Cap. VI Arg. 8 close: Vasquez split grace/glory fails — will to give the kingdom causes perseverance
From this gift specially prepared and given to some, we gather eternal life was already destined for them. Vasquez the Jesuit, pressed by this absolute gratuitous predestination of certain persons to faith and perseverance, answers: yes, predestination to grace does not hang on foresighted merits — but election to glory does, and that is the standing view of Scripture and Augustine. In vain he tries to split what Scripture and Augustine join most closely. Scripture knows no election to efficacious grace except what is tied to the will to give glory — which will, in our way of considering, is prior to the will to give efficacious grace, and its cause and rule. Hence we are predestined unto adoption as sons (Eph. 1:5) — destination of glory and the heavenly inheritance, not grace alone. So Christ to the predestined (Luke 12:32): Fear not, little flock, for it pleased your Father to give you the kingdom — the will to give the kingdom as the peculiar cause of the providence that keeps the elect and makes them persevere through dangers. The will to give glory (election to life) is why they persevere before others — not foresighted perseverance why they were elected before others.
Latin
Ab hoc dono, quibusdam specialiter praeparato et donato, nos colligimus, vitam aeternam fuisse iisdem antecedenter destinatam. Vasques Jesuita convictus de absoluta hac et gratuita certarum personarum ad fidem et perseverantiam praedestinatione, respondet, esse verissimum, praedestinationem ad habendam gratiam non dependere ex praevisis meritis aut actionibus nostris; sed electionem ad habendam gloriam ex illis dependere, atque hanc esse perpetuam Scripturarum et Augustini sententiam. Sed frustra conatur Jesuita divellere, quae Scriptura et Augustinus optimus hac in re Scripturarum interpres, docuit esse conjunctissima. Scriptura enim non agnoscit aliam electionem aut praedestinationem ad gratiam efficacem, quam quae connexa est cum ea voluntate dandi gloriam; quae voluntas, secundum nostrum considerandi modum, prior est voluntate dandi gratiam efficacem, et causa ac regula ejusdem. Hinc praedestinati dicimur in adoptionem filiorum, Ephes. i. 5. quae non modo gratiae, sed gloriae sive haereditatis caelestis destinationem perspicue denotat. Sic Christus loquens de praedestinatis, Luc. xii. 32. Nolite, inquit, timere, pusille grex, quia complacuit Patri vestro dare vobis regnum. Ubi voluntas dandi regnum affertur tanquam causa peculiaris ejus providentiae quam Deus exercet erga electos, ut eos custodiat, et non obstantibus periculis et tentationibus perseverare faciat. Voluntas ergo dandi gloriam, sive electio ad vitam, est ratio cur prae aliis perseverent; non praevisa perseverantia, ratio cur prae aliis electi fuerint.