Fathers

Two Dissertations · §189

Cap. 7 Contra Obj. 3 + Sol.: OT elects and meritorious cause

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Obj. 3. If Christ in offering himself, and God in accepting that sacrifice, had a special intention to vivify and surely save all the elect by that sacrifice's virtue and merit, we seem to shut Old Testament elect out of the privilege — those born and dead before Christ's sacrifice was shown on the cross. Sol. On general sufficiency or special efficacy I answer: Christ's sacrifice had the same virtue under the Old Testament, before the outward act of exhibition, that it has under the New after Christ was really shown and offered on the cross. Just as special grace reaches New Testament elect from God's special intention by the merit of this sacrifice already actually exhibited, so special grace flowed to Old Testament elect from the same God's special will by the merit of that same sacrifice still to be exhibited. For Christ was the Lamb slain from the world's beginning, both in the readiness of his will and in the Father's acceptance. Note the difference: a cause that works physically or naturally must already be in act before its power yields an effect; a cause that works meritoriously or morally — such as Christ's passion — can yield an effect before it actually exists, if it at least stands beforehand in the knowledge and acceptance of him who, with regard to it, dispenses the benefits of his grace. Here a meritorious cause is kin to a final cause: not yet existing in act, but only foreseen and weighed, it still moves the agent to act. So we say Christ's passion and its dependent merits, foreseen as to be offered to God and applied specially to Jacob, not Esau, moved God to give Jacob the special grace he denied Esau. Suarez puts it well (In 3, q. 49, art. 4, comm.): that special love by which, for Christ's merits — exhibited or foreseen — God sanctifies and reconciles people can fall under Christ's merits, whether by meriting for us the effect of that love, or God's love (or election) freely fixed on us.

Latin

Obj. 3. Si in Christo seipsum offerente, Deoque illud sacrificium acceptante, sit specialis quaedam intentio de vivificandis & infallibiliter salvandis electis omnibus virtute & merito ejusdem sacrificii, videmur ab hoc speciali privilegio excludere electos sub Veteri Testamento, qui nati ac denati fuerunt ante hoc sacrificium Christi in cruce exhibitum. Sol. Quoad rationem sufficientiae generalis sive efficaciae specialis, respondeo, Christi sacrificium eandem virtutem habuisse sub Veteri Testamento, ante externum actum exhibitionis, quam habuit & habet sub Novo, post Christum realiter in cruce exhibitum & oblatum. Sicuti igitur ad electos sub N. T. ex speciali intentione Dei derivatur gratia specialis a merito hujus sacrificii jam actu exhibiti, ita ad electos sub V. T. ex speciali ejusdem Dei voluntate dimanavit gratia specialis a merito ejusdem sacrificii postmodum exhibendi. Christus enim erat Agnus occisus ab origine mundi, tam in praeparatione voluntatis suae, quam in acceptatione voluntatis Paternae. Est itaque hic observandum, aliam esse rationem causae ejus quae operatur Physice sive naturaliter, aliam ejus quae operatur meritorie sive moraliter. Causa physice agens, actu ponatur est necesse, priusquam ejus virtute effectum aliquod producatur: at causa agens meritorie sive moraliter, qualis est passio Christi, potest effectum producere priusquam actu exsistat, si praecedat saltem in ejus cognitione & acceptatione ad quem spectat ejusdem intuitu beneficia gratiae suae hominibus dispensare. Nam hac in re causa Meritoria habet cognationem quandam cum causa Finali, quae nondum actu exsistens, sed tantummodo praevisa & praeconsiderata, valide movet agentem ad hoc vel illud agendum. Hoc modo dicimus passionem Christi, meritaque ab eadem dependentia, praevisa ut Deo offerenda & applicanda specialiter Jacobo, & non Esavo, habuisse rationem causae moventis Deum ad donandum Jacobo illam specialem gratiam, quam Esavo negavit. Recte Suarez, in 3. qu. 49. art. 4. in comm. Illa specialis dilectio, qua propter merita Christi, sive exhibita sive praevisa, Deus homines sanctificat, & sibi reconciliat, potest cadere sub meritis Christi, sive promerendo nobis effectum illius dilectionis, sive dilectionem (vel electionem) Dei ad nos libere terminatam.

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.

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