Chapter V — On the fewness of the Elect, and the multitude of the Reprobate

I. If those alone are saved who are conformed to Christ the Lord, and who crucify the flesh with its concupiscences, it is plain to the eye that their number is small. Be not therefore disturbed if, of the many who come to you imploring absolution from their sins, few are truly contrite; for few are the elect.

II. The discourse is of adult Catholics. That the multitude of the elect, considered absolutely, is innumerable, all confess. The dispute is about the number of the elect in comparison with the reprobate. This comparison being made, the Scriptures and all the Fathers, both the ancient ones and those nearest to us, affirm that the former are few, the latter very many.

III. The oracles of Christ in Matthew 7 are lucid: Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. And immediately, moved as it were to wonder, he exclaims: How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that enter by it! What then follows? Beware of false prophets — namely, of false masters, who speak soft and pleasing things, who under the mask of benignity adulterate the testimony of Christ: for some wrongly blurt out that in this saying only Infidels and Heretics are comprehended — the whole tradition of the Fathers crying out against them.

IV. Christ the Lord confirms this his truth in Luke, chapter 13, where, to one asking whether they are few that are saved, he answered: Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. Who does not shudder at these words, says St. Augustine: They shall seek to enter, and shall not be able? Worldly men, given over to dissolutions and to the spacious way, seek once, twice, thrice every year to enter the narrow way of chastity, of justice, of penance — but in vain. Today they confess, and after a few days they relapse into the spacious and broad way of the vices. All these seek to enter, but in very truth they do not enter. But the parable which the Evangelist immediately subjoins in the same place explains this truth more lucidly; for St. Luke continues thus: But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand without, and knock at the door, saying: Lord, open to us. And he answering, shall say to you: I know you not, whence you are. Then you shall begin to say: We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. And he shall say to you: I know you not, whence you are: depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.

V. Who are they that eat and drink the most holy Body and Blood of the Lord, if not Priests and Christians? The discourse, then, is not of Infidels and Heretics, but of domestic Catholics, workers of iniquity. Another parable, in Matthew 13, comes to the same point: Behold the sower went forth to sow. And whilst he soweth some fell by the way side... And other some fell upon stony ground... And others fell among thorns... And others fell upon good ground... He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. The seed is the word of God. Only a fourth part fell upon good ground; the remaining three, by the wayside, among the stones, and among the thorns. This is the explanation of Christ the Lord himself, saying in Luke 8: The seed is the word of God. And they by the way side are they that hear: then the devil cometh, and taketh the word out of their heart, lest believing they should be saved. The faith here spoken of is not that by which we become faithful, but that by which we attain salvation. When Preachers and Directors of souls interpret the said parables to the faithful of Christ, and persuade them to abstain from dances, from games, from comedies, and from the other illusions of the raving world, how many do they find who believe? How many give them credence? Either they deride them, hiss at them, and traduce them as Rigorists, Jansenists, and Fanatics; or, despising them, they go to the benign Casuists, from whom they may receive soft liniments, and run the more swiftly along the broad and spacious way. But let us transcribe the other part of the parable: Now they upon the rock, are they who when they hear, receive the word with joy: and these have no roots; for they believe for a while, and in time of temptation, they fall away. And that which fell among thorns, are they who have heard, and going their way, are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and yield no fruit. But that on the good ground, are they who in a good and perfect heart, hearing the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience. Thus far Christ the Lord. Could Christians be more lucidly described — who, often coming both to sermons and to the sacraments, seduced by the thorns of riches, by the solicitudes of the present life, and by the illusions of pleasures, render the word of God sterile? Is it not evident by manifest experience that these are very many, and that they are few who, in a good and perfect heart hearing the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience? These last words must be weighed with the utmost attention, for they declare that it is by no means enough to abstain from vices, as many do, either from fear and worldly respect, or from natural disposition; but that there must moreover be brought forth the fruit of good works, in patience and humility. Not only is that ground reprobate and accursed which puts forth thorns, thistles, and cockle, but also that which does not bear the wheat answering to the seed that was sown, as Christ the Lord expounds more evidently in another parable, Matthew 25.

VI. The ten Virgins, of whom five were foolish, manifest more clearly what has been said. The five reprobate ones were not harlots, not unchaste women, but virgins. They are not accused of harlotry, nor of theft, nor of trafficking. Their crime, according to St. Gregory, was interior elation; and according to Chrysostom, negligence and a certain species of avarice. They wanted oil from their companions for nothing, and only then went to the sellers when the time for buying had passed. Who now, with benign probability, would not excuse them from crime and place them among the elect? Yet at the tribunal of Christ, elation, pride, and the omission of good works are crimes for which the foolish Virgins and foolish Christians are reprobated. No less tremendous is that other parable, Luke 18, where God depicts the reprobate in these words: O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican. I fast twice in a week: I give tithes of all that I possess. He does not ascribe his good works to his own powers, since he gives thanks to God. The works were good, if they be regarded in themselves as they really were, for he is not convicted of lying. What then was his crime? A most hidden self-love, elation, and complacency in his own good works, and contempt of other men as sinners. In the books of many Casuists these vices are scarcely to be found; but in the books of the Gospels these are the crimes for which very many men are damned.

VII. Let St. Paul the Apostle set the seal upon these sacred oracles, who says in 1 Corinthians, chapter 9: All run indeed, but one receiveth the prize. Then in chapter 10 he adds these words: For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea: and did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; (and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.) But with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the desert. Now these things were done in a figure of us, that we should not covet evil things as they also coveted... Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ: as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither do you murmur: as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall.

VIII. All were baptized, all ate the same food, all drank the same drink. But with most of them God was not well pleased. Will anyone chatter that Paul speaks of Infidels? All Catholics are baptized; all eat the same most holy food and drink the same drink; all in common frequent the same sacraments. But with most of them, says the Apostle, God was not well pleased — as their morals make plain. St. Thomas writes many things on this testimony of Paul, lectures 1 and 2: With most of them God was not well pleased — with those, namely, who offended God; but only with two, namely Caleb and Josue, to whom alone it was granted to obtain the land of promise... And it is to be noted that, as in good things that which is figured is far better than the figure itself — as the kingdom of heaven than the land of promise — so in evil things that which is figured is far worse than the figure which signifies it. And according to Augustine, those punishments which they endured were a figure of gehenna, which is greater than every punishment.

IX. All the Fathers of every age defend the fewness of the elect in comparison with the reprobate. I shall touch upon a few testimonies. St. Augustine, on Psalm 47, writes as follows: Now all who partake of his sacraments are counted the people of God; but not all pertain to the mercy of God. All, indeed, who receive the Sacrament of Baptism are called Christians; but not all live worthily of that sacrament. For there are some of whom the Apostle says: Having an appearance of godliness, but denying the power thereof; yet on account of that very appearance of godliness they are numbered among the people of God — just as to the threshing-floor, so long as the threshing lasts, pertains not only the grain but also the chaff; but will it also pertain to the barn? (It is evident that Augustine here speaks of Catholics.) For the thorns themselves do not pertain to the people of God. Will you hear? Thus is the similitude itself set down. As the lily, he says, among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters. He did not say, among strangers, but among the daughters... There are, then, evil daughters: and among them is the lily in the midst of thorns. Therefore those who have the Sacraments and have not good morals are both called God's and not God's, both called his and aliens: his, on account of his own sacrament; aliens, on account of their own vice. Thus daughters, and aliens: daughters, on account of the form of godliness; aliens, on account of the loss of virtue. Let the lily be there: let it receive the mercy of God: let it hold the root of the good flower: let it not be ungrateful to the rain that cometh from heaven. Let the thorns be ungrateful: let them grow from the showers — they grow for the fire, not for the barn... Now here it occurs to everyone who reflects: And what? this people which in the midst of the people of God receives the mercy of God — how great a number has it? How few they are! Scarcely are any found. Will God be content with them, and will he destroy so great a multitude? They say this who promise you what they have not heard from God promising. And truly, if we live ill, if we thoroughly enjoy the delights of this world, if we serve our lusts, God will destroy us. For how many are they who seem to keep the precepts of God? Scarcely is one found, or two, or a very few. Will God deliver these alone, and damn the rest? Far be it, say they. When he shall come and shall see so great a multitude at his left hand, he will have mercy, and will grant indulgence. This, in truth, is what that serpent also promised the first man. For God had threatened death, if he should taste; but the serpent said: Far be it — you shall not die the death. They believed the serpent; they found true what God had threatened, false what the Devil had promised. So also now, brethren: set the Church before your eyes after the pattern and similitude of Paradise. The serpent does not cease to suggest what he then suggested. But the fall of the first man ought to avail us as a warning for caution, not as a model for sinning. He fell for this, that we might rise. Let us answer such suggestions as he answered [who conquered]. For him too the tempter assailed through a woman, as through Eve — and he who conquered in Paradise was conquered on the dunghill. Let us not, then, listen to such voices; nor let us think the just are few. They are many, but they lie hidden among the more numerous. Nor can we deny that the wicked are more — so many more, that among them the good do not appear at all, just as the grains do not appear on the threshing-floor. For whoever sees the threshing-floor may think that there is only chaff. Take a man without experience, and he thinks it is done in vain that the oxen are sent in, that men sweat there under the heat in order to thresh; but there is the mass to be purged by winnowing. Then comes forth the abundance of wheat, which lay hidden in the abundance of chaff.

X. They who dare to champion the petty opinion, born with the laxer Ethics, of the plurality of the elect and the fewness of the reprobate, set themselves against the Gospel, against Augustine, and against the whole tradition of the Fathers. St. Augustine holds his discourse concerning Catholics dwelling in the bosom of the Church. Of these he teaches that the elect are few and the reprobate more numerous. He compares the Church with the threshing-floor, the elect with the wheat, the reprobate with the chaff. The grains of wheat are many; but the chaff so exceeds them that the grains scarcely appear. He objects to himself the greatness of the divine mercy: We have received thy mercy, O God, in the midst of thy temple. Upon this text of David he builds his sermon, and proves that the mercy of God is infinite, but that Christians for the greater part abuse it. Those who multiply the elect — not because these lead a well-ordered life, but because the mercy of God is great — he likens to the serpent persuading our first parents: You shall not die the death. They believed him, and met their death. Very many Christians believe the Benignists who pledge them entrance into Paradise, and they experience the damnation which God threatens, and find false what the Benignists pledge. As it happened then, so also now, brethren — concludes Augustine. The holy Doctor writes similar things in Sermon 18 on the words of the Lord, chapter 19; likewise in Book 10 against Faustus, chapter 16; and again on Psalm 25; Sermon 32 on the words of the Lord; Book 1 against the Donatists, chapter 2; and elsewhere. The doctrine of Augustine is defended by the other Fathers: St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 33; St. Ambrose, in the book on Noe, chapter 2; St. John Chrysostom, Homily 11 to the people of Antioch; St. Gregory the Great, Homily 29 on the Gospels; St. Jerome, or the Author of the Epistle to Celantia; St. Thomas, I, q. 23, art. 7. Read the illustrious Foggini, in the work published not long ago on this matter.¹

¹ See Tome I, Apparatus, Book 1, Dissertation 2, chapter 7.

XI. The smooth-spoken and benign men press on, exaggerating the divine mercy and crying aloud that Christ the Lord died for all. What follows thence? This quibble proves either nothing, or that no one perishes. They din our ears with the claim that the Fathers, when they assert the number of the elect to be small, comprehend the whole human race. They who prate such things have not read the Fathers. Augustine has already, above, demolished their invention. But, to stop their mouths altogether, let Augustine come forward once more, who on Psalm 73 in this fashion rebukes and refutes these Benignists, who sew cushions under every elbow: There was as yet no example of human fall when it was said to Adam: Thou shalt die the death, if thou touch it. And the serpent came athwart and said: Thou shalt not die the death. The serpent was believed; God was despised. The forbidden thing was done; man died. Was not that rather fulfilled which God threatened, than what the Enemy had promised? So it is, assuredly: we acknowledge this: therefore we are all now born either into death or experiencing it. For even now the serpent does not cease to whisper and to say: Will God really damn such great Crowds? will he deliver only a few? What else is this but: Do against the commandment — you shall not die the death? But as it was then, so also now. If you do what the devil suggests, and despise what God commands, the day of judgment will come, and you will find true what God threatened, and false what the Devil promised. Arise, O Lord, judge my cause: thou hast died, and thou hast been despised.

XII. I shall touch upon a few weighty reasons. The way is narrow. It is trodden either by the innocent or by the penitent. Rare is innocence; rare is penance. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence. A state that does violence to flesh and blood belongs to few. For things that are difficult have place in the fewer, as is known by experience. But most difficult is the attainment of the eternal kingdom. Therefore few arrive there. The elect must needs be conformed to Christ: Whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son. But few are they who display this conformity and likeness. For, as the Apostle says to the Philippians, chapter 2, all seek the things that are their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's.

XIII. The Fathers teach that a great part of Priests also perish eternally. Chrysostom, in Homily 3 on the Acts of the Apostles, says: I do not think that among Priests there are many who are saved, but that far more are they who perish. St. Jerome, in the epistle to Damasus, writes these words: Behold, the world everywhere teems with Priests; yet good Priests are most rare, so that out of a hundred scarcely one good one is found. The weighty reasons are plain. Few are initiated into the priesthood at God's calling, but very many with the hope of gain and dignity enticing them. Holy Scripture more frequently reproves and chides Priests than the people. God refutes the Priests in Ezechiel, chapter 13: They have deceived my people, saying: Peace, and there is no peace. Against the Priests he inveighs: Woe to them that sew cushions under every elbow: and make pillows for the heads of persons of every age, to catch souls. And when they caught the souls of my people, they gave life to their souls. And they violated me among my people, for a handful of barley, and a piece of bread, to kill souls which should not die. Finally, Christ the Lord most severely refutes the Doctors, Priests, and Theologians, saying in Matthew 15: Let them alone: they are blind, and leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit.

XIV. If we look at the company of cloistered Religious, perhaps no greater number of elect appears. The parables of the slothful and drowsy servant, and of the sterile tree bearing no fruit, display the drowsiness and damnation of Religious. The cloisters are the training-grounds of evangelical perfection; they are choice vineyards of a most abundant harvest, flowering gardens of select fruits. Do you bend your eyes upon those who dwell in the cloisters, that you may yourself gather whether those vineyards flourish or wither. Be of good heart if you discover a fervent zeal for monastic perfection, an exact separation from the allurements of the world, a splendid cultivation of evangelical poverty. Meanwhile let us hear St. Bernard, Epistle 254: Where, then, are they who are accustomed to say: It is enough for us; we do not wish to be better than our fathers? O Monk, do you not wish to advance? No. Do you wish, then, to fall back? By no means. What then? Thus, you say, I wish to live, and to remain where I have arrived; I neither suffer myself to become worse, nor desire to become better. You wish, then, what cannot be. For what stands still in this world? And assuredly it was said of man: He fleeth as a shadow, and never continueth in the same state. Finally, the very author of man and of the world, so long as he was seen on earth and conversed with men, did he stand still? Nay, as the Scripture witnesses, he passed through, doing good and healing all. He passed through, then, as not unfruitfully, so not remissly, not slothfully, not with slow step; but, as it is likewise written of him: He hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way. Now he who does not himself likewise run does not lay hold of him who runs. And what does it profit to follow Christ, if one does not succeed in overtaking him? Therefore Paul said: So run that you may obtain. There, O Christian, fix the goal of your course and your progress, where Christ placed his. He became, it is said, obedient unto death. However far, then, you shall have run, if you have not arrived even unto death, you will not lay hold of the prize. The prize is Christ. But if, while he runs, you halt your step, you do not draw near to Christ, but rather remove yourself farther; and you must fear what David says: Behold, they that go far from thee, O Lord, shall perish. Therefore, if to advance is to run, where you cease to advance, there you cease also to run; but where you cease to run, there you begin also to fall back. Hence it is plainly gathered that to refuse to advance is nothing else than to fall back. Meditate these things, and immediately there will vanish those vain and most inept petty distinctions and petty opinions of certain men, devised for excusing excuses in sins.