Page:The Church, by John Huss.pdf/96

44 dred and fifty and three great fishes, caught on the right side of the boat, stand for the predestinate, amongst whom, other things being equal, are the greater ones who teach and do God's commandments.

As for the fifth proof from the Gospel: "He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit, etc.," it is conceded that holy church is the Lord's threshing-floor in which are now mingled together in virtue of faith the good and the bad, predestinate and reprobate; the predestinate as the wheat, and the reprobate as the chaff. The first shall be gathered into the heavenly garner, the rest burnt with fire unquenchable, as say the Gospel and Augustine's exposition. And as the chaff always remains chaff, so a reprobate always remains reprobate, even though for a time he may be in grace according to present righteousness. Nevertheless, he is never a part of holy church. And just as the wheat always remains wheat, so the predestinate always remains predestinate and a member of the church, howbeit for a time he may fall away from accidental grace, but never from the grace of predestination. On this subject Augustine, 32: 4, C. Recurrat [Friedberg, 1: 1127], thus expresses himself: "Therefore, whether they seem to be turned over within or are evidently outside, what is flesh is flesh; or whether they continue in their sterility on the threshing-floor or are carried away on occasion of temptation as by a wind without, what is chaff is chaff; and he will always be separated from the unity of the church, which is without spot and wrinkle, who continues in carnal obduracy and is mingled with the company of the saints. Nevertheless, of no one should we despair, neither of him who appears to be of this kind and is within, nor of him who is outside and is more manifestly whirled about." Thus much Augustine.