Fathers

Two Dissertations · §43

Cap. 4 Mem. 3 close: Ordinary power not tied to secret decrees; Thesis 2 closed

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Finally reason itself teaches that ordinary Divine power is not restricted by the secret decrees of eternal predestination. First, because we little humans sense that our power is not constrained according to the decrees of our will. He who has most firmly decreed with himself not to give alms to this singular human being does not thence lose the power of giving: and on the contrary, he who has decreed to give to another does not thence take from himself the power of not giving. For just as he freely willed one of opposites, when he could have willed the other, so also he freely does the one, the power of doing the other not lost. If the matter so stands in a human being, whose power is mutable and losable, how much more in God, whose power is immutable, eternal, and always the same. Second, because if we posit God’s ordinary power bound to his eternal and occult decrees and as it were circumscribed, we could ask nothing from God with sure faith — I do not say that he wills, but that he can help us. For example: if I sense myself struck by Satan himself with some heavy temptation, I cannot with the certainty of faith flee back to God as able to free me, because it is uncertain to me what he decreed from eternity about this matter. By like reason we could not pray God to convert any unbelievers to faith, to bring any impious persons back to penitence, with full persuasion that he can do what we ask; because what was decreed to God in secret before the foundations of the world about these things is hidden from us. Third, finally, because if nothing else is judged possible to be done besides those things which God decreed to be done, it would follow that Divine power is not infinite. For that power is finite which is equaled to finite effects and is educed into its whole act. But infinite power, as Halensis rightly has it, Part 1, question 21, Can be educed into act, but not into the whole. God can therefore do many things which he does not will — for example, gift any singular person whatever with faith, justify, save. Indeed, he can will many things which he does not will, and yet his will (as Lombard rightly has it, Book 1, Distinction 43, Letter E) Can be neither new nor mutable in any way. Which, although he can will what he never willed, yet not otherwise, nor by a new will, but only by a sempiternal will can he will. For he can will what from eternity he can have willed: for he has the power of willing, both now and from eternity, what yet he neither now wills nor from eternity willed. Thus far he.

We thought these things should be set out a little more fully, that it may stand clearer that Christ’s death is applicable to any wayfarer, because the condition of Faith and penitence is possible for any wayfarer, the secret decree of predestination or preterition in no way destroying or coarcting this power either on God’s part or on human beings’ part. Therefore those act with little consideration who try to overturn the universality of Christ’s death, pertaining to any human beings under the tenor of the Evangelical pact, by the decrees of occult election and preterition. So much for our second thesis: let us go on to the third.

Latin

Denique ipsa ratio docet Divinam potentiam ordinariam non artari per arcana decreta aeternae praedestinationis. 1. Quia nos homunculi sentimus potentiam nostram non constringi juxta placita voluntatis nostrae. Qui firmissime decrevit apud se huic homini singulari non dare eleemosynam, haud inde amittit potestatem dandi: et e contra, qui decrevit dare alteri, haud inde adimit sibi potestatem non dandi. Sicut enim libere voluit unum oppositorum, cum potuisset velle alterum; ita et libere facit unum, non amissa potentia faciendi alterum. Si res sic se habeat in homine, cujus potentia est mutabilis et amissibilis, quanto magis in Deo, cujus potentia est immutabilis, aeterna et semper eadem. 2. Quia si ponamus ordinariam Dei potentiam aeternis et occultis ejus decretis alligatam et quasi circumscriptam, nihil possemus a Deo petere cum certa fide, non dicam quod velit, sed quod possit nobis subvenire: Verbi causa, si sensero me ab ipso Satana gravi aliqua tentatione pulsatum, non possum cum fide certitudine ad Deum recurrere, quasi potentem me liberare, quia mihi incertum est quid hac de re ab aeterno decreverit. Pari ratione non possemus Deum orare ut quosvis infideles ad fidem convertat, ut quosvis impios ad poenitentiam reducat, cum plena persuasione quod possit facere illud quod rogamus; quia nos latet quid in occulto ante jacta mundi fundamenta hisce de rebus Deo decretum sit. 3. Denique quia si nihil aliud judicetur possibile fieri, praeter ea quae Deus decrevit facienda, sequeretur Divinam potentiam non esse infinitam. Finita est enim illa potentia quae finitis effectis adaequatur, et in totum suum actum educitur. Potentia siquidem infinita, ut recte Halensis, Part. 1. qu. 21, Potest educi in actum, sed non in totum. Potest igitur Deus multa facere quae non vult, puta hanc personam singularem quamcunque fide donare, justificare, salvare. Imo, potest multa velle quae non vult, et tamen ejus voluntas (ut recte Lombardus, Lib. 1. Dist. 43. Littera E) Nec nova, nec mutabilis aliquo modo potest esse. Quod etsi possit velle quod nunquam voluit, non tamen aliter, nec nova voluntate, sed sempiterna tantum voluntate velle potest. Potest enim velle quod ab aeterno potest voluisse: habet enim potentiam volendi, et nunc, et ab aeterno, quod tamen nec modo vult nec ab aeterno voluit. Hactenus ille. Paulo fusius haec edisserenda putavimus, ut clarius constet Christi mortem esse cuivis viatori applicabilem, quia Fidei et poenitentiae conditio est cuivis viatori possibilis, arcano praedestinationis aut praeteritionis decreto hanc potentiam sive ex parte Dei sive ex parte hominum nullatenus perimente aut coarctante. Parum igitur considerate faciunt, qui universalitatem mortis Christi, ad homines quoscunque sub Evangelici pacti tenore pertinentem, per occultae electionis et praeteritionis decreta conantur evertere. Tantum est de secunda nostra thesi: pergamus ad tertiam.

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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