Fathers

Two Dissertations · §134

Cap. 7: decree-order digression set aside; thesis aimed at the predestined alone

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Nor is it necessary here, for defending this special counsel, to settle that thorny little question—vexed by many, and vexing all who take it up—whether the decree by which certain persons are predestined to the infallible sharing of eternal life is prior, or that other by which Christ was ordained to the Mediator’s office. For although, to shore up the weakness of human understanding, we are forced in God’s eternal decrees to conceive some as prior and some as posterior, still to contend about these imaginary signs of our reason, or to take from them questions of faith to establish or refute, seems to me slippery and very dangerous. This at least must be set beyond every cast of doubt: those decrees of God which we think according to an order of prior and posterior stand, in God himself, in the equal eternity of infinity; nor can or should any separate instant be given in which, one decree being fixed, the other is rightly thought not yet reviewed and fixed. Conceive then as prior in order the decree of constituting and sending the Mediator (which seems to me fitter to our way of understanding), and as posterior the decree of electing certain persons to the unfrustrated obtaining of eternal life in the Mediator so constituted; yet never so pull these apart that the Mediator’s passion was not from eternity foreseen as to be offered in a special mode and regard for those to be elected, and as specially offered for them was from eternity accepted by God. Or on the contrary, conceive as prior the decree of electing certain persons to salvation, and as posterior the decree of destining Christ to the Mediator’s office; yet never so separate them that Christ’s passion, specially offered and accepted for those same persons, was not the cause of preparing and giving those elect both efficacious grace and salvation. Since therefore either opinion serves our purpose alike, leaving aside a question of little necessity, we will propose and confirm a single thesis on Christ’s death, under a special consideration restricted to the predestined alone. It runs thus:

Latin

Neque hic necessarium est, ad hujus specialis consilii defensionem, spinosam istam quaestiunculam definire a multis vexatam, vexantem omnes qui eam discutiendam susceperunt, Utrum scilicet prius sit Decretum illud quo praedestinantur certae personae ad infallibilem participationem vitae aeternae, an illud alterum quo Christus ordinatus fuit ad officium Mediatorium. Nam quamvis, ad sustentandam intellectus humani imbecillitatem, in aeternis Dei decretis cogimur quaedam ut priora, quaedam ut posteriora concipere, tamen de hisce imaginariis rationis nostrae signis contendere, aut ex iisdem quaestiones fidei stabiliendas aut refellendas suscipere, lubricum mihi videtur, & valde periculosum. Illud siquidem extra omnem dubitationis aleam poni debet, haec, quae a nobis secundum ordinem prioris & posterioris cogitantur, Dei decreta penes ipsum Deum aequabili infinitatis aeternitate consistere: nec dari posse aut debere instans aliquod separatum, in quo, stabilito uno decreto, alterum nondum revisum ac stabilitum recte cogitetur. Concipe igitur ut ordine prius, decretum de constituendo & mittendo Mediatore (quod mihi videtur ad nostrum intelligendi modum aptius) ut posterius, decretum de eligendis certis personis ad infrustrabilem consecutionem vitae aeternae in Mediatore constituto; nunquam tamen haec ita divelles quin passio Mediatoris ab aeterno praevisa fuerit ut offerenda speciali quodam modo, & intuitu pro hisce eligendis, & tanquam oblata pro eisdem specialiter a Deo fuerit, idque ab aeterno, acceptata. E contra, concipe ut ordine prius decretum de electione certarum personarum ad salutem, ut posterius decretum de destinatione Christi ad officium Mediatorium; nunquam tamen haec ita separaveris quin passio Christi, specialiter oblata & acceptata pro iisdem, causa fuerit praeparandi ac donandi illis electis tam gratiam efficacem, quam salutem. Cum igitur utraque opinio perinde se habeat ad institutum nostrum, missa rei minime necessariae disquisitione, unicam thesin de morte Christi, sub speciali quadam consideratione ad solos praedestinatos restricta, proponemus & confirmabimus: Quae sic se habet,

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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