MEDITATIONS ON CHRISTIAN DOGMA TREATISE I. GOD. 31. REPROBATION.
Our Lady of the Assumption with Sts Miniato and Julian
1450
TREATISE I. GOD.
31. REPROBATION.
I. Reprobation is the decree of exclusion from heaven
passed by God on those who, as He sees, will be obstinate
in sin and die impenitent. It is not that it pleases God to
condemn the creatures whom He loves ; it is not that He
exercises a right of excluding creatures from that which
they have no claim to. " God made not death, neither hath
He pleasure in the destruction of the living" (Wisd. i. 13).
God is unable to do wrong, to be a source of evil, to be unjust, harsh, arbitrary. Only Calvinism has dared to assert
such a thing. Reprobation is this, that God, who foresees
all things, foresees also from eternity the wilful self-destruction of some of His creatures. He foresees their revolt,
their turning from Him, and His turning from them which
is involved in it. He permits this determination of their
free-will ; and the prevision and ratification of it is called the
decree of God. He cannot do otherwise. He cannot but
foresee according to facts, as we cannot see differently from
the facts that occur before our eyes. God s foresight no
more necessitates the event than does our remembrance of
a past event. Our remembrance is unalterable, but it is not
that which makes the past event unalterable. This terrible
secret God knows about you. He sees you at this moment
as you will be a hundred years hence. Pray that it be a
prevision of eternal life and not of death. " My lots are
in Thy hands" (Ps. xxx. 16).
II. The decree of reprobation is not passed in consequence of our fall in Adam ; for that we are not responsible
and deserve no punishment. Nor is it decreed against us
simply for our sins ; for the present dispensation is a system
for regenerating all sinners, whatever they may have done.
God loves us for our very weakness ; the quality of sinners
is one that touches His heart more than that of innocence
even ; and He desires our salvation the more earnestly, if it
be possible, as we deserve it less. We have the proof oi
this in the parable of the Prodigal Son. Judas might have
found a place in heaven as well as St. Peter, the bad thief
as well as the penitent. Reprobation is the consequence
only of obduracy, hardness of heart, persistence in refusing
the pardon which is offered even up to the last instant of
life. In fact many a lost soul has enjoyed more abundant
and greater graces than some now in heaven ; and among
the blessed are some who have been more grievous sinners
than some of the lost. But " a hard heart shall fear evil
at the last, and he that loveth the danger shall perish in it "
(Eccli. iii. 27). Take care not to harden your heart ; it
may easily grow to a final and fatal hardening.
III. Why has God allowed the reprobate to come into
existence ? To prevent their existence would be to carry
on the natural order by a series of supernatural interferences ; and no one would object more to such a thing than
the enemies of God themselves. Miracles are rare events ;
they too occur in accordance with law, and require an adequate cause to produce them, such as prayer, the merits
of a holy life, the need of proving a word of God. The
reprobate do not furnish an adequate cause for miracles.
Fidelity to small graces induces greater ones ; obstinate
resistance to abundant grace and evidence tends to dry up
the stream rather than to promote a more copious flow. It
is surely enough for the obstinate sinner that he has the
power of escaping from the sentence of reprobation, and
that God is ready to help him if he only cares for help. It
is for him to accommodate himself to the general laws of
being, and not for the whole course of nature to be continually modified in deference to his perversity. The ways of
God are inscrutable to your limited vision. Do not expect
to penetrate them in this life. Wait with humble faith for
the revelation of God s secrets, and say, " I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall appear (Ps. xvi. 15).
MEDITATIONS ON CHRISTIAN DOGMA BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES BELLORD, D.D.
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