Fathers

Two Dissertations · §674

Cap. IX Arg. 13 Sol close: negligence harms elect too; no one absolutely damned whether they repent or not; unknown whom God hardens — soft teaching (2 Tim. ii. 25); jailer analogy; absolute decrees do not cut means from end

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Thus far of the elect. Now their objection about the reprobate — that on our view ministers' negligence can harm only those God absolutely wills to destroy, who cannot be saved — is first false. It can also harm, and often does harm, the elect, while it lets them sleep for a time in their sins, and by that security provoke God's wrath and various scourges against themselves. Next: there is no reprobate whom God absolutely wills to destroy — that is (as the adversaries seem to take it) whether they repent or not, believe or not, die in their sins or not. There are many of whom God does not so have mercy as to have prepared for them special efficacious grace that will also work belief, repentance, and an end to hardening their hearts. But because ministers do not know of whom God wills to have mercy, and whom he wills to harden, they ought with all gentleness to instruct those of a contrary mind, if at any time God give them repentance (2 Tim. ii. 25). Moreover, even if it were true that ministers' negligence can harm only those God absolutely wills to destroy, that does not exempt negligent ministers from guilt or capital punishment — as a jailer would not be exempt from guilt if he ran a thief through with a sword, or extinguished the means, whom the judge in his mind had absolutely decreed to damn and put to death. Finally: what they pretend — that once God has precisely decreed things thus or otherwise, care and solicitude for those same things is afterward taken up by men in vain — is most plainly that idle argument, or lazy reasoning; if we assent to it, there is nothing at all we do unwillingly (Cicero, De fato). For absolute or precise decrees of God do not cut means from the destined end, but bring both means and end under the order of a certain infallible providence. That infallibility of the thing decreed does not take away natural possibility of a contrary event — only the contrary event itself. Nor does it imply that the effect is produced without second causes, or that second causes' proper operation is broken. So the eternal secret decree of predestination and reprobation gives no one a cause of sloth — though the impious and the slothful may falsely pretext it for their idleness.

Latin

Hactenus de electis. Jam quod de reprobatis objiciunt, negligentiam ministrorum non posse, ex sententia nostra, nocere nisi iis quos Deus absolute vult perdere, quique non possunt servari, id primo falsum est: Nam potest etiam nocere, et saepe nocet, electis, dum patitur eos suis peccatis ad tempus indormire, et hac sua securitate iram Dei ac varia flagella contra se provocare. Dein, nemo est reprobatorum quem Deus absolute vult perdere, hoc est (ut adversarii videntur intelligere) sive poeniteant sive non poeniteant, sive credant sive non credant, sive peccatis immoriantur sive non. Sunt multi quorum Deus non sic miseretur ut praeparaverit illis gratiam specialem et efficacem atque operaturam ut credant, ut poeniteant, ut indurare sua corda desinant. Sed quia ministris ignotum est, quorum Deus vult misereri, et quos vult indurare, debent cum omni lenitate erudire eos qui contrario animo sunt affecti, si quando det illis Deus poenitentiam, etc. 2 Tim. ii. 25. Adhaec, si verum esset, negligentiam ministrorum non posse nocere nisi iis, quos Deus absolute vult perdere, tamen hoc non eximit negligentes ministros vel a culpa vel a poena capitali; sicuti custos carceris a culpa non eximeretur, si latronem gladio transfoderet, aut media extingueret, quem judex apud animum suum absolute decrevisset damnare, et morte afficere. Denique, quod obtendunt, rebus praecise sic vel aliter a Deo semel decretis, curam et solicitudinem earundem rerum frustra postmodum ab hominibus suscipi, est planissime ignava illa ratio, sive ἀργολογία, cui si assentiamur, nihil est omnino quod agamus invita, ut inquit Cicero De fato. Absoluta enim sive praecisa Dei decreta non praescindunt media a fine destinato, sed et media et finem ad infallibilis cujusdam providentiae ordinem reducunt. Neque haec infallibilitas rei decretae tollit naturalem possibilitatem ad eventum contrarium, sed ipsum eventum contrarium: neque etiam innuit aut effectum sine causis secundis producendum, aut propriam operationem secundarum causarum infringendam. Aeternum et arcanum igitur praedestinationis et reprobationis decretum nemini praebet causam socordiae, quamvis impii et socordes possint hoc suae ignaviae falso praetexere.

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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