15. Concerning acceptances.

D. What do we call acceptance, or calling? M. That, of course, by which God deigns to unite to himself certain persons or peoples by the favor of a special grace, and shows more divine indulgence and as it were familiar favors with regard to them than with regard to the other human beings.

[2] D. How many acceptances are there? M. Ten. D. Give the order of the acceptances. M. First is that of blessed Abraham; second, of Isaac; third, of Jacob and the twelve patriarchs born from him; fourth, of the tribe of Judah; fifth, of his entire people in Egypt; sixth, of holy David; seventh, of the very house of David and through it the entire tribe of Judah; eighth, of the return of his people from captivity; ninth, of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh which the Son of God, upon coming, took for himself from the line of David, and through it from Abraham and even from Adam he provided for the salvation and forgiveness of us all; tenth, of all the nations through the dispensation of the very incarnation of our God and Savior.

[3] D. What then? were there not persons just and pleasing to God before Abraham? M. There were indeed, inasmuch as those who had been engendered from Seth were called "sons of God" (Gn 6:2), and Enoch was translated (Gn 5:24), and Noah became the renewer of a perishing world (Gn 6-9), and Melchizedek the model of the high priest (Gn 14:18). But in these persons divine acceptance, i.e., that special familiarity and partiality, is not shown, but their righteousness is declared. But God's frequent address to Abraham and as it were intimate association, and management through individual things, the promised rewards of the testing, and the remembrance of his posterity show the astonishing power of divine acceptance (Gn 12-22). Similarly, too, with regard to the other persons mentioned above, a certain particular favor of divinity, in other words an openly managed direction as if through individual acts of life, declares the extraordinary help of grace.

[4] D. Why do we say that these things pertain to the future world, although they were carried out in the present one? M. Because each and every thing is perceived from its effect, and that which is the intention of the doer is the cause of the deed. D. Prove that the causes of these acceptances look to the future. M. The faith of the nations follows the Christian religion because of the hope of eternal life. For Christ the Lord himself by the entire remedy of his teaching and the miracles of his acts, and also by his resurrection and ascension, taught the future life, promised it, proved it, granted it. Who is now ignorant of the other acceptances, effected on account of the Lord and his covenants, if he is promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob to be going to bestow salvation upon the nations? [4b] On account of him the seed of Abraham is separated from the other nations; on account of him the tribe of Judah both excels in blessing and is led into captivity last and saved first, because from it the Lord deigned to have taken flesh, so that from that tribe all Jews were named. He is again promised to David and his house and tribe to be going to reign forever from his seed (2 Sm 7:11-16; Ps 88[89]:20-38). Therefore if the faith of the nations was carried out because of the future life, the incarnation of Christ carried out because of the nations, the rest carried out because of Christ's incarnation, it is inferred from the intention itself that every series of acceptances pertains to the future world. But all these things are easily proved even from the proofs of the New and of the Old Testament, since they are scattered throughout.