from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.—These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." Matt xxv. 41, 46.
Again, in his famous reply to Sebastian Castalio, whose heretical opinions had incurred the displeasure of the stern Genevan, Calvin says:
"As to what you object, that no one is justly damned, unless on account of transgression, and after transgression; on the first point we have no dispute, since I everywhere teach that no one perishes except by the just judgment of God. Yet it cannot be dissembled that a hidden poison lurks in your words; because, if the similitude you propose is admitted, God will be unjust in that he involves the whole race of Abraham in the guilt of original sin. You deny that it is just in God to damn any one, unless on account of transgressions. Persons innumerable are taken out of life while yet infants. Put forth now your virulence against God, who precipitates into eternal death harmless infants (innoxius fœtus) torn from their mothers' breasts. He who will not detest this blasphemy [of yours] when it is openly exposed, may curse me at his will. For it cannot be demanded that I should be safe and free from the abuse of those who do not spare God."[1]
Once more, in his Christian Institutes, he says:
- ↑ Tractt Theol.—Calumniæ Nebulonis cujusdam adv. Doctrin. Joan. Calvini de Occulta Dei Provid. et ad eas ejusdem Calvini Responsio. — Art. xiv.
