it is not in man's power to believe a thing explicitly, for it is
written (Rom. x. 14, 15): How shall they believe Him, of whom they have
not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they
preach unless they be sent? Therefore man is not bound to believe anything
explicitly. Reply: As regards the primary points or articles of the
faith [such as on the Trinity and Incarnation], man is bound to believe
them, just as he is bound to have faith [i.e., absolutely]; but as to
other points of faith, man is not bound to believe them explicitly, but only
implicitly, or to be ready to believe them, in so far as he is ready to
believe whatever is contained in the Divine Scriptures. Then alone is he
bound to believe such things explicitly, when it is clear to him that they
are contained in the doctrine of faith. If we understand those things alone
to be in a man's power, which we can do without the help of grace, then we
are bound to do many things which we cannot do without the aid of healing
grace, such as to love God and our neighbour, and likewise to believe
the articles of faith. But with the help of grace we can do this, for
this help to whomsoever it is given from above it is mercifully given;
and from whom it is withheld it is justly withheld, as a punishment of a previous,
or at least of original sin, as Augustine states (De Corr. et Grat. v.,
vi.).” (Summa Theologica 2, 2, 2, 5) “27 All things are delivered to me by my Father.
And no one knoweth the Son, but the Father: neither doth any one know the
Father, but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal him.”
(St. Matthew 11) St. Augustine: “Why, then, does He not
teach all that they may come to Christ, except because all whom He teaches,
He teaches in mercy, while those whom He teaches not, in judgment He teaches
not? Since, “On whom He will He has mercy, and whom He will He
hardeneth.” But He has mercy when He gives good things. He hardens when
He recompenses what is deserved. […] And why He does not teach all men
the apostle explained, as far as he judged that it was to be explained,
because, “willing to show His wrath, and to exhibit His power, He endured
with much patience the vessels of wrath which were perfected for
destruction; and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the
vessels of mercy which He has prepared for glory.” Hence it is that the “word
of the cross is foolishness to them that perish; but unto them that are saved
it is the power of God.” God teaches all such to come to Christ, for
He wills all such to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. And
if He had willed to teach even those to whom the word of the cross is
foolishness to come to Christ beyond all doubt these also would have come.
For He neither deceives nor is deceived when He says, “Every one that hath
heard of the Father, and hath learned, cometh to me.”” (The
Predestination of the Saints 14, 15) “21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and
giveth life: so the Son also giveth life to whom he will.” (St. John
5) “19 He answered: I will shew thee all good, and I
will proclaim in the name of the Lord before thee: and I will have mercy
on whom I will, and I will be merciful to whom it shall please me.”
(Exodus 33) “14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice
with God? God forbid. 15 For he saith to Moses: I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy; and I will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy. 16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.” (Romans 9) “13 For it is God who worketh in you, both to
will and to accomplish, according to his good will.” (Philippians 2) “35 The will is prepared by the Lord.” (Proverbs
8 (LXX)) St. Augustine: “And when they [Pelagians] affect
to believe that God is a respecter of persons, because without any
antecedent merits of theirs “He hath mercy on whom he will,” and calls
whom He deigns to call and makes righteous whom He will, they overlook the
fact that a deserved penalty is meted out to the damned, an undeserved
grace to the saved, so that the former cannot complain that he is
undeserving nor the latter boast that he is deserving. Where one and the
same clay of damnation and offence [from Adam] is involved, there can be
no respect had of persons, so that the saved may learn from the lost that the
same punishment would have been his lot, also, if grace had not rescued him; if
it is grace, it is obviously not awarded for any merit, but bestowed as a
pure act of bounty. But, they object, “it is unjust in one and the same
case for this one to be saved and that one to be punished.” That means it
is just for both to be punished. Would anyone deny this?” (Letter 194, to
St. Sixtus) “21 Or hath not the potter power over the
clay, of the same lump, to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?”
(Romans 9) “2 I have loved you, saith the Lord: and you have
said: Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau brother to Jacob, saith the
Lord, and I have loved Jacob, 3 But have hated Esau? and I have made his
mountains a wilderness, and given his inheritance to the dragons of the
desert.” (Malachi 1) “11 For when the children were not yet born, nor
had done any good or evil (that the purpose of God, according to election,
might stand,) 12 Not of works, but of him that calleth, it was
said to her: The elder shall serve the younger. 13 As it is written: Jacob I have loved, but Esau
I have hated.” (Romans 9) St. Prosper of Aquitaine: “Just as He made us and
not we ourselves, so also He remakes us and not we ourselves. And lest man
may seem by his natural powers to repay the price of his reparation with his
works of justice, at least after he has been restored, we see the riches of
God's goodness poured out over the first moments of infants whom God does
not choose because of their piety whether before or after their baptism,
in whom He finds neither obedience, nor discernment, nor will. I speak of
those infants who are baptized at once after their birth and, taken away from
this life, are carried up into eternal happiness. And there is another countless
multitude of infants of the same nature and condition as the former
who die without baptism and of whom we may not doubt that they have no share
in the city of God.” (Letter, to Rufinus 12) St. Thomas Aquinas: “And so others said that
merits following the effect of predestination are the reason of
predestination; giving us to understand that God gives grace to a person, and
preordains that He will give it, because He knows beforehand that He will
make good use of that grace, as if a king were to give a horse to a
soldier because he knows he will make good use of it. But these seem to have
drawn a distinction between that which flows from grace, and that which flows
from free will, as if the same thing cannot come from both. It is, however,
manifest that what is of grace is the effect of predestination; and this
cannot be considered as the reason of predestination, since it is contained
in the notion of predestination. Therefore, if anything else in us be the
reason of predestination, it will lie outside the effect of predestination.
Now there is no distinction between what flows from free will, and what is of
predestination; as there is not distinction between what flows from a
secondary cause and from a first cause. For the providence of God produces
effects through the operation of secondary causes. Wherefore, that which
flows from free-will is also of predestination.” (Summa Theologica 1, 23, 5) “20 O man, who art thou that repliest against
God?” (Romans 9) - Faith is a gift not given to all - “15 Verily thou art the hidden God, the God of
Israel, the saviour.” (Isaiah 15) “2 For not all men have faith.” (II Thessalonians
3) St. Augustine: “Faith, then, as well in its beginning
as in its completion, is God's gift; and let no one have any doubt whatever,
unless he desires to resist the plainest sacred writings, that this gift
is given to some, while to some it is not given. But why it is not given
to all ought not to disturb the believer, who believes that from one all have
gone into a condemnation, which undoubtedly is most righteous; so that even
if none were delivered therefrom, there would be no just cause for finding
fault with God. Whence it is plain that it is a great grace for many to
be delivered, and to acknowledge in those that are not delivered what would
be due to themselves; so that he that glorieth may glory not in his own
merits, which he sees to be equalled in those that are condemned, but in
the Lord. But why He delivers one rather than another,--“His judgments are
unsearchable, and His ways past finding out.” For it is better in this case
for us to hear or to say, “O man, who art thou that repliest against God?”
than to dare to speak as if we could know what He has chosen to be kept
secret. Since, moreover, He could not will anything unrighteous.”
(Predestination of the Saints 16) “2 Looking on Jesus, the author and finisher of
faith.” (Hebrews 12) “7 For who maketh thee to differ
from another? Or what hast thou that thou hast not received? And if
thou hast received, why dost thou glory?” (I Corinthians 4) “26 That he himself may be just, and the
justifier of him, who is of the faith of Jesus Christ. 27 Where is then thy boasting? It is excluded.
By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.” (Romans 3) “5 Not that we are sufficient to think anything
of ourselves, as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is from God.” (II
Corinthians 3) “4 What then is Apollo, and what is Paul? 5 The ministers of him whom you have believed;
even as the Lord gave to every man. 6 I have planted, Apollo watered, but God gave
the increase.” (I Corinthians 3) “29 For unto you it is given for Christ,
not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him.” (Philippians 1) St. Prosper of Aquitaine: “One who does not admit
this, what opinion does he hold but that of the Pelagians: the faith that
makes me just, I have of my own; this excellent gift by which the just man
liveth, I did not receive from God's grace, I possess it by nature? But if
faith is not a gift of God, then it is senseless for the Church to pray for
unbelievers that they may believe, and it is enough to teach them the
law, of which yet St. Paul has written, “If justice be by the law, then
Christ died in vain”; and the same can be said of nature. It is meaningless
for the Apostle to give thanks to God for those who accepted the preaching of
the gospel, since, according to the Pelagians, their faith is not a gift of
God but a fruit of their own will.” (Answers to the Gauls, article 5) “3 We are bound to give thanks always to
God for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith groweth
exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you towards each other,
aboundeth.” (II Thessalonians 2) “26 And I will give you a new heart, and
put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out
of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit in the midst of you:
and I will cause you to walk in my commandments, and to keep my judgments,
and do them.” (Ezekiel 36) St. Augustine: “If faith is simply of free will,
and is not given by God, why do we pray for those who will not believe, that
they may believe? This it would be absolutely useless to do, unless we believe,
with perfect propriety, that Almighty God is able to turn to belief wills
that are perverse and opposed to faith. […] Nor can we possibly, without
extreme absurdity, maintain that there previously existed in any man the good
merit of a good will, to entitle him to the removal of his stony heart, when
all the while this very heart of stone signifies nothing else than a will of
the hardest kind and such as is absolutely inflexible against God? For
where a good will precedes, there is, of course, no longer a heart of stone.”
(Grace and Free Will 29, 30) St. Thomas Aquinas: “Man’s preparation for grace
is from God, as Mover, and from the free-will, as moved. Hence the
preparation may be looked at in two ways: first, as it is from free-will, and
thus there is no necessity that it should obtain grace, since the gift of
grace exceeds every preparation of human power. But it may be considered,
secondly, as it is from God the Mover, and thus it has a necessity---not
indeed of coercion, but of infallibility---as regards what it is
ordained to by God, since God's intention cannot fail, according to the
saying of Augustine in his book on the Predestination of the Saints (De Dono
Persev. xiv) that “by God's good gifts whoever is liberated, is most
certainly liberated.” Hence if God intends, while moving, that the one whose
heart He moves should attain to grace, he will infallibly attain to it,
according to Jn. 6:45: “Every one that hath heard of the Father, and hath
learned, cometh to Me.”” (Summa Theologica 1, 2, 112, 3) “21 Or hath not the potter power over the
clay, of the same lump, to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto
dishonour?” (Romans 9) St. Thomas Aquinas: “Blindness is a kind of
preamble to sin. Now sin has a twofold relation--to one thing directly, viz.
to the sinner's damnation--to another, by reason of God’s mercy or
providence, viz. that the sinner may be healed, in so far as God permits some
to fall into sin, that by acknowledging their sin, they may be humbled and
converted, as Augustine states (De Nat. et Grat. xxii). Therefore blindness,
of its very nature, is directed to the damnation of those who are blinded;
for which reason it is accounted an effect of reprobation. But, through
God's mercy, temporary blindness is directed medicinally to the spiritual
welfare of those who are blinded. This mercy, however, is not vouchsafed to
all those who are blinded, but only to the predestinated, to whom ‘all things
work together unto good’ (Romans 8:28). Therefore as regards some,
blindness is directed to their healing; but as regards others, to their
damnation; as Augustine says (De Quaest. Evang. iii). Every evil that God
does, or permits to be done, is directed to some good; yet not always to the
good of those in whom the evil is, but sometimes to the good of others, or of
the whole universe: thus He directs the sin of tyrants to the good of the
martyrs, and the punishment of the lost to the glory of His justice. God does
not take pleasure in the loss of man, as regards the loss itself, but by
reason of His justice, or of the good that ensues from the loss.” (Summa
Theologica 1, 2, 79, 4) St. Thomas Aquinas: “God does reprobate some. For
it was said above that predestination is a part of providence. To providence,
however, it belongs to permit certain defects in those things which are
subject to providence, as was said above. Thus, as men are ordained to
eternal life through the providence of God, it likewise is part of that
providence to permit some to fall away from that end; this is called
reprobation. Thus, as predestination is a part of providence, in regard
to those ordained to eternal salvation, so reprobation is a part of
providence in regard to those who turn aside from that end. Hence reprobation
implies not only foreknowledge, but also something more, as does
providence, as was said above. Therefore, as predestination includes the will
to confer grace and glory; so also reprobation includes the will to permit
a person to fall into sin, and to impose the punishment of damnation on account
of that sin.” (Summa Theologica 1, 23, 3) St. Prosper of Aquitaine: ““Not all men are
called to grace.” To say that all men, that is, all men to whom the gospel is
announced, are not called to grace, is not a correct way of speaking, even
though some of them do not obey the gospel call. It can only be said that
not all men are called if those also are included to whom the mystery of the
cross of Christ and of our redemption in His blood has not yet been announced.
Suppose even that the whole world and every country have already heard the
preaching of the gospel (that it will be so, an infallible prophecy has
foretold): there yet can be no doubt that from the time of our Lord's
resurrection till today many have died without having known the gospel.
Of these we may say that they were not called, since they never heard of
the hope to which we are called. And if anyone says that the universality
of the call was always so public and so full that, from our Lord’s ascension
on, there was not a single year in which the preaching of the gospel failed
to reach all men, then he should explain how the Asiatics also shared in that
call at the moment when, according to Holy Scripture, the apostles were
forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the divine word in Asia; or the people
of Bithynia at the moment when the same apostles tried to go and preach to
them and were not allowed to do so by the Spirit of Jesus.” (Answers to
the Gauls, article 4) “5 And the churches were confirmed in faith, and
increased in number daily. 6 And when they had passed through Phrygia, and
the country of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach
the word in Asia. 7 And when they were come into Mysia, they
attempted to go into Bythynia, and the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not. 8 And when they had passed through Mysia, they
went down to Troas. 9 And a vision was shewed to Paul in the night,
which was a man of Macedonia standing and beseeching him, and saying: Pass
over into Macedonia, and help us. 10 And as soon as he had seen the vision,
immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, being assured that God had called
us to preach the gospel to them.” (Acts 16) St. Prosper of Aquitaine: “Hence, when the
apostles began to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, Holy Scripture reports
of one section of those who heard them preach: And the Gentiles hearing
were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to
life everlasting believed. And elsewhere it says, when many women
listened to Paul’s preaching: A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of
purple, of the city of Thyatira, one that worshiped God, did hear: whose
heart the Lord opened to attend to those things which were said by Paul. And
again, at the very moment that the preachers of the gospel were sent out to
all the nations, the apostles were forbidden to go to certain regions by Him
who will have all men to he saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,
with the result, of course, that many, detained and going astray during this
delay of the gospel, died without having known the truth and without having
been sanctified in baptism. Let, then, Holy Scripture say what happened: And
when they had passed through Phrygia and the country of Galatia, they were
forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. And when they
were come into Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit
of Jesus suffered them not. Is there any wonder that at the very
beginning of the preaching of the gospel the apostles could not go except
where the Spirit of God wanted them to go, when even now we see that many
of the nations only begin to have a share in the Christian grace, while
others have not yet got a glimpse of that divine gift? Or should we
say that the wills of men obstruct the will of God, that those peoples are of
such wild and fierce ways that the reason why they do not hear the gospel is
that their ungodly hearts are not ready for its preaching? But who else
changed the hearts of believers but He who hath made the hearts of every
one of them?” (Letter to Rufinus 11-14) St. Prosper of Aquitaine: “OBJECTION: The Lord
withholds from some men the message of the gospel, lest hearing it they be
saved. ANSWER: If you can prove that from the time when the Gospel began to
be preached there has been no one who failed to hear the message of Christian
grace, then it would be wrong to say that the message thus proved to have
been announced to all was not announced to all. But if in some way there are still
men who have not heard the gospel message, then you cannot say that this
happened without a hidden judgment of God, which it would be wrong to
blame because it transcends your understanding. […] Likewise, he who says that the Lord withholds from some men the
message of the gospel, lest hearing it they be saved, can escape the odium of
the objection by invoking the authority of the Saviour Himself. He did not
want to work miracles among people who, He said, would have believed had they
seen them. He forbade His apostles to preach to some nations, and He still
allows other nations to live untouched by His grace. Yet, we actually
know with a firm faith that the Church shall spread to all parts of the world
and that the world shall not end before the gospel has been announced in all
regions of the earth.” (Answers to the Gauls, article 10; qualification to
article 10) “8 And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:
Whom shall I send? and who shall go for us? And I said: Lo, here am I, send
me. 9 And he said: Go, and thou shalt say to this
people: Hearing, hear, and understand not: and see the vision, and know it
not. 10 Blind the heart of this people, and make
their ears heavy, and shut their eyes: lest they see with their eyes, and
hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted and I
heal them. 11 And I said: How long, O Lord? And he said:
Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man,
and the land shall be left desolate.” (Isaias 6) St. Augustine: “In this general mass of perdition
are the Jews also left, who could not believe so great and manifest
wonders wrought before their eyes.
And the cause wherefore they could not believe, the Gospel hath
not hidden, speaking thus; Though he did so great miracles before them,
yet could they not believe, as Esaias said, I have blinded their eyes, and
hardened their heart.” (The Gift of Perseverance 10) “37 And whereas he had done so many miracles
before them, they believed not in him: 38 That the saying of Isaias the prophet might be
fulfilled, which he said: Lord, who hath believed our hearing? and to whom
hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? 39 Therefore they could not believe,
because Isaias said again: 40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened
their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with
their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. 41 These things said Isaias, when he saw his
glory, and spoke of him.” (St. John 12) St. Augustine: “When, therefore, the gospel is
preached, some believe, some believe not; but they who believe at the voice
of the preacher from without, hear of the Father from within, and learn;
while they who do not believe, hear outwardly, but inwardly do not hear nor
learn;--that is to say, to the former it is given to believe; to the latter
it is not given. Because “no man,” says He, “cometh to me, except the
Father which sent me draw him.”” (Predestination of the Saints 15) “42 And they said: Is not this Jesus, the son of
Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then saith he, I came down from
heaven? 43 Jesus therefore answered, and said to them:
Murmur not among yourselves. |