Fathers

Two Dissertations · §119

Cap. 6 Arg. 8 after Secundo: Pelagian-mode digression—vivifying grace offered to all, given by human will

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But the marrow of Pelagianism sits in the mode they invent for how God administers vivifying grace and how people take it. So we will set out what the Pelagian party claims and what the orthodox Fathers settle, with witnesses from both. The Pelagians hold that from Christ’s death and merit vivifying, regenerating grace flows to everyone from God’s mercy in such a way that being vivified and regenerated—or not—depends first on the human will that embraces or spurns the grace. Their view comes to this: saving grace is offered to all from sheer mercy in Christ, yet given to no one by absolute good pleasure. Ask why this person received Christ’s saving grace and that one did not, and they answer: the one willed to take what was offered; the other would not. Let them speak for themselves. Vitalis of Carthage, in Augustine Epistle 107, holds that grace follows the human will and is therefore given because people willed it. The Massilian leftovers of Pelagian heresy, in Prosper to Augustine, say that as far as God goes eternal life is prepared for all, but as far as free choice goes it is seized by those who freely believed God and received helps of grace by the merit of that belief. Pelagius himself, in Augustine, says people who use free choice well merit the Lord’s grace; others who have free choice by which they could come to faith and deserve God’s grace, by misusing their liberty, lack grace and run into damnation. Faustus of Riez: from God’s goodness that a person is called; from his own will that he promptly obeys.

Latin

Sed quia ipsa medulla Pelagianismi sita est in modo, secundum quem fingunt gratiam vivificantem a Deo hominibus administrari, et ab hominibus acceptari, quid ea de re Pelagiana factio asserat, quid orthodoxi Patres statuant, productis in medium utrorumque testimoniis ostendemus. Ad Pelagianos quod attinet, a Christi morte meritoque gratiam vivificam et regenerantem sic ad omnes homines ex Dei misericordia dimanare statuunt, ut hoc ipsum vivificari et regenerari, sive non-vivificari et regenerari, primario dependeat ex voluntate humana gratiam amplexante aut adspernante. Huc igitur redit istorum sententia, Gratiam salutiferam ex pura Dei misericordia in Christo offerri omnibus, ex absoluto autem beneplacito dari nemini. Si autem quaeratur in particulari, cur huic data est gratia Christi salvivifica? cur illi non est data? respondent, Quia ille oblatam voluit accipere, iste noluit. Sed loquantur ipsi. Vitalis Carthaginensis apud Augustinum, Epist. 107. tuetur gratiam subsequi hominis voluntatem, et ideo hominibus dari, quia voluerunt. Reliquiae Pelagianae haereseos, id est, Massilienses, apud Prosperum in Epistol. ad Augustin. Quantum ad Deum pertinet, omnibus paratam vitam aeternam aiunt: quantum autem ad arbitrii libertatem, ab his eam apprehendi qui Deo sponte crediderint, et auxilium gratiae merito credulitatis acceperint. Pelagius ipse apud Augustinum dicit, Homines bene utentes libero arbitrio mereri Domini gratiam: alios autem habentes liberum arbitrium, per quod ad fidem venire possent et Dei gratiam promereri, male utendo libertate sua, gratia carere, et damnationem incurrere. Faustus Rhegiensis, De Dei bonitate, quod homo vocatur; de propria voluntate, quod promptus obsequitur.

About this text

John Davenant — Dissertationes duae from the 1650 Cambridge Latin. Honest partial through De praedestinatione Cap. 1 subject tip; Cap. 1 mid-Thesis and remainder remain; De praedestinatione Cap. 1 Prolegomena IV distinguishing conditions tip; De praedestinatione Cap. II Variae (Pelagian opening) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. II Scholastici / Vasquez Arg. 1 tip; De praedestinatione Cap. II Arg. 2 praescientia tip; De praedestinatione Cap. II Arg. 3 (1 Cor. 2:9) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. II Arg. 4 (2 Tim. 2:21) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. II Arg. 5 (1 Tim. 2:4) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. II Arg. 6 (James 2:5) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. II Arg. 7 (Apoc. 3:11) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. III Rat. 1 (common inefficacious will) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. III Rat. 2 (Vasquez physical vs moral media) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. III Rat. 3 (king/prize / victory foresight) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. III Rat. 4 (optimum modus / crown of justice) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. III Rat. 5 (acceptor personarum) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. III Rat. 6 (misericordia/congruitas) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. III Rat. 7 (equal disposition) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. III Rat. 8 (few saved / major part) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. III Rat. 9 (Stephen / glory from others' sins) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. III Rat. 10 (mere beneplacitum / Predestinati) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. III reprobation ratio (foresight of sin) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. III Rat. 12 (efficacious election / free choice) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. III Rat. 13 (hortation/prayer) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. III Rat. 14 (decree/execution conformity) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. IV Arminianorum open tip; De praedestinatione Cap. IV Arg. 1 Sol tip; De praedestinatione Cap. IV Arg. 7 (τρόπος; Rom. 9:22) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. IV Arg. 8 (ordo exsecutionis) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. IV Arg. 9 (Christus fundamentum) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. V Obj. 1 (amor ad salutem) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. V Obj. 2 (actualis vitae datio) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. V Obj. 3 (qualis existens) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. V Obj. 4 (justitiae satisfactio) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. V Obj. 5 (natura vitae aeternae) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. V Obj. 6 (Christus a decreto) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. V Obj. 7 (Evangelium invertitur) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. V Obj. 8 (arcana/revelata) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. VI (Orthodoxa sententia) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. VI Arg. 2 (gratia specialis) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. VI Arg. 3 (Scripturae) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. VI Arg. 4 (vocatio) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. VI Arg. 5 (adjutorium) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. VI Arg. 7 (inconveniens) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. VI Arg. 8 (perseverantia) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. VI Arg. 9 (unica ratio) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. VI Arg. 10 (abyssus) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. VI Arg. 11 (efficacia) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. VI Arg. 12 (segregativum) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. VI Arg. 13 (pura gratia) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. VII open (reprobatio) tip; De praedestinatione Cap. VII Junius trifariam tip; De praedestinatione Cap. VIII open (adversariorum) tip; Cap. VIII peccata-causa tip; Cap. VIII fewer-reprobates tip; Cap. VIII Argentina tip; Cap. VIII dives-misericordia tip; Cap. VIII Corvinus tip into Cap. IX; Cap. IX Ab Adae tip; Cap. IX Ab Adae Christus omnibus+Minor tip; Cap. IX Arg. 3 Sol tip; Cap. IX vocatione Evangelica tip; Cap. IX vocatione Sol cont. tip; Cap. IX Arg. 6 Sol cont. tip.

English follows locked 1650 Cambridge Latin of De morte Christi Cap. 1-6 opening (origin + Thesis 1 + Cap. 2 Rat. 1-ultima + Cap. 3 Satisfit through Obj. 17 + Cap. 4 Thesis 2 tip through Mem. 1 close + Cap. 4 Mem. 2 through Mem. 3 tip + Cap. 4 Mem. 3 possible-faith through Thesis 2 close + Cap. 5 Thesis 3 tip through Mem. 2 Scripture close + Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Rat. 1-4 + Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Fathers tip + Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Huberiana objections tip through Obj. 3 Solut close + Cap. 5 Mem. 2 elect-from-eternity objections tip through Obj. 3 Solut close + Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Scripture elect objections tip through Cap. 5 thesis close + Cap. 6 opening tip through Arg. 1 close before Arg. 2), reconstructed from the Internet Archive PDF (pdftotext + tesseract) of the Roger Daniel folio with DjVu OCR check. The 1683 reprint was not used as copy-text. No modern English was copied.

Witnesses

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