Cap. 1 subject: Aquinas on reprobation/permission; Calvin not inventor

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Aquinas even seems to lean toward saying reprobation in fact preceded foresight of original sin. When he calls reprobation that part of Divine providence which permits some to fall short of beatitude, he implies that permission to fail from the means that lead to beatitude flows from reprobation — and so, in our way of understanding, is posterior to it. If permission to fail follows reprobation, then foresight of the actual fall follows all the more: it is foreseen only on the hypothesis of permission. I bring this in not because I cling to that opinion, but to touch in passing the ignorance — or malice? — of those who curse Calvin or Beza as if they invented a view no less current among Scholastics and even Pontificians than the contrary view that puts the sin-infected human as predestination's subject. As for Calvin (so far as I can judge): he rightly denies that foresight of sin is the cause of predestination or reprobation; yet with Augustine he always holds that consideration of foreseen sin stands before God as he predestinates or reprobates — as a common condition of the subject. Clear words: If all whom the Lord predestines to death are by natural condition liable to death's judgment, if all are taken from a corrupted mass, no wonder they lie under damnation. Hear clearer still. After Paul taught that God from a lost mass elects and reprobates whom he wills, why and how so little helps that, terrified, he breaks into O the depth! (Tractate on God's eternal predestination, p. 711). Beza, Zanchi, and other learned men speak more harshly and set consideration of the corrupted mass wholly after the decree of predestination — yet they never think anyone's damnation decreed except on presupposed sin.

Latin

Imo videtur Aquinas magis inclinare in illam sententiam, quae asserit ipsam reprobationem de facto antecessisse praevisionem originalis peccati. Nam cum dicit reprobare esse illam partem Divinae providentiae, quae permittit aliquos a fine beatitudinis deficere, innuit ipsam permissionem deficiendi a mediis ad beatitudinem ducentibus fluere a reprobatione, & proinde esse illa posteriorem secundum nostrum modum intelligendi. Quod si ipsa permissio deficiendi sequatur Reprobationem, tum multo magis praevisio actualis defectionis sive lapsus: praevidetur enim non nisi ex hypothesi permissionis. Haec a me in eum finem adducuntur, non quod huic sententiae adhaerescam, sed ut obiter perstringam illorum inscitiam dicam, an malitiam? qui Calvinum aut Bezam lacerant maledictis, quasi primarios autores hujus sententiae, quae inter Scholasticos & ipsos Pontificios non minus recepta est, quam illa contraria, quae ponit hominem peccato infectum subjectum praedestinationis. Atque ad Calvinum quod attinet, (quantum ego possum judicare) quamvis recte neget praescientiam peccati esse causam praedestinationis aut reprobationis; tamen cum Augustino semper statuit, praevisi peccati considerationem obversari Deo praedestinanti aut reprobanti, tanquam communem conditionem subjecti. Clara sunt illa verba, Si judicio mortis obnoxii sunt omnes naturali conditione, quos ad mortem Dominus praedestinat, si ex corrupta massa desumpti sunt omnes, non mirum si damnationi subjacent. Sed adhuc clariora audite. Postquam Paulus Deum ex perdita massa eligere & reprobare quos illi visum est, docuit, quare & quomodo id fiat adeo non expedit, ut potius expavescens in clamorem illum erumpat, O altitudo! Tract. De aeterna Dei praedestinatione, pag. 711. Scio Bezam, & Zanchium, aliosque viros perdoctos paulo durius loqui, & massae corruptae considerationem decreto praedestinationis omnino postponere, nunquam tamen damnationem alicujus decerni putant nisi ex praesupposito peccato.

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.