Cap. 3 Obj. 2: Why ordain a precious remedy as applicable to reprobates God foresaw would never use it?
Obj. 2. Those who set Christ's death, by God's ordination, as applicable to all and each, by the same stroke maintain that God provided for many human beings a remedy which he foresaw would never profit them. For God knew that none of the reprobate would be healed by this medicine of Christ's blood and freed from eternal death; to what end, then, would he ordain so precious a remedy as applicable even to those to whom it was most certain it would never be applied?
Sol. I do not deny that from our opinion it rightly follows that this remedy, even with God himself so ordaining and establishing it, is applicable to innumerable human beings to whom in fact it will never be applied. I deny, therefore, that anything false or inconvenient can, this being granted, be deduced from it. Indeed it is manifest that many benefits were provided by God for angels and human beings — I add also, and sometimes conferred, and duly ordained to a certain end — which God meanwhile knew would never profit them, nor avail to produce such an end. Those excellent gifts which were conferred on the apostate angels in their first creation were duly ordained by God to produce firm and constant obedience in them and to procure their beatitude; yet God knew they would be rebels and would never employ these gifts for the attainment of that good to which they were destined. The same can be said of Adam while still intact, whom God furnished with knowledge and holiness and fortified with his warnings abundantly sufficient to keep him in his duty; knowing meanwhile that all these things, which were applicable to promoting his obedience and happiness, would never be applied. It is therefore not alien to Divine wisdom to establish and ordain means applicable to some end, although he understands that, some obstacle intervening which he himself has not decreed to remove, the application itself will be hindered. Here that of Aquinas can be brought, in the disputed questions on Predestination, where he sets a difference between providence commonly taken and predestination, which is a special part of providence: Providence, he says, regards only the order unto the end; predestination regards the issue or event of the order. Things ordained to an end by that more common providence do not always attain the end; but those ordained by singular predestination always attain it. As therefore God, by that wider providence, is understood to have provided many bodily remedies applicable to driving away any bodily diseases whatever from any persons whatever, which nevertheless he has not decreed to be infallibly applied to these or those singular persons; so also we affirm that God, from that philanthropy and more common providence, provided and ordained the blood of his Son as a remedy applicable to expiating the sins of any human beings whatever, although by singular predestination he has not decreed to render it applied to all and each. But to what end is it ordained as applicable to all, which is not intended to be infallibly applied to all? I answer: that from this the Divine liberty, mercy, and justice may shine more clearly, while that remedy which by God's ordination is applicable to any unto salvation is nevertheless applied only to certain human beings, God specially having mercy on them, and is not applied to others, God permitting it, and their own malice deserving it.
Latin
Obj. 2. Qui ponunt Christi mortem ex ordinatione Dei omnibus et singulis applicabilem, eadem opera statuunt Deum providisse multis hominibus remedium quod praescit nunquam illis profuturum: Sciebat etenim Deus neminem reproborum hoc sanguinis Christi pharmaco sanandum et a morte aeterna liberandum; Quorsum igitur ordinaret tam pretiosum remedium etiam illis applicabile, quibus illud nunquam applicatum iri certissimum fuit? Sol. Non inficias eo, ex nostra sententia illud recte sequi, remedium hoc, etiam ipso Deo ita ordinante et statuente, esse applicabile innumeris hominibus, quibus de facto nunquam applicabitur. Nego igitur aliquid falsi aut incommodi, hoc concesso, posse inde deduci. Imo manifestum est, angelis hominibusque multa beneficia a Deo provisa fuisse, addo etiam, et collata aliquando, atque ad finem certum debite ordinata, quae Deus interim sciebat nunquam illis profutura, neque ad producendum talem finem valitura. Dona illa eximia quae angelis apostatis in prima sua creatione collata fuerunt, erant a Deo debite ordinata ad firmam et constantem obedientiam in illis pariendam, atque ad beatitudinem eorundem procurandam; sciebat tamen Deus illos fore rebelles, atque haec dona nunquam adhibituris ad illius boni consecutionem cui erant destinata. Idem de Adamo integro dici potest, quem Deus scientia et sanctitate instruxit, quemque monitis suis praemunivit ad illum in officio continendum abunde sufficientibus; sciens interim haec omnia, quae erant applicabilia ad obedientiam et felicitatem ejus promovendam, nunquam iri applicata. Non est ergo alienum a Divina sapientia statuere et ordinare media ad finem aliquem applicabilia, licet intelligat interveniente aliquo obstaculo, quod ipse removere non decrevit, ipsam applicationem fore impediendam. Huc afferri potest illud Aquinatis, Quaest. disp. de Praedest., ubi discrimen ponit inter providentiam communiter sumptam et praedestinationem, quae est specialis pars providentiae: Providentia, inquit ille, ordinem in finem respicit tantum; praedestinatio respicit exitum vel eventum ordinis. Quae per providentiam illam communiorem ad finem ordinantur non semper finem consequuntur: at quae per praedestinationem singularem ordinantur, semper consequuntur. Sicuti ergo Deus per providentiam illam latiorem intelligitur multa remedia corporalia ad corporales quoscunque morbos a quibuscunque depellendos applicabilia providisse, quae tamen hisce aut illis singularibus personis non decrevit infallibiliter applicanda; ita et nos affirmamus Deum ex philanthropia et providentia illa communiori sanguinem Filii sui providisse et ordinasse ut remedium ad quorumcunque hominum peccata expianda applicabile, licet ex praedestinatione singulari non decreverit illud omnibus et singulis reddere applicatum. Sed quorsum ordinatur ut applicabile omnibus quod non intenditur omnibus infallibiliter applicandum? Respondeo, Ut hinc eluceat magis libertas, misericordia, justitia Divina, dum illud remedium quod ex Dei ordinatione est cuivis applicabile ad salutem, applicetur tamen solummodo certis hominibus, Deo eorundem specialiter miserante; non applicetur aliis, Deo id permittente, et propria illorum malitia id promerente.
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
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De morte Christi Cap. 1-5 densify through Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Fathers tip (Daniel 1650) (Latin)
- Print Facsimile Internet Archive PDF of the 1650 Cambridge folio (Latin)
- Checked print Internet Archive DjVu OCR of the 1650 Cambridge folio (Latin)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.