Cap. VIII Resp. Secundo cont.: Rom. 1 / 2 Thess. / Pharaoh — further hardening vs first permissive denial

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Finally: the hardening Paul regards in Rom. 1:28 — He gave them over to a reprobate mind — and that which 2 Thess. 2:10-12 depicts — Because they received not the love of the truth, God shall send them strong delusion that they believe a lie — do not denote denial of the first efficacious grace, without which such hardening would never have come. They denote subtraction of some granted grace after its abuse — which subtraction we grant arises from men's demerits — and the hardening that follows we acknowledge as both sin and the wage of preceding sin. What is said of Pharaoh (Exod. 9: Jehovah hardened Pharaoh's heart) must either be taken of the first denial of special grace and permissive hardening — and then that will to harden, i.e. not to soften, as mere gratuitous negation of an act on God's part, could not arise from Pharaoh's foresighted demerits, because it precedes such foresight. Here refuge is Rom. 9: He has mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardens. Or those words may refer to a further hardening by which Pharaoh, of voluntary obstinacy, stiffened his own heart, God outwardly and inwardly furnishing occasions by which he certainly foresaw Pharaoh would be more hardened — even if by nature those occasions ought to have softened him. So God hardens an ungodly man for his demerits when, provoked by impiety, he takes occasion to withdraw granted grace and to act in ways he knows will make such a man worse. God is also said to harden without that regard to final demerits — only because he wills — when to a man considered in the common mass he has not prepared or given that special mercy he granted another in the same miserable condition. That is the hardening which argues reprobation, and it does not depend on foresight of final perseverance in sins. So the argument proceeds from an equivocation.

Latin

Denique illa induratio, quam respicit Apostolus, Rom. i. 28, Quo spectant illa verba, Tradidit illos in reprobum sensum; item et illa quam 2 Thess. ii. 10, 11, 12, Apostolus hisce verbis depingit, Quia non receperunt amorem veritatis, propterea iis mittet Deus efficaciam deceptionis, ut credant mendacio, etc., non denotant negationem primae gratiae efficacis, qua posita talis obduratio nunquam evenisset, sed subductionem gratiae alicujus concessae, ex abusu ejusdem, quam subductionem fieri ex hominum demeritis non diffitemur: atque obdurationem inde consequentem et peccatum et peccati praecedentis mercedem agnoscimus. Quod autem de Pharaone dicitur Exod. ix. Obduravit Jehovah cor Pharaonis, id aut de prima negatione gratiae specialis, et permissiva obduratione intelligi debet, et tum haec voluntas obdurandi, id est, non-emolliendi, quae consideratur ut negatio gratuita actionis ex parte Dei, non potuit ex praevisis Pharaonis demeritis oriri, quia talem praevisionem antecedit. Hic igitur ad illud Apostoli confugiendum est, Miserebitur cujus vult, et quem vult indurat. Vel possunt illa verba ad ulteriorem obdurationem referri, qua Pharao voluntaria pervicacia cor suum obfirmavit, Deo exterius et interius praebente illas occasiones, quibus certo praescivit Pharaonem magis obdurandum, etiamsi ex natura sua valere debuissent ad illum emolliendum. Deus igitur obdurat hominem impium propter sua demerita, quando ejus impietate provocatus sumit occasionem subducendi gratiam concessam, et quaedam agendi, ex quibus novit talem hominem fore deteriorem. Ac Deus etiam indurare dicitur absque hoc intuitu ad finalia demerita, ideo tantum quia vult, quando homini in communi massa considerato non praeparavit, non dedit illam specialem misericordiam, quam alteri in eadem misera conditione concessit. Atque haec est illa induratio quae arguit reprobationem, quaeque ex praevisione finalis perseverantiae in peccatis haud dependet. Ex aequivoco igitur non procedit argumentatio.

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

Copy-text Locked Latin, De morte Christi Cap. 1-5 densify through Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Fathers tip (Daniel 1650) (Latin)
Print Facsimile Internet Archive PDF of the 1650 Cambridge folio (Latin)
Checked print Internet Archive DjVu OCR of the 1650 Cambridge folio (Latin)

This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.