Cap. VIII Arg. 5 Resp.: Rom. 11 concerns visible grafting of peoples, not eternal election of persons
Nor does the confirming text from Romans 11 help. Paul is not speaking of particular elect persons but of the whole body of Jews and Gentiles taken indefinitely. He is not teaching that some singular man is cut off for unbelief and struck from the number of the elect, then grafted back by recovered faith as by postliminium. He says only that the Jews in general, by unbelief, ceased to be God's covenant people, and that the Gentiles, embracing the gospel faith, succeeded into their place. To strip the Gentiles of every occasion for pride, he adds: if the Jews believe in Christ and stop persisting in unbelief, they are to be grafted in — admitted to the covenant people; and if the Gentiles who now rejoice as Church and people of God spring back from Christ's faith, they too will be broken off and cut from the Church's body. That threat has taken effect in many Gentiles who defected from Christ's faith to Mahometan superstition and stand torn from the covenant body. How does any of this prove that eternal reprobation of particular persons flowed from regard to their future unbelief as moving cause? It proves nothing. Paul discusses visible grafting and breaking of peoples, not eternal election and reprobation of individuals. That grafting and breaking denotes temporal admission or rejection of a nation from covenant status — one by faith, the other by unbelief. Sound theology abhors making reprobates into elect or elect into reprobates; yet Paul expressly teaches that those grafted of whom he speaks can be broken off, and those broken off grafted again.
Latin
Neque posterius, quod in confirmationem argumenti adducitur, quicquam facit ad rem. Apostolus enim non de singularibus personis electis sed de toto corpore Judaeorum et Gentium indefinite et indiscriminatim considerato loquitur. Neque de electione et reprobatione aeterna affirmat, aliquem singularem hominem propter incredulitatem exscindi et quasi expungi e numero electorum, et denuo fide recuperata quasi postliminio inseri: sed modo Judaeos in genere sua infidelitate desiisse esse populum Dei foederatum, et Gentes amplexando fidem evangelicam in illorum locum successisse. Atque ut Gentibus adimat omnem superbiendi occasionem, ait Judaeos, si in Christum credant et in sua infidelitate persistere desinant, inserendos, hoc est, in foederatum Dei populum admittendos; Gentes autem, quae nunc gaudent nomine Ecclesiae et populi Dei, si resiliant a fide Christi, fore etiam defringendas, et a corpore Ecclesiae exscindendas. Haec interminatio in multis Gentibus effectum sortita est, quae a fide Christi ad superstitionem Mahumeticam desciscentes, a corpore Ecclesiae, hoc est, foederati Dei populi, revulsae conspiciuntur. Sed quid interim haec omnia conducunt ad probandam singularium personarum reprobationem aeternam, ex consideratione futurae illorum incredulitatis, tanquam causae motivae, profluxisse? Profecto nihil: Quia non de singularium personarum aeterna electione et reprobatione, sed de visibili Gentium insitione et defractione disserit Apostolus: quia haec insitio et defractio, cujus mentionem facit, non denotat aeternam electionem aut reprobationem singularium personarum, sed temporalem admissionem aut rejectionem alicujus gentis a statu populi foederati, quorum alterum fit mediante fide, alterum mediante infidelitate: quia ab omni sana Theologia abhorret, statuere, aliquos reprobatos fieri posse electos, aut aliquos electos reprobatos; et tamen Apostolus expresse docet hosce insitos, de quibus loquitur, posse fieri defractos, et hosce defractos posse rursus fieri insitos.