Fathers

Two Dissertations · §146

Cap. 7 Arg. 4: Isa 53:10–11 long-lived seed—Luther, Calvin, Musculus on elect Church

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Isaiah 53:10–11 gives a like promise of God the Father about the efficacy of Christ’s death for the elect. The words run: “If he shall put his soul for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed; and the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. For the travail of his soul he shall see and be satisfied,” and so on. By these words the Father promises the Son that his passion and death will not be useless or barren, but will surely yield him seed. I ask, then: does this promise look to vague, indefinite individuals, or to certain persons singularly known to the Father and to Christ the Mediator? To invent a confused promise of some who will be saved, yet not yet singularly designated by God himself, is most unworthy of divine perfection and wisdom. But if God and Christ have settled that this seed will be efficaciously saved through Christ’s death, it follows that in the dying Christ there was, with respect to their salvation, an efficacious and singular intention. All interpreters of the place have taken it so: that through Christ’s death a most efficacious and certain liberation and salvation was promised to his mystical body—that is, to the Church, or the elect. So Luther: the posterity or seed spoken of is the Church; “he shall see seed” means he will have a kingdom and royal children. So Calvin: “he shall see seed” means Christ’s death will be the cause of begetting offspring, because the One who died, making alive, will acquire a people of his own. Musculus agrees, explaining “from the travail of his soul he shall see and be satisfied”: Christ already saw this bond of the elect and those to be saved, still sees it, and will see it to the world’s end, and is satisfied in seeing, because the Father’s good pleasure is directed in his hand. All agree that from the Father’s special good pleasure an efficacious salvation of the Church—certain persons known to God alone—was promised to Christ as the price of his passion, and that Christ intended and labored with a singular, efficacious will to save these elect, this peculiar people singularly given and committed to him by the Father.

Latin

Esai. liii. 10, 11. non dissimilis exstat promissio Dei Patris de efficacia mortis Christi quoad electos: Verba sic se habent, Si posuerit pro peccato animam suam, videbit semen longaeuum: & voluntas Domini in manu ejus dirigetur. Pro eo quod laboravit anima ejus, videbit & saturabitur, &c. Deus Pater hisce verbis promittit Filio, passionem & mortem ejus non fore inutilem aut infructuosam, sed semen illi indubie partituram. Quaero igitur an haec promissio vaga & incerta individua respiciat, an personas certas Deo Patri ac Christo Mediatori singulariter notas. Proculdubio confusam promissionem fingere de salvandis aliquibus, sed ab ipso Deo nondum singulariter designatis, est Divina perfectione & sapientia indignissimum. Quod si Deo Christoque constiterit, de hoc semine efficaciter salvando per mortem Christi, consequetur, in Christo moriente fuisse, respectu salutis eorundem, efficacem & singularem intentionem. Omnes hujus loci interpretes ita eum intellexerunt, ut per Christi mortem efficacissimam & certissimam liberationem ac salutem mystico corpori ejus, id est, Ecclesiae, sive electis, promissam fateantur. Sic Lutherus, Posteritas sive semen de quo loquitur, est Ecclesia. VIDEBIT SEMEN, id est, habebit regnum & regios liberos. Sic Calvinus, VIDEBIT SEMEN, significat: Mortem Christi causam fore gignendae sobolis, quia mortuus vivificans populum sibi peculiarem acquiret. Non dissentit Musculus explicans illa verba, De labore animae suae videbit, & satiabitur. Affinitatem hanc electorum & salvandorum vidit jam olim Christus, videt etiamnum, & ad finem mundi usque videbit, videndoque saturatur, quia placitum Dei Patris sui in manu ipsius dirigitur. Omnes hi consentiunt, ex speciali beneplacito Dei Patris efficacem salutem Ecclesiae, id est certarum quarundam personarum Deo soli notarum, Christo tanquam pretium passionis suae fuisse promissam, Christumque pro salvandis hisce electis, sive hoc populo peculiari a Deo Patre singulariter sibi dato & commendato, singulari & efficaci voluntate intendisse & laborasse.

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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