Fathers

Two Dissertations · §55

Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Fathers: Theodoret and Cyril — the universal cause needs faith’s application

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Third in place let Theodoret come forth, writing on those words of the Apostle (Romans 3:25): Whom God set forth to be a propitiatory through faith in his blood, and so on. The Lord Christ, he says, is the propitiatory, and by his blood procured our salvation, requiring from us faith alone.

From which words we gather that Christ, with his death and all his merits, has been so constituted the universal cause of our redemption, reconciliation, and salvation, that before the fruit of this redemption and salvation procured through Christ is participated by anyone, this universal cause must be applied specially to individuals. Now that this fruitful application may happen, as Theodoret well warned, God requires faith from us. Faith being absent, Christ’s death considered in itself confers on no one the state of actual reconciliation, grace, and salvation.

Cyril also stands in the same sentence. Explaining those words of our Savior (John 3:36) — He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who is unbelieving toward the Son will not see life — he gathers thus (book 2, chapter 74): Therefore Christ vivifies believers in himself, because, since according to nature he is life, he dwells in all the faithful through faith.

However much, then, Christ is life itself, yet he does not vivify anyone except believers — which Cyril confirmed by an excellent and most valid reason, namely because he does not dwell in human beings except in believers. As if he had said: the fountain of life does not actually vivify except those joined to himself, and the joined are held to be the faithful alone. Badly, therefore, do they argue who from either the death or the very life of Christ gather that either all or any human beings are constituted in the state of life, grace, and salvation before they are united to Christ by this bond of faith.

Latin

Tertio in loco prodeat Theodoretus, scribens in illa verba Apostoli, Rom. iii. 25. Quem proposuit Deus ut esset propitiatorium per fidem in sanguine ipsius, &c. Dominus Christus, inquit, propitiatorium est, & suo sanguine nostram salutem procuravit, solam a nobis fidem exigens. Ex quibus verbis colligimus, Christum cum morte meritisque suis omnibus sic constitutum esse causam universalem redemtionis, reconciliationis & salutis nostrae, ut priusquam fructus redemtionis & salutis hujus per Christum procuratae a quoquam participetur, oporteat, hanc causam universalem ad singulos specialiter applicari. Jam vero ut fiat haec fructuosa applicatio, quod bene monuit Theodoretus, Deus a nobis fidem exigit. Dum igitur abest fides, Christi mors in se considerata nemini confert statum actualis reconciliationis, gratiae & salutis. Cyrillus etiam in eadem sententia est constitutus, qui lib. 2. cap. 74. explicans illa verba Servatoris nostri, Johan. iii. 36. Qui credit in Filium habet vitam aeternam; qui autem incredulus est Filio, non videbit vitam, sic colligit, Vivificat igitur Christus credentes in se, quia cum secundum naturam vita sit, habitat in omnibus fidelibus per fidem. Utcunque ergo Christus sit ipsa vita, tamen non vivificat nisi credentes, quod optima & validissima ratione confirmavit Cyrillus, nimirum, quia non habitat in hominibus nisi credentibus. Quasi dixisset, Fons vitae non actu vivificat nisi sibi conjunctos, conjuncti autem habentur soli fideles. Male igitur arguunt, qui sive a morte, sive ab ipsa vita Christi colligunt aut omnes aut ullos homines in statu vitae, gratiae & salutis constitutos, priusquam hoc vinculo fidei Christo uniantur.

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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