Gonet moreover assumes what he sets out to prove, namely, that God _voluntate antecedente_ decreed the glory of certain men to the exclusion of others. This _petitio principii_ vitiates the entire polysyllogism. God’s will to save is universal. He wills the eternal happiness of all men _antecedenter_, and the reprobation of some only _consequenter_; hence eternal predestination is not absolute, but hypothetical, that is, it depends on merit. That the divine scheme of grace can take a different course _in ordine intentionis_ from that _in ordine executionis_ is a mere fiction. If eternal salvation in the order of temporal execution is given only as a reward of merit, it must be a reward of merit also in the order of intention. In both cases predestination depends upon a future condition. Perhaps the worst feature of the theory of absolute predestination is the fact that it involves the absolute reprobation of those not predestined to glory. “If it could be validly argued,” says Gutberlet, “that, since the end must be willed before the means, salvation must be decreed before the means to its attainment (_i.e._ merits), the argument would be applicable also to the damned. If God _voluntate antecedente_ wills to lead only a few to salvation, and if this intention must precede every other, then He must likewise _voluntate antecedente_ have in view the end of the reprobates, which is His own glorification through the manifestation of His justice and mercy. Hence He must also decree the means necessary to obtain this end, _i.e._ He must cause these unfortunate creatures to sin, in order that they may reach the end for which He has predestined them; in other words, He must pre-ordain them to sin and eternal damnation,”(622) which is what Calvin teaches. The advocates of the theory naturally shrink from adopting such a blasphemous conclusion, and fall back upon the theory of _negative_ reprobation, which, however, amounts practically to the same thing.(623) 5. THE THEORY OF HYPOTHETICAL PREDESTINATION POST PRAEVISA MERITA.—Predestination, like God’s will to save all men, is based on a hypothetical decree. Those only are predestined to eternal happiness who shall merit it as a reward. It is solely by reason of His infallible foreknowledge of these merits that God’s hypothetical decree of predestination becomes absolute. Or, as Becanus puts it, “God first prepared the gifts of grace, and then elected to eternal life those whose good use of the gifts He foresaw.”(624)