Fathers

Two Dissertations · §52

Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Rat. 4: Merit works only as the Father accepts it — never before faith

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Ratio 4. The whole force and efficacy of that merit which Christ by his death prepared for the good of the human race, as regards its outflow and derivation into other persons, depends on the will of the Father who ordains and accepts it.

For who would dare snatch the merit of Christ to himself in another manner, or under another law, than that by which God himself ordained it to be communicated to human beings and accepted in their name? Indeed if anyone tries to do this, he will have done it in vain: for the merit of Christ is so great a good to us as it was accepted by God — as Scotus taught not inconveniently in this our sense (Sentences book 3, distinction 19, unique question, p. 74).

But it was by no means accepted by God so as to produce actual remission of sins and reconciliation for any mortal before penitence, faith, and insertion into Christ. Therefore it does not actually justify, or reconcile to God, anyone except the penitent and the believing.

That it was not so accepted as to reconcile anyone before faith is clear from an argument drawn negatively from the Scriptures, in this way. No word occurs in the Sacred Scriptures from which it can be gathered that by the very force and efficacy of Christ’s death all human beings are promiscuously placed in the state of grace, or that any human being — whether elect or non-elect — before penitence and faith obtains, by the virtue of Christ’s blood poured out on the cross, remission of sins or actual reconciliation with God. Therefore it is rash to assert this.

Nor is there any reason for rejecting an argument of this kind drawn from the authority of the Scriptures negatively. For although in more middling matters, which do not concern the summit of our salvation, the reasoning is weak — This is not set down in the Scriptures; therefore it is false or illicit — yet in matters necessary to do or to know for salvation, such as the mode of obtaining remission and reconciliation with God, it follows most soundly: This is not taught in the Scriptures; therefore it is not to be believed by us. Since therefore the Scriptures nowhere teach that by the death of Christ remission of sins, or actual reconciliation, is conferred on any singular person before he has repented and believed in Christ, it is by no means to be admitted under pretext of amplifying the dignity of Christ’s death, or under any other pretext.

Latin

Rat. 4. Tota vis et efficacia meriti ejus, quod Christus morte sua in bonum humani generis comparavit, quoad effluxum et derivationem in alias personas, pendet a voluntate Patris illud ordinante et acceptante. Quis enim ausit Christi meritum ad se rapere alio modo, aut alia lege, quam Deus ipse illud hominibus communicandum, et eorum nomine acceptilandum ordinavit? Sane si quis hoc facere conetur, frustra fecerit: Nam meritum Christi tantum bonum est nobis, pro quanto acceptabatur a Deo, ut Scotus hoc nostro sensu haud incommode docuit, l. 3. dist. 19. qu. unic. pag. 74. At a Deo minime acceptatum est, ut pareret actualem remissionem peccatorum, et reconciliationem cuiquam mortalium ante poenitentiam, fidem, et insertionem in Christum: Ergo non actu justificat, aut Deo reconciliat nisi poenitentes et credentes. Non fuisse autem ita acceptatum ut quenquam reconciliaret ante fidem, patet argumento a Scripturis negative, hoc modo. Nullum verbum occurrit in Sacris Scripturis ex quo colligi potest, ipsa vi et efficacia mortis Christi omnes homines in statum gratiae promiscue reponi, aut ullum hominem, sive electum sive non-electum, ante poenitentiam et fidem, obtinere virtute sanguinis Christi in cruce fusi, remissionem peccatorum aut actualem reconciliationem cum Deo: Ergo temerarium est hoc asserere. Neque est quod quis rejiciat hujusmodi argumentum ductum ab autoritate Scripturarum negative: Quia licet in rebus mediocrioribus, quae summam salutis nostrae non spectant, infirma sit argumentatio, Hoc non est positum in Scripturis, Ergo falsum est aut illicitum, tamen in rebus ad salutem factu aut cognitu necessariis, quale est modus impetrandae remissionis et reconciliationis cum Deo, optime sequitur, Hoc in Scripturis non docetur, Ergo non est a nobis credendum. Cum ergo Scripturae nullibi doceant, Christi morte cuiquam singulari personae remissionem peccatorum, aut reconciliationem actualem conferri, priusquam poenituerit, et in Christum crediderit, sub praetextu amplificandi dignitatem mortis Christi, aut quocunque alio minime est admittendum.

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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