Christ." Likewise Acts 20:28: "Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church which he hath purchased with his own blood." And in this sense, all the righteous now living under Christ's rule in the city of Prague, and more particularly the predestinate, are the holy church of Prague, and the same is true of other particular churches of saints of which Ecclesiasticus 24:2, speaks: "In the congregations—ecclesiis—of the Most High shall she [wisdom] open her mouth," and also 31:11: "All the congregation of the saints shall declare his alms."[1]
But the holy catholic—that is, universal—church is the totality of the predestinate—omnium predestinatorum universitas—or all the predestinate,[2] present, past, and future. This definition follows St. Augustine on John, C. Recur. 32:4 [Friedberg, 1: 1126], who shows how it is that one and the same church of the predestinate, starting at the beginning of the world, runs on to the apostles, and thence to the day of judgment. For Augustine says: "The church which brought forth Abel, Enoch, Noah and Abraham, also brought forth Moses, and at a later time the prophets before the Lord's advent and she, which brought forth these, also brought forth the apostles and our martyrs and all good Christians. For she has brought forth all who have been born and lived at different periods, but they have all been comprised in a company of one people. And the citizens of this city have experienced the toils of this pilgrimage. Some are experiencing them now, and some will be experiencing them, even to the end of the world." How clearly that holy man shows what the
- ↑ See Bissell, Com. on Apocrypha, Lange Series, 343, 359. Also Apocrypha trsl. out of the Greek and Latin, Cambr., 1895.
- ↑ Huss takes up the decree of predestination in his Super IV. Sent., 153–188. He makes a slight distinction between elect and predestinate, although he says the Masters use the terms interchangeably. Election may only be for the present life, as in the case of Judas, of whom Christ said: "Did not I elect you twelve, yet one of you is a devil?" John 6:70. The predestinate cannot fall, and yet no necessity is placed upon their free will, pp. 165, 168.
