Fathers

Two Dissertations · §233

Cap. II: Vasquez clarified — efficient election, merits as ratio, special grace vs Arminians

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First: by efficacious election Vasquez means God's absolute, particular will that settles on certain persons to be blessed — Peter, Paul, and the rest one by one. He calls it efficacious election, or an efficacious will to give glory, to mark it off from the common antecedent will (a bare desire or affection) by which they say God wills eternal life for all, even the reprobate. Second: when he says this efficacious election to glory is from foresight merits, he does not make those merits the cause of God's willing — no cause of that is sought outside God — but the reason why the divine will freely terminates on glorifying this person. Third: adding "which God's grace will bring about" cuts him off from Pelagians who let merits flow from free choice without Christ's grace, which Augustine everywhere proved from Scripture necessary. Last: though the Jesuit holds there is no efficacious election to glory except from foresight of merits, he gladly grants predestination to special grace that infallibly leads to glory rests on no foresight of merits, and no cause, start, or occasion can be invented on the predestinate's side why God gave that grace or decreed in foresight to give it (ST I q.23, disp. 91.11). On predestination of particular persons to special grace, then, the Jesuit is far sounder than the Arminian and Vorstian school. Now their arguments for the thesis: they start from Scripture and usually cite these for election from foresight works.

Latin

Primo, per electionem efficacem videtur Vasques designare absolutam & peculiarem Dei voluntatem quae ad singulares & certas personas certo beandas terminatur, puta ad Petrum & Paulum reliquosque electos sigillatim. Hanc autem vocat efficacem electionem, vel efficacem voluntatem dandi gloriam, ut distinguatur ab illa communi & antecedente voluntate, sive simplici desiderio, aut affectu, quo statuunt Deum velle omnibus communicare etiam ipsis reprobis, vitam aeternam. Secundo, quando affirmat ex meritis praevisis esse hanc efficacem electionem ad gloriam, non illud vult, praevisa merita humana esse causam ipsius volitionis Divinae, cujus nulla causa extra Deum quaerenda est; sed esse rationem propter quam Divina voluntas libere terminetur ad hanc personam glorificandam. Tertio, quando addit, quae Dei gratia facturus est, vult suam sententiam a Pelagianis sejungere, qui merita, sive bona opera, ex libero arbitrio dimanare putabant absque illa gratia Christi, quam passim Augustinus ex sacris Scripturis esse necessariam demonstravit. Postremo, animadvertendum est, quamvis Jesuita tueatur, electionem efficacem ad gloriam non esse, nisi ex praevisione meritorum; lubenter tamen eundem concedere praedestinationem ad gratiam specialem, quae infallibiliter ducit ad gloriam, nulla niti praevisione meritorum, neque ex parte praedestinati excogitari posse ullam causam, ullum initium, ullam occasionem, cur Deus illi talem gratiam donaverit, aut in praescientia dare decreverit: Part. 1. quaest. 23. disp. 91. cap. 11. Hac igitur ex parte, de praedestinatione singularium personarum ad gratiam specialem multo rectius sentit Jesuita quam qui ex Schola Arminiana & Vorstiana prodierunt. Sed jam quibus argumentis praedictam thesin adstruant, dispiciamus. A Scripturis auspicantur, atque inde haec testimonia afferre solent pro electione ex praevisis operibus.

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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