{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1051069.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1051069.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1051069.htm","text":"Chapter 33.\u2014It is in the Power of Evil Men to Sin; But to Do This or That by Means of that Wickedness is in God\u2019s Power Alone.\nMoreover, it was this that he had in view when he said, \u201cThe gifts and calling of God are without repentance.\u201d 3515 And in that saying also consider for a little what was its purport. For when he had said, \u201cFor I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, that ye may not be wise in yourselves, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel should be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Sion one who shall deliver, and turn away impiety from Jacob: and this is the p. 514 covenant to them from me, when I shall take away their sins;\u201d 3516 he immediately added, what is to be very carefully understood, \u201cAs concerning the gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your sakes: but as concerning the election, they are beloved for their fathers\u2019 sakes.\u201d 3517 What is the meaning of, \u201cas concerning the gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your sake,\u201d but that their enmity wherewith they put Christ to death was, without doubt, as we see, an advantage to the gospel? And he shows that this came about by God\u2019s ordering, who knew how to make a good use even of evil things; not that the vessels of wrath might be of advantage to Him, but that by His own good use of them they might be of advantage to the vessels of mercy. For what could be said more plainly than what is actually said, \u201cAs concerning the gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your sakes\u201d? It is, therefore, in the power of the wicked to sin; but that in sinning they should do this or that by that wickedness is not in their power, but in God\u2019s, who divides the darkness and regulates it; so that hence even what they do contrary to God\u2019s will is not fulfilled except it be God\u2019s will. We read in the Acts of the Apostles that when the apostles had been sent away by the Jews, and had come to their own friends, and shown them what great things the priests and elders said to them, they all with one consent lifted up their voices to the Lord and said, \u201cLord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein; who, by the mouth of our father David, thy holy servant, hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes were gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ. For in truth, there have assembled together in this city against Thy holy child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, Herod and Pilate, and the people of Israel, to do whatever Thy hand and counsel predestinated to be done.\u201d 3518 See what is said: \u201cAs concerning the gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your sakes.\u201d Because God\u2019s hand and counsel predestinated such things to be done by the hostile Jews as were necessary for the gospel, for our sakes. But what is it that follows? \u201cBut as concerning the election, they are beloved for their fathers\u2019 sakes.\u201d For are those enemies who perished in their enmity and those of the same people who still perish in their opposition to Christ,\u2014are those chosen and beloved? Away with the thought! Who is so utterly foolish as to say this? But both expressions, although contrary to one another\u2014that is, \u201cenemies\u201d and \u201cbeloved\u201d\u2014are appropriate, though not to the same men, yet to the same Jewish people, and to the same carnal seed of lsrael, of whom some belonged to the falling away, and some to the blessing of Israel himself. For the apostle previously explained this meaning more clearly when he said, \u201cThat which lsrael wrought for, he hath not obtained; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded?\u201d 3519 Yet in both cases it was the very same Israel. Where, therefore, we hear, \u201cIsrael hath not obtained,\u201d or, \u201cThe rest were blinded,\u201d there are to be understood the enemies for our sakes; but where we hear, \u201cthat the election hath obtained it,\u201d there are to be understood the beloved for their father\u2019s sakes, to which fathers those things were assuredly promised; because \u201cthe promises were made to Abraham and his seed,\u201d 3520 whence also in that olive-tree is grafted the wild olive-tree of the Gentiles. Now subsequently we certainly ought to fall in with the election, of which he says that it is according to grace, not according to debt, because \u201cthere was made a remnant by the election of grace\u201d 3521 This election obtained it, the rest being blinded. As concerning this election, the Israelites were beloved for the sake of their fathers. For they were not called with that calling of which it is said, \u201cMany are called,\u201d but with that whereby the chosen are called. Whence also after he had said, \u201cBut as concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers\u2019 sakes,\u201d he went on to add those words whence this discussion arose: \u201cFor the gifts and calling of God are without repentance,\u201d\u2014that is, they are firmly established without change. Those who belong to this calling are all teachable by God; nor can any of them say, \u201cI believed in order to being thus called,\u201d because the mercy of God anticipated him, because he was so called in order that he might believe. For all who are teachable of God come to the Son because they have heard and learned from the Father through the Son, who most clearly says, \u201cEvery one who has heard of the Father, and has learned, cometh unto me.\u201d 3522 But of such as these none perishes, because \u201cof all that the Father hath given Him, He will lose none.\u201d 3523 Whoever, therefore, is of these does not perish at all; nor was any who perishes ever of these. For which reason it is said, \u201cThey went out from among us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would certainly have continued with us.\u201d 3524\nRom. xi. 25 ff.\n514:3517 514:3518\nActs iv. 24 ff.\n514:3519 514:3520 514:3521 514:3522 514:3523 514:3524","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on the...","type":"page"}