Fathers

Two Dissertations · §67

Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Elect Obj. 2: Eternal love is not yet actual reconciliation

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Objection 2. God is actually reconciled to whoever he actually loves. He loves every elect person from eternity. So, the objection runs, he has been actually reconciled to them from eternity—and they have been actually reconciled and justified from eternity.

Solution. Follow the distinction in Aquinas. God loves in two senses: by the purpose to communicate his goodness, and by the very act of communicating it (Sentences, book 3, distinction 19). The love that tracks the eternal purpose—theologians call it the love of eternal benevolence—does not already count the beloved as actually justified or actually reconciled. It only ranks that person among those who will infallibly be justified and reconciled. Words for acts that stay inside God, and words for acts that pass from God to us, therefore do different work. Dilection, Election, and Predestination name eternal, inward acts of God; people are called Beloved, Elect, and Predestined from the hidden good pleasure of the divine will conceived and kept in God himself. Calling, Justification, Reconciliation, and Glorification name outward acts that terminate on a creature who already exists and are as it were received into that creature. No one is properly Called, Justified, Reconciled, or Glorified from the hidden eternal purpose alone, but from the finished execution of that purpose and the effect it produces in human beings. We gladly grant that God has an eternal will to justify every elect person and reconcile each to himself. We still refuse to say they were justified or reconciled from eternity. In the same way we grant God an eternal will to create the world, yet deny that the world was created from eternity. What Zanchi said of the actual remission of sins fits the elect's actual reconciliation: it is most certain in the divine destination from eternity, yet it is not actually given on God's side, nor actually received on the human side, before the person repents and believes (Thomson, Diatribe, p. 96).

Latin

Obj. 2. Deus est illi actu reconciliatus, quem actu diligit. At diligit omnes electos ab aeterno: Ergo ab aeterno est illis actu reconciliatus: Ergo illi sunt etiam actu reconciliati & justificati ab aeterno. Solut. Distinguendum est cum Aquinate. Deus enim dicitur diligere dupliciter, secundum propositum communicandi bonitatem suam, & secundum ipsum actum communicationis, In 3. Sent. dist. 19. Amor ille secundum aeternum propositum, quem Theologi appellant amorem aeternae benevolentiae, non facit ut qui hunc in modum ametur, actu justificatus, aut actu reconciliatus a Deo habeatur, sed ut inter infallibiliter justificandos & reconciliandos censeatur. Est igitur diversa ratio illorum vocabulorum quae actus in Deo immanentes, & quae actus a Deo ad nos transeuntes denotant. Priora, qualia sunt Dilectio, Electio, Praedestinatio, sunt aeterni & interni actus ipsius Dei; atque ab illis homines dicuntur Dilecti, Electi, Praedestinati, propter arcanum beneplacitum Divinae voluntatis in seipso conceptum & absconditum. Posteriora, qualia sunt Vocatio, Justificatio, Reconciliatio, Glorificatio, sunt actus externi ad creaturam existentem terminati, & in eam quasi recepti; atque ab illis nemo proprie dicitur Vocatus, Justificatus, Reconciliatus, Glorificatus, ex solo illo arcano & aeterno Divinae voluntatis proposito, sed ex facta exsecutione ejusdem propositi, & producto effectu in hominibus. Fatemur ergo in Deo voluntatem aeternam justificandi & sibi reconciliandi omnes electos: negamus tamen eos ab aeterno justificatos aut reconciliatos dici oportere: Sicut agnoscimus fuisse in Deo aeternam voluntatem creandi mundum, & tamen negamus mundum fuisse ab aeterno creatum. Quod Zanch. dixit de remissione actuali peccatorum, id nos dicimus de actuali reconciliatione Electorum: Est quidem illa certissima in destinatione Divina ab aeterno, at actu non datur ex parte Dei, neque actu recipitur ex parte hominis, donec resipiscat & credat. Thomson, Diatr. pag. 96.

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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