Fathers

Two Dissertations · §26

Cap. 3 Obj. 15: Wisely destined means do not exceed their adequate end — the elect’s salvation

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Obj. 15. Means wisely destined do not exceed their adequate end: But the adequate end of Christ’s death is the salvation of the elect: Therefore Christ’s death has no ordination to any other non-elect whatever: Therefore it is falsely established as applicable to all human beings by God’s ordination.

Sol. I acknowledge that the infallible salvation of the elect is, under the glory of God, a certain special and outstanding end for attaining which Christ’s death was destined: Yet I deny that it was the unique or sole end. For God sent his Son into the world, and willed him to die, not only that he might efficaciously save the elect, but also that remission of sins and eternal life might be generally offered to any human beings whatever in the Gospel, and even conferred, if they believed. But this general or conditional covenant is not understood as established unless Christ’s death by God’s ordination is presupposed applicable to all human beings, and to be applied in fact to anyone as soon as he has believed. Scripture has clearly indicated this end in many places: (John 3:14–15): As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. And (John 6:40): This is the will of my Father who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life. (Acts 10:43): To him all the Prophets bear witness, that through his name everyone who believes in him receives remission of sins. I pass over the rest. From these it is plain enough that, although not all but the elect alone believe, God specially softening their hearts, yet Christ’s death was so offered by the Son to God the Father, so also offered indiscriminately by God the Father to human beings, so announced promiscuously to all by Evangelical ministers, that anyone may gather from this that there is a certain firm and stable ordination of God according to which Christ’s death pertains to all human beings. The non-elect by their unbelief make this ordination useless to themselves: but they do not make such an ordination to be counted as nothing, or to be acknowledged as by no means established by Christ’s death as regards these unbelievers. For if we admit this, any unbeliever could plead, Even if I had believed the Gospel, I would not have been freed from sins by Christ’s death, because Christ’s death had no ordination according to which I could have been partaker of it. Which is diametrically contrary to the words of Christ himself (John 3:17–18): God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned; but whoever does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is what holy Prosper says: The death of Christ has indeed in itself what would profit all; but if it is not drunk, it does not heal. That it has in itself what can profit all, it has from the general Divine ordination: but that it is not drunk by many through faith, happens from common human unbelief: that it is drunk by some, comes from special Divine pity.

Latin

Obj. 15. Media sapienter destinata finem adaequatum non excedunt: At finis adaequatus mortis Christi est salus electorum: Ergo mors Christi nullam habet ordinationem ad alios quosvis non-electos: Ergo falso statuitur ex ordinatione Dei omnibus hominibus applicabilis. Sol. Agnosco infallibilem salutem electorum esse, sub gloria Dei, finem quendam specialem et eximium cui consequendo mors Christi destinabatur: Nego tamen fuisse unicum aut solum finem. Deus enim misit in mundum Filium suum, eumque mori voluit, non modo ut efficaciter salvaret electos, sed etiam ut remissio peccatorum et vita aeterna hominibus quibuscunque in Evangelio generaliter afferri posset et etiam conferri, si crederent. Hoc autem pactum generale sive conditionale stabilitum haud intelligitur, nisi mors Christi ex ordinatione Dei omnibus hominibus applicabilis praesupponatur, et cuivis quamprimum crediderit actu applicanda. Hunc finem Scriptura clare indicavit multis in locis: Johan. iii. 14, 15. Sicut Moses exaltavit serpentem in deserto, ita exaltari oportet Filium hominis, ut omnis qui credit in ipsum non pereat, sed habeat vitam aeternam. Et Johan. vi. 40. Haec est voluntas Patris mei qui misit me, ut omnis qui videt Filium et credit in eum, habeat vitam aeternam. Act. x. 43. Huic omnes Prophetae testimonium perhibent, remissionem peccatorum accipere per nomen ejus, omnes qui credunt in eum. Mitto reliqua. Ex hisce satis liquet, utcunque non omnes sed soli electi credant, Deo ipsorum corda specialiter emolliente, tamen mortem Christi ita Deo Patri per Filium oblatam, ita etiam a Deo Patre hominibus indiscriminatim oblatam, ita a Ministris Evangelicis promiscue omnibus annunciatam, ut quivis inde colligat esse firmam et stabilem quandam Dei ordinationem, juxta quam mors Christi ad omnes homines pertineat. Hanc ordinationem sua infidelitate non-electi faciunt sibi inutilem: at non faciunt ut talis ordinatio pro nulla habeatur, aut quoad hosce incredulos morte Christi minime stabilita agnoscatur. Nam si hoc admittamus, quivis incredulus posset obtendere, Etiamsi ego credidissem Evangelio, non fuissem morte Christi a peccatis liberandus, quia mors Christi nullam habuit ordinationem juxta quam ego ejusdem particeps esse potuissem. Quod e diametro adversatur verbis ipsius Christi, Johan. iii. 17, 18. Non misit Deus Filium suum in mundum, ut condemnet mundum, sed ut servetur mundus per eum. Qui credit in eum, non condemnatur: qui vero non credit, jam condemnatus est, quia non credidit in nomen unigeniti Filii Dei. Atque hoc est quod sanctus Prosper, Mors Christi habet quidem in se ut omnibus prosit; sed si non bibitur, non medetur. Quod in se habeat ut omnibus prodesse possit, id habet ex generali ordinatione Divina: quod autem a multis per fidem non bibatur, id accidit ex communi infidelitate humana: quod ab aliquibus bibatur, id provenit ex speciali miseratione Divina.

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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