[Dr. Eckleburg]

"God just didn't want them to see it." Nobody saw it until John Calvin described the "hidden" counsel of God which he said was not explicit in scripture.

No, Calvin found it in Scripture and knew that Augustine had found it before him...

A TREATISE ON THE PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS
by Augustine

Try this one, too...

AUGUSTINE ON THE PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS

"Certainly such an election is of grace, not at all of merits. For he had before said, “So, therefore, even at this present time, the remnant has been saved by the election of grace. And if by grace, now it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace.” Therefore the election obtained what it obtained gratuitously; there preceded none of those things which they might first give, and it should be given to them again. He saved them for nothing. But to the rest who were blinded, as is there plainly declared, it was done in recompense. “All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.” But His ways are unsearchable. Therefore the mercy by which He freely delivers, and the truth by which He righteously judges, are equally unsearchable." -- Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints 11

Pray for ears to hear.

[aruanan]

"God just didn't want them to see it." Nobody saw it until John Calvin described the "hidden" counsel of God which he said was not explicit in scripture.

No, Calvin found it in Scripture and knew that Augustine had found it before him...

We're not talking about the idea of predestination that Augustine erred on earlier, but about what Calvin called the "hidden counsel" of God, which he believed was revealed to him.

Calvinists appealing to Augustine on the matter of predestination is like Jehovah's Witnesses appealing to Arius on the deity of Christ.