Fathers

Two Dissertations · §228

Cap. II: Prosper & Hilary on Massilians — Semipelagian close before Scholastics

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These Semipelagians are clearest in the letters of Prosper and Hilary to Augustine — both prefixed to Augustine's On the Predestination of the Saints. Prosper reports their definition: God foresaw before the world's founding who would believe, or who would stay in the faith later helped by his grace, and predestined to his kingdom those he foresaw, once called by grace, would be worthy of election and would leave this life with a good end. Hilary: the Massilians say it empties preaching to speak of some as elect according to purpose, and so on. A few lines later: they claim that by the merit of each person's willing and believing, one can be healed of disease and gain both the increase of that faith and the full effect of one's holiness. In short, they put the reason for elect or reject in this: each is paired with the merit of his own will. They grant God does not elect anyone's works in foresight of gifts he himself will give; yet they affirm he elects faith in foresight — so that whom he foresaw would believe, he elected, and to him gives the Holy Spirit so that by good works he may reach eternal life. Finally they hold that no one is given such perseverance that falling away is impossible; and so they deny any fixed number of those to be elected and rejected. I thought this worth quoting a little more fully, so you may see how near they stand to the Pelagians or Semipelagians who in our own age try to explode Augustine's teaching — rooted in Scripture and long confirmed by the catholic Church's witness.

Latin

Sed horum Semipelagianorum sententia clarissime intelligi potest ex Epistola Prosperi & Hilarii ad Augustinum, quae ambae praefiguntur libro quem inscripsit Augustinus De praedestinatione sanctorum. De istis sic scribit Prosper, Haec ipsorum definitio est; Qui credituri sunt, quive in ea fide, quae deinceps per Dei gratiam sit juvanda, mansuri sunt, praescisse ante mundi constitutionem Deum, & eos praedestinasse in regnum suum, quos gratis vocatos, dignos futuros electione, & de hac vita bono fine excessuros praeviderit. Et Hilarius, Massilienses inutile esse praedicationi dicant, quod quidam secundum propositum eligendi dicantur, &c. Et pauculis interjectis, Asserunt eo merito, quo voluerit & crediderit unusquisque, a suo morbo se posse sanari, & ipsius fidei augmentum, & totius sanctitatis suae consequi effectum. De compendio, putant rationem reddi electorum vel rejectorum in eo, quod unicuique meritum propriae voluntatis adjungitur. Concedunt Deum non eligere opera cujusquam in praescientia quae ipse donaturus est; sed affirmant, fidem eligere in praescientia, ut quem crediturum esse praescivit, ipsum elegerit, cui spiritum sanctum donet, ut bene operando aeternam vitam consequeretur. Denique, nemini dari talem perseverantiam putant, a qua non permittitur praevaricari; atque idcirco non admittunt eligendorum & rejiciendorum esse numerum definitum. Haec paulo latius recitanda putavi, ut videatis, quam prope absint a Pelagianis aut Semipelagianis, qui nostro hoc saeculo Augustini doctrinam, in sacris Scripturis fundatam, & catholicae Ecclesiae testimonio olim confirmatam, explosum eunt.

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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