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Objection 1: It would seem that Christ's predestination is not the
cause of ours. For that which is eternal has no cause. But our
predestination is eternal. Therefore Christ's predestination is not
the cause of ours.
Objection 2: Further, that which depends on the simple will of God
has no other cause but God's will. Now, our predestination depends
on the simple will of God, for it is written (Eph. 1:11):
"Being predestinated according to the purpose of Him, Who worketh
all things according to the counsel of His will." Therefore
Christ's predestination is not the cause of ours.
Objection 3: Further, if the cause be taken away, the effect is
also taken away. But if we take away Christ's predestination, ours
is not taken away; since even if the Son of God were not incarnate,
our salvation might yet have been achieved in a different manner, as
Augustine says (De Trin. xiii, 10). Therefore Christ's
predestination is. not the cause of ours.
On the contrary, It is written (Eph. 1:5): "(Who) hath
predestinated us unto the adoption of children through Jesus
Christ."
I answer that, if we consider predestination on the part of the very
act of predestinating, then Christ's predestination is not the cause
of ours; because by one and the same act God predestinated both
Christ and us. But if we consider predestination on the part of its
term, thus Christ's predestination is the cause of ours: for God,
by predestinating from eternity, so decreed our salvation, that it
should be achieved through Jesus Christ. For eternal predestination
covers not only that which is to be accomplished in time, but also the
mode and order in which it is to be accomplished in time.
Replies OBJ 1 and 2: These arguments consider predestination on
the part of the act of predestinating.
Reply to Objection 3: If Christ were not to have been incarnate,
God would have decreed men's salvation by other means. But since He
decreed the Incarnation of Christ, He decreed at the same time that
He should be the cause of our salvation.
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