Fathers

Two Dissertations · §531

Cap. VIII Arg. 5 Resp.: Rom. 11 concerns visible grafting of peoples, not eternal election of persons

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Nor does the confirming text from Romans 11 help. Paul is not speaking of particular elect persons but of the whole body of Jews and Gentiles taken indefinitely. He is not teaching that some singular man is cut off for unbelief and struck from the number of the elect, then grafted back by recovered faith as by postliminium. He says only that the Jews in general, by unbelief, ceased to be God's covenant people, and that the Gentiles, embracing the gospel faith, succeeded into their place. To strip the Gentiles of every occasion for pride, he adds: if the Jews believe in Christ and stop persisting in unbelief, they are to be grafted in — admitted to the covenant people; and if the Gentiles who now rejoice as Church and people of God spring back from Christ's faith, they too will be broken off and cut from the Church's body. That threat has taken effect in many Gentiles who defected from Christ's faith to Mahometan superstition and stand torn from the covenant body. How does any of this prove that eternal reprobation of particular persons flowed from regard to their future unbelief as moving cause? It proves nothing. Paul discusses visible grafting and breaking of peoples, not eternal election and reprobation of individuals. That grafting and breaking denotes temporal admission or rejection of a nation from covenant status — one by faith, the other by unbelief. Sound theology abhors making reprobates into elect or elect into reprobates; yet Paul expressly teaches that those grafted of whom he speaks can be broken off, and those broken off grafted again.

Latin

Neque posterius, quod in confirmationem argumenti adducitur, quicquam facit ad rem. Apostolus enim non de singularibus personis electis sed de toto corpore Judaeorum et Gentium indefinite et indiscriminatim considerato loquitur. Neque de electione et reprobatione aeterna affirmat, aliquem singularem hominem propter incredulitatem exscindi et quasi expungi e numero electorum, et denuo fide recuperata quasi postliminio inseri: sed modo Judaeos in genere sua infidelitate desiisse esse populum Dei foederatum, et Gentes amplexando fidem evangelicam in illorum locum successisse. Atque ut Gentibus adimat omnem superbiendi occasionem, ait Judaeos, si in Christum credant et in sua infidelitate persistere desinant, inserendos, hoc est, in foederatum Dei populum admittendos; Gentes autem, quae nunc gaudent nomine Ecclesiae et populi Dei, si resiliant a fide Christi, fore etiam defringendas, et a corpore Ecclesiae exscindendas. Haec interminatio in multis Gentibus effectum sortita est, quae a fide Christi ad superstitionem Mahumeticam desciscentes, a corpore Ecclesiae, hoc est, foederati Dei populi, revulsae conspiciuntur. Sed quid interim haec omnia conducunt ad probandam singularium personarum reprobationem aeternam, ex consideratione futurae illorum incredulitatis, tanquam causae motivae, profluxisse? Profecto nihil: Quia non de singularium personarum aeterna electione et reprobatione, sed de visibili Gentium insitione et defractione disserit Apostolus: quia haec insitio et defractio, cujus mentionem facit, non denotat aeternam electionem aut reprobationem singularium personarum, sed temporalem admissionem aut rejectionem alicujus gentis a statu populi foederati, quorum alterum fit mediante fide, alterum mediante infidelitate: quia ab omni sana Theologia abhorret, statuere, aliquos reprobatos fieri posse electos, aut aliquos electos reprobatos; et tamen Apostolus expresse docet hosce insitos, de quibus loquitur, posse fieri defractos, et hosce defractos posse rursus fieri insitos.

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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