Peter and Paul were unrighteous; therefore, according to present grace, they were not righteous. This conclusion is true. As it was properly conceded that they were righteous according to the grace of predestination and were not righteous according to present grace, so, in a similar way, Paul was one of the faithful in view of predestination and one of the unfaithful by reason of his persecution, an Israelite by predestination and a blasphemer by the law of present unrighteousness, was in the love of predestination and yet was without grace, that is, without the love of present righteousness.
Paul's own words, drawn from Hosea, confirm this: "I will call that my people which was not my people, and her my beloved that was not my beloved; and her to have acquired mercy which did not acquire mercy, and in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there shall they be called the sons of the living God," Romans 9:25, 27. Hence it is evident that this Scripture and other Scripture like it are not understood except by those who know that there is not a contradiction, unless opposites are predicated of the same person according to the same thing and for the same instant of time. Those who know how to carry on such discussion acknowledge that Christ was both dead and alive during the three days; yea, as Ambrose says: "He was dead and was not dead, for he lived in the spirit and was dead in the flesh; died as a man and did not die as God." So the apostle says, I Tim. 5:6, that "a widow living in pleasure is dead while she liveth," because she lives in the flesh but does not live in the spirit. It is clear that neither what is contrary nor self-contradictory follows.
Finally, to sum up what has been said, it is evident that no reprobate is truly a part of holy mother church. For, if St. Thomas[1] or any one else should be found to call a reprobate who is in grace a member of the church, then he is speaking ambiguously with Augustine and sacred Scripture, giving
- ↑ Thomas Aquinas, the angelic doctor, d. 1274.
