Fathers

Two Dissertations · §205

Cap. 1 vocabulary: Reprobatio — Scripture voice vs school sense

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On the opposite word, Reprobation, a few points. As for the bare term, Scripture's "reprobate" and "to reprobate" point more to the present state of the ungodly than to God's eternal decree about them. ἀδόκιμος — a reprobate — is one who lives ungodly, does not carry himself as a son of God, and by his deeds shows himself counterfeit, spurious, adulterate. God is said to reject or reprobate such people because of that impurity, as goldsmiths throw out counterfeit coins. Even in Augustine — who treated this matter more richly and clearly than the other Fathers — "reprobate" and "reprobating" in the school sense barely appear, or do not appear at all. Still, the thing itself is plainly in Scripture. First, when Scripture affirms what forces the reprobation of some by clear necessary consequence: as when certain named persons are said elect and predestined by God before the world's foundations were laid. Election of some imports passing by — rejecting — others. Second, when equivalent phrases express the decree: God is said never to have known some, not to have given them to Christ, to refuse mercy to some, not to have written some names in the book of life — and the like, which plainly prove that from eternity the Divine mind and will marked a difference between elect and non-elect. Finally, though Augustine and the other Fathers seldom use the school word "reprobation," they use other words that mean the same. Those the School calls reprobates, they call foreknown and predestined to destruction.

Latin

De opposito Reprobationis vocabulo jam paucis dicemus. Ad vocem quod attinet, in sacris Scripturis reprobus & reprobare referuntur potius ad praesentem hominum impiorum conditionem, quam ad aeternam Dei de illis ordinationem. Nam ἀδόκιμος sive reprobus appellatur qui impie vivit, nec gerit se pro filio Dei, sed factis ostendit se esse rejectitium, spurium & adulterinum: Atque Deus tales repellere, rejicere sive reprobare dicitur propter illorum impuritatem, sicut aurifices rejiciunt nummos adulterinos. Quinetiam apud Augustinum (qui hanc materiam uberius & dilucidius quam caeteri Patres tractavit) reproborum & reprobandi vocabula, eo sensu quo nunc in Schola Theologorum frequentantur, aut raro, aut non omnino occurrunt. Sed tamen sciendum est rem ipsam in sacris Scripturis aperte contineri. Primo, quando ea affirmantur in sacris Scripturis unde clara & necessaria consecutione deducitur quorundam reprobatio: Ut cum certae quaedam & signatae personae dicuntur electi & praedestinati a Deo ante jacta mundi fundamenta. Electio enim aliquorum praeteritionem sive rejectionem aliorum infert. Secundo, quando verbis aequivalentibus reprobationis decretum exprimitur: ut cum Deus dicitur quosdam nunquam nosse, non dedisse Christo, nolle quorundam misereri, non scripsisse quorundam nomina in libro vitae, & id genus alia, quae liquido probant, apud Divinam mentem & voluntatem fuisse discrimen electorum & non-electorum ab aeterno. Postremo, licet Augustinus, aliique Patres non multum utantur hoc vocabulo reprobationis, tamen aliis utuntur quae perinde valent. Nam quos Schola appellat reprobatos, illi vocant praescitos & praedestinatos ad interitum.

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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