Fathers

Two Dissertations · §235

Cap. II Sol. Arg. 1: works path to glory, not cause of decree — Scotus & Bellarmine

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From these words you may gather only this: God's children, freely predestined from eternity to glory, at last enter it — others shut out — because they alone took the straight road God ordained. Vasquez's claim that the works named here are causes of the preparation itself, or of God's eternal destination, is utterly false. The true cause is hinted when they are called the Father's blessed: he destined them to the heavenly inheritance because by grace he willed to be their Father in Christ. Their works, neither as foresight nor as done in time, caused predestination to glory — only introduction into it; and even of that they are not meritorious causes, only subordinate ones, as motion on a road is a "cause" of reaching the end. Vasquez's slip: he missed that decreeing or predestining to glory can be purely gratuitous in God and rest on no foresight of human acts, while the way of arriving at glory for man is laborious and needs many acts without which God ordained and foresaw he would never put in to glory's kingdom. Scotus (I dist. 41) marks the solution: "God wills to give Peter eternal glory on account of merits" is false if "on account of merits" construes with "wills" — God did not form the will to glorify Peter from foresight of merits — and true if it construes with "to give": he will not bring into possession of glory until it is foresight that Peter walked in the good works God prescribed and preordained. Bellarmine uses the same reply (De grat. et lib. arb. 2.13): "God from eternity predestined to give men the kingdom through foresight good works" is false if "through foresight works" hangs on "predestined," true if it hangs on "to give" — glorification in execution as the effect of justification, sanctification, or good works. This argument will be pressed again, harder; we will answer more fully then.

Latin

Ex his verbis nihil aliud colligi potest, quam Dei filios, ab aeterno ad gloriam gratis praedestinatos, tandem illud adire, vel in illud intromitti, exclusis aliis, quia hi soli per rectam & a Deo ordinatam viam eo perrexerunt. Quod autem Vasques urget praedicta opera hoc in loco nominari ut causas ipsius praeparationis, sive aeternae destinationis Divinae, falsissimum est. Nam vera causa innuitur, quando benedicti Patris appellantur. Ideo siquidem haereditati caelesti illos destinavit quia ex gratia sua voluit effici illorum Pater in Christo. Opera autem illorum, neque ut praevisa, neque ut in tempore facta, erant causa praedestinationis ad gloriam, sed introductionis: neque hujus sunt causae meritoriae, sed causae solummodo subordinatae, eodem sensu quo motus in via causa dicitur perveniendi ad terminum viae. In hoc igitur lapsus est Vasques, quod non animadvertit, actum decernendi vel praedestinandi ad gloriam posse esse mere gratuitum in Deo, & nulla niti praevisione actuum humanorum: cum tamen modus perveniendi ad gloriam quoad hominem sit laboriosus, & requirat multos actus, sine quibus Deus ordinavit ac praevidit illum ad gloriae regnum nunquam appulsurum. Scotus hanc solutionem indicavit Lib. 1. dist. 41. ubi scribit, hanc propositionem, DEUS VULT PETRO DARE AETERNAM GLORIAM PROPTER MERITA, esse falsam, si illa verba, PROPTER MERITA, construantur cum verbo, VULT: non enim Deus ex praevisione meritorum concepit voluntatem glorificandi Petrum. Esse veram, si construantur cum verbo, DARE: non enim vult introducere in possessionem gloriae, nisi postquam praevisum est ambulasse in illis bonis operibus, quae Deus illi praescripsit & praeordinavit. Bellarminus eadem responsione utitur lib. 2. De grat. & libero arb. cap. 13. Haec propositio, DEUS AB AETERNO PRAEDESTINAVIT HOMINIBUS DARE REGNUM PER BONA OPERA PRAEVISA, potest & vera esse & falsa. Nam si illud, PER OPERA PRAEVISA, referatur ad verbum, PRAEDESTINAVIT, falsa erit: significabit enim Deum praedestinasse homines, quia opera illorum bona praeviderat; Si referatur ad verbum, DARE, vera erit: quia significabit glorificationem in exsecutione, esse effectum justificationis & sanctificationis sive operum bonorum. Sed hoc argumentum rursus urgebitur, & aliquanto fortius; ubi nos etiam plenius respondebimus.

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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