Two Dissertations · §399

Cap. IV Arg. 9 Sol: Minor — Christ founds more than the general decree; Christianity's true foundations

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On the Minor in a word: Christ is foundation of that general decree to save whosoever under the condition of faith — but not of that alone; also of other decrees by which singular persons, given by the Father to Christ before the world's foundations, will in their time be gifted grace and glory. Remonstrants should not bury those later decrees in obstinate silence and stick in the first universal one, unless they think there never was a decree in God's mind to imbue singular persons with efficacious grace and lead them by it to glory. They cry the Major plain because no salvation except in Christ — a frivolous proof. Because no benefit is decreed for us except in Christ, is every Christ-founded salvation-decree therefore our election itself? That coheres like sand without lime. They say the Minor is clear because I will save all Believers founds Christianity, salvation, and certainty. I answer: that general decree alone is not Christianity's foundation. There are others — chief among them that faith, perseverance, and whatever leads infallibly to heaven are special gifts of special grace, not contingent effects from the choice of a man not yet elected, and motives of divine election.

Latin

Ad Minorem verbo respondere sufficit; Christum esse fundamentum generalis ejus decreti de salvandis quibuscunque sub conditione fidei; sed non ejus solius, verum etiam aliorum decretorum, secundum quae singularibus personis, Christo a Patre datis ante jacta mundi fundamenta, gratia et gloria suo tempore donabitur. Non debuerunt Remonstrantes tam obstinato silentio obruere haec posteriora decreta, et in illo primo universali haerere, nisi opinentur nullum unquam fuisse decretum in mente Divina de singularibus personis efficaci gratia imbuendis, et per talem gratiam ad gloriam perducendis. Pergamus, et ea pensitemus quae ad confirmationem utriusque propositionis adducta sunt. Majorem clamant esse manifestam, quia nulla est salus vel benedictio ad salutem nisi in Christo. Frivola probatio. An quia nullum beneficium decernitur in nos conferendum nisi in Christo, idcirco quodlibet decretum ad salutem nostram spectans, cujus fundamentum est Christus, erit ipsissima nostra electio? Tam hoc cohaeret quam arena sine calce. Sed Minorem perspicuam etiam esse dicunt, quia illud unicum decretum, Ego salvabo omnes Credentes, est fundamentum Christianismi, salutis, et certitudinis de salute. Respondeo, illud unicum decretum generale non esse fundamentum Christianismi. Sunt enim alia Christianismi fundamenta, et inter alia illud praecipuum fundamentum; Fidem et perseverantiam, ac quicquid ad caelum ducit infallibiliter, esse specialia specialis gratiae dona, non autem contingentia effecta ex arbitrio hominis nondum electi nascentia, et electionis Divinae motiva.

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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