{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1051004.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1051004.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1051004.htm","text":"Chapter 20 [IX.]\u2014Some are Children of God According to Grace Temporally Received, Some According to God\u2019s Eternal Foreknowledge.\nNor let it disturb us that to some of His children God does not give this perseverance. Be this far from being so, however, if these were of those who are predestinated and called according to His purpose,\u2014who are truly the children of the promise. For the former, while they live piously, are called children of God; but because they will live wickedly, and die in that impiety, the foreknowledge of God does not call them God\u2019s children. For they are children of God whom as yet we have not, and God has already, of whom the Evangelist John says, \u201cthat Jesus should die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God which were scattered abroad;\u201d 3313 and this certainly they were to become by believing, through the preaching of the gospel. And yet before this had happened they had already been enrolled as sons of God with unchangeable stedfastness in the memorial of their Father. And, again, there are some who are called by us children of God on account of grace received even in temporal things, yet are not so called by God; of whom the same John says, \u201cThey went out from us, but they were not of us, because if they had been of us they would, no doubt, have continued with us.\u201d 3314 He does not say, \u201cThey went out from us, but because they did not abide with us they are no longer now of us;\u201d but he says, \u201cThey went out from us, but they were not of us,\u201d\u2014that is to say, even when they appeared among us, they were not of us. And as if it were said to him, p. 480 Whence do you prove this? he says, \u201cBecause if they had been of us, they would assuredly have continued with us.\u201d 3315 It is the word of God\u2019s children; John is the speaker, who was ordained to a chief place among the children of God. When, therefore, God\u2019s children say of those who had not perseverance, \u201cThey went out from us, but they were not of us,\u201d and add, \u201cBecause if they had been of us, they would assuredly have continued with us,\u201d what else do they say than that they were not children, even when they were in the profession and name of children? Not because they simulated righteousness, but because they did not continue in it. For he does not say, \u201cFor if they had been of us, they would assuredly have maintained a real and not a feigned righteousness with us;\u201d but he says, \u201cIf they had been of us, they would assuredly have continued with us.\u201d Beyond a doubt, he wished them to continue in goodness. Therefore they were in goodness; but because they did not abide in it,\u2014that is, they did not persevere unto the end,\u2014he says, They were not of us, even when they were with us,\u2014that is, they were not of the number of children, even when they were in the faith of children; because they who are truly children are foreknown and predestinated as conformed to the image of His Son, and are called according to His purpose, so as to be elected. For the son of promise does not perish, but the son of perdition. 3316\nJohn 11:51, 52.\n479:3314 480:3315 480:3316","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on Reb...","type":"page"}