Fathers

Two Dissertations · §148

Cap. 7 Arg. 4 Ratio 1: secret covenant (Jer 31:33 / Heb 8)—Mediator for elect Israel alone

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He who by his death not only established that evangelical covenant looking promiscuously to all—“Whoever believes will be saved”—but also that secret covenant which takes in certain singular persons known to God alone, described by the prophet in Jeremiah 31:33: “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after these days: I will put my law in their mind and write it on their heart, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people”—he who procured such a covenant by his death offered his death and merit to the Father to be applied efficaciously to certain elect persons. That is clear, because putting his laws into people’s minds, writing them on their hearts, and making them God’s peculiar people marks the efficacious application of Christ’s merits and names the privileges of the elect, or spiritual Israel. I add the minor and affirm that by his death Christ was Mediator of this secret covenant, which includes application and embraces God’s Israel—or the elect children of God—and them alone. Besides the prophet’s words just cited, we have the Apostle citing the same prophet (Hebrews 8:6): “Our High Priest is Mediator of a better testament, established on better promises.” What are those better promises Christ the Mediator established? Verse 10 rehearses them in Jeremiah’s own words; they reduce to two heads—the promise of an inward reforming of hearts, and of free remission of sins—as Calvin notes on the place. So by his death Christ merited remission of sins for all if they believe and turn; and for some he also merited and procured this free, secret covenant to be fulfilled by the promising God—namely that they believe and turn to God, through and because of the Mediator reforming their hearts efficaciously and putting his laws into them. Those for whom he merited this (as Augustine makes plain) are all who belong spiritually to the house of Israel and Abraham’s seed: what else is that than all the elect? So from God’s and Christ’s intention the elect have had destined and given to them the special benefit of a fruitful application from Christ’s death.

Latin

Qui morte sua non modo stabilivit foedus illud Evangelicum ad omnes homines promiscue spectans, Quisquis crediderit, salvus erit; sed insuper foedus illud arcanum, quod certas & singulares quasdam personas Deo soli notas comprehendit, a Propheta hisce verbis descriptum, Jer. xxxi. 33. Hoc est foedus quod pangam cum domo Israel post dies hos, Indam legem meam menti eorum, & cordi eorum inscribam eam, & ero eis Deus, & ipsi erunt mihi populus; Qui, inquam, tale foedus morte sua procuravit, is mortem meritumque suum Deo Patri ut efficaciter quibusdam electis personis applicandum obtulit. Haec propositio inde clara & manifesta est, quod indere leges suas hominum mentibus, & inscribere eorundem cordibus, atque eosdem populum peculiarem Deo facere efficacem applicationem meritorum Christi denotant, & electorum sive spiritualis Israelis privilegia designant. Jam vero adjungo Minorem, & affirmo, Christum morte sua hujus arcani foederis, quod applicationem includit, & Israelem Dei sive electos Dei filios eosdemque solos complectitur, Mediatorem exstitisse. Praeter verba Prophetae modo laudati, habemus & Apostoli, eundem Prophetam citantis, perspicuum testimonium, Heb. viii. 6. Noster Pontifex melioris testamenti Mediator est, quod in melioribus repromissionibus sancitum est. At quae tandem sunt meliores illae promissiones quas Christus Mediator stabilivit? Recensentur vers. 10. iisdem verbis quibus exstant apud Jeremiam; & ad duo capita revocantur, ad promissionem de interiori cordium reformatione, & de gratuita peccatorum remissione, ut bene observavit in hunc locum Calvinus. Christus ergo morte sua meruit omnibus remissionem peccatorum, si credant & convertantur: ac meruit & procuravit quibusdam hoc gratuitum & arcanum foedus a Deo promittente implendum; nimirum, ut credant & convertantur Deo, per & propter Mediatorem, illorum corda efficaciter reformante, & leges suas eisdem indente. Hi autem pro quibus hoc promeruit Christus (ut ex Augustino liquet) sunt omnes pertinentes spiritualiter ad domum Israel & semen Abrahae: quid aliud est quam omnes electi? Electi igitur ex intentione Dei & Christi speciale beneficium fructuosae applicationis ex morte Christi & destinatum sibi habuerunt, & donatum.

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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