Cap. 1 Prolegomena: four points before the controversy

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Chapter I. Prolegomena. But so that this whole matter may come into the light more easily, it will not be out of place to set a few things before the dispute itself — things whose explanation will open the way into this controversy. First: in questions of predestination or reprobation the very order of our thought breeds the sharpest fights, while one claims that in God's intellect and decrees this is prior which another holds is posterior. So we must speak briefly of this whole account of priority and posteriority under the diverse signs of reason. Second: because the words Election, Predestination, and Reprobation are used differently by different writers, we must explain the force of the words themselves, and show in what sense others take them, and in what sense we do. Third: because writers argue differently about the qualities or conditions of the subject, it will be worth setting out what is absolutely required and presupposed in the subject of predestination or reprobation when that subject is considered in common. Last: besides the common conditions required equally and without distinction whether someone is made the subject of predestination or of reprobation, some place further distinguishing qualities or conditions, by whose difference the act of Divine predestination falls on one and the act of reprobation on another. Those too must be weighed for what force they have. For some who refer the difference of election and reprobation to such things — whether our qualities or our acts — still will not let them be called causes, much less merits, and only grudgingly allow them even to be named conditions of our predestination. But let us gird for the work, and begin from those signs or distinct instants that theologians usually assign and separate according to prior and posterior order in the acts of both the Divine intellect and the Divine will.

Latin

Cap. I. Prolegomena. Sed quo tota haec res in lucem proferatur facilius, non abs re erit ipsi disputationi praemittere nonnulla, quorum explicatio viam sternet huic controversiae intelligendae. Primo igitur, quia in illis quaestionibus quae de praedestinatione aguntur, aut reprobatione, maximas lites parit ipse ordo considerationis nostrae, dum alius contendit in intellectu & decretis Divinis illud esse prius, quod alius opinatur esse posterius, de tota hac ratione prioritatis & posterioritatis quoad diversa signa rationis, paucis differendum est. Secundo, quia ipsa vocabula Electionis, Praedestinationis, Reprobationis, diversimode a diversis usurpantur, necesse erit ipsam vocabulorum vim explanare, & quo sensu ab aliis, quo a nobis accipiantur, ostendere. Tertio, quia de qualitatibus sive conditionibus subjecti, diversi diverso modo philosophantur, operae pretium erit exponere, quid absolute requiratur & praesupponitur in ipso subjecto praedestinationis aut reprobationis promiscue considerato. Ultimo, quia praeter conditiones communes, quae ex aequo & indiscriminatim requiruntur, sive quis praedestinationis sive reprobationis subjectum statuatur, nonnulli insuper qualitates sive conditiones distinguentes ponunt, pro quarum discrimine actus praedestinationis Divinae in unum cadat, actus reprobationis in alterum, de hisce etiam, quam vim habeant, dispiciendum erit. Nam aliqui qui discrimen electionis & reprobationis ad hujusmodi, sive qualitates sive actus nostros, referunt, non patiuntur tamen ut causae appellentur, multo minus ut merita, imo non nisi gravate concedunt, ut vel conditiones praedestinationis nostrae nuncupentur. Sed ad rem accingamur: & ordiamur ab illis signis sive diversis instantibus, quae a Theologis assignari & distingui solent secundum ordinem prioris & posterioris, in actibus tum intellectus tum voluntatis Divinae.

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.