Cap. II: Faustus — initiative, progress, election from foresight merits

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

On that prior effort and labor Faustus writes (1.12): just as the prodigal's flight from a pious father's eyes is his own crime, so his return to the father's embrace — deliberating and rising by the good planted in him — is his own devotion. Chapter 17: the Lord invites the willing, draws the desiring, raises the striving. The last chapter: he waits for the will of the one to be cleansed. On progress and perseverance by free choice's powers — not by any special gift flowing from the predestination decree — he reasons (2.5): human salvation is set not in the Maker's predestination, but in the working of the one who serves the Giver of grace. Chapter 12: a person's state can turn this way or that not by God's constitution, but by liberty of choice. At last he openly teaches election from foresight of such good will and working of ours, not from any prior decree of God (2.2): God's foresight begins from the matter of human acts. A little later: to foresee is one thing, to predestine another. Foresight knows beforehand what is to be done; then predestination marks out what is to be repaid. That foresights merits; this preordains rewards. Foresight belongs to power, predestination to justice. Unless foresight has searched, predestination decides nothing. In these words he does not draw merits from the grace of predestination — he draws predestination from foresight merits.

Latin

De praevio conatu & labore scribit Faustus lib. 1. cap. 12. Sicut sui criminis est, quod filius prodigus longe pii parentis fugit oculos, ita suae est devotionis, quod per insitum sibi bonum deliberans & assurgens, ad paternos recurrit amplexus. Et cap. 17. Dominus invitat volentem, attrahit desiderantem, erigit adnitentem. Et cap. ult. Voluntatem ejus qui est purgandus, exspectat. De progressu & perseverantia per vires liberi arbitrii, non per donum aliquod speciale manans a decreto praedestinationis, sic philosophatur, Lib. 2. sect. 5. Salutem hominis non in praedestinatione Factoris, sed in operatione famulantis largitor gratiae collocavit. Et Cap. 12. Status hominis in diversa, non pro constitutione Dei, sed pro arbitrii libertate potest versari. Denique electionem nostram ex praescientia hujusmodi bonae voluntatis & operationis nostrae, non ex Dei decreto aliquo antecedente, aperte docet lib. 2. sect. 2. Praescientia Dei de materia humanorum actuum sumit exordium. Et paulo post, Aliud est praescire, aliud praedestinare. Praescientia gerenda praenoscit, postmodum praedestinatio retribuenda describit. Illa praevidet merita, haec praeordinat praemia. Praescientia ad potentiam, praedestinatio ad justitiam pertinet. Nisi praescientia exploraverit, praedestinatio nihil decernit. Hisce verbis non a gratia praedestinationis arcessit merita, sed a praevisis meritis praedestinationem.

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.