Fathers

Two Dissertations · §440

Cap. VI Arg. 1: Aquinas, Vasquez — preparation of grace cannot depend on foresight faith

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Passing Augustine's definition, hear the Scholastics. Aquinas: Predestination is nothing but preparation of grace now and glory hereafter. A man in the corrupt lost mass — we cannot even suspect that grace and glory are prepared for him from antecedent consideration of persevering faith in him. It is ridiculous to say God decrees and prepares for a man the grace he first considered as already had and obtained. Elsewhere Aquinas: Predestination is a certain reason of ordering some to eternal salvation existing in the divine mind — and the execution of that order is passively in the predestinated, actively in God. If predestination is an ordination of certain ones to salvation, we must not think some men by persevering faith first ordained to life — nay placed as it were in life's vestibule — before God elects or predestinates them. Hear even the Jesuits, fiercest enemies of our defense. Vasquez: Predestination is God's eternal purpose by which he prepares grace for someone unto eternal life. A purpose preparing grace that leads infallibly to eternal life cannot depend on foresight faith — that faith is the very grace in view — so it must be referred to God's mere will. That clear truth extorted this candid Jesuit confession: discrimination of predestinated from reprobate begins before their consent absolutely foreseen — therefore before foresight faith or any merits, which without human-will consent cannot even be understood.

Latin

Sed missa Augustini definitione, audiamus ipsos Scholasticos. Aquinas dicit, Praedestinationem nil aliud esse quam praeparationem gratiae in praesenti, et gloriae in futuro. Hominem autem in massa corrupta, perdito, ne suspicari quidem possumus ei hanc gratiam et gloriam praeparari ex antecedente aliqua fidei perseverantis in eodem homine consideratione. Ridiculum est enim dicere, Deum homini decernere et praeparare illam gratiam, quam prius ut habitam et obtentam consideravit. Idem Aquinas alibi; Praedestinatio est quaedam ratio ordinis aliquorum in salutem aeternam in mente Divina existens. Atque mox subjungit, Exsecutionem hujus ordinis esse passive in praedestinatis, active autem in Deo. Si praedestinatio sit ordinatio quorundam in salutem, non debemus cogitare homines quosdam per fidem perseverantem prius ordinatos ad vitam, imo in ipso quasi vitae vestibulo positos, priusquam a Deo eligantur, aut praedestinentur. Sed ipsos Jesuitas defensionis nostrae hostes acerrimos audiamus. Sic igitur Vasquez, Praedestinatio est propositum aeternum Dei, quo gratiam alicui praeparat in vitam aeternam. Propositum praeparans gratiam quae ducit ad vitam aeternam infallibiliter, non potest ex praevisa hominum fide dependere, cum haec fides sit illa ipsa gratia de qua loquimur: Ad meram ergo Dei voluntatem referatur est necesse. Haec tam clara veritas extorsit Jesuitae ingenuam hanc confessionem, Discretio praedestinatorum a reprobis incipit ante consensum ipsorum absolute praevisum. ergo ante praevisam fidem, aut merita qualiacunque, quae sine consensu voluntatis humanae ne intelligi quidem possunt.

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.

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