Two Dissertations · §209

Cap. 1 subject: sin-infection debated — Scotus / Suarez before foresight

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

Another quality most writers treat as necessarily presupposed in predestinating and reprobating — though not all agree: the infection of sin, which they think God foresaw in the subject before it could be predestined or reprobated. On their view rationality is not enough; the creature must also be presupposed a sinner, stained with sin. I do not gladly make this quarrel my own; still I will open briefly what others hold and what I hold. We must admit that the opinion which puts predestination before foresight of sin is neither new nor the property of obscure theologians. Nearly everyone who took predestination as bare designation to the end itself, rather than preparation of means, reasoned this way. Scotus, ordering instants in the Divine mind and will, always set the will to give beatitude before foresight of the fall (I dist. 41; III dist. 19 q.1): God first wills glory for a fixed number of elect, next orders grace for them, then foresees their fall in Adam. With Scotus stand many who claim the Scotist name. Maclantus, Galatinus, Alfonso Mendoza, and countless others teach the decree of predestination prior even to permitting the fall — and prior to creating man. So they do not treat foresight of sin as a condition of the subject on which predestination falls. Among recent Jesuits Suarez follows the same line and calls it the common opinion: I judge more probable the theologians' common view that the election of the predestined preceded permission of original sin.

Latin

Est altera qualitas sive conditio quam plerique arbitrantur necessario prerequiri & praesupponi in actu Praedestinandi & Reprobandi, sed non est tam in confesso apud omnes: Haec autem est Peccati infectio, quam a Deo praevisam putant in subjecto, priusquam vel praedestinari vel reprobari possit. Ex horum igitur sententia, ut actus hi terminentur ad creaturam, non sufficit quod rationalis sit, sed etiam praesupponitur quod peccatrix, sive peccato coinquinata sit. Haud lubens hanc litem meam fecerim; paucis tamen quid ab aliis sentiatur, & quid ipse sentiam, aperiam. Est itaque nobis necessario fatendum, non esse nuper natam, aut ignobilium Theologorum sententiam, quae ponit praedestinationem priorem praevisione peccati. Imo omnes fere qui per praedestinationem intellexerunt non tam mediorum praeparationem, quam meram designationem ad ipsum finem, hoc modo philosophati sunt. Scotus ubi assignat ordinem instantium in mente & voluntate Divina, semper statuit priorem esse voluntatem dandi beatitudinem praevisione lapsus, Lib. 1. dist. 41. qu. unica; & lib. 3. dist. 19. qu. 1. ponit Deum in primo instanti voluisse gloriam determinato numero electorum, in secundo ordinasse illis gratiam, in tertio praevidisse eos lapsuros in Adamo. Jam cum dico Scotum in hac sententia fuisse, intelligitis & alios quam plurimos, qui Scotistae haberi volunt, idem sensisse. Maclantus, Galatinus, Alfonfus Mendoza, aliique innumeri decretum praedestinationis, non solum decreto lapsus permittendi, sed etiam hominis creandi, prius esse docent. Hi ergo non putant peccatum praevisum esse conditionem, aut qualitatem subjecti, in quod cadere debet actus praedestinationis. Postremo, ex Jesuitis neotericis, ipse Suarez hanc sententiam sequitur, & communem esse testatur, hisce verbis: Probabiliorem existimo communem sententiam Theologorum asserentium, electionem hominum praedestinatorum antecessisse permissionem originalis peccati.

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

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.