Fathers

Two Dissertations · §77

Cap. 6 preliminaries: No fixed law that good use of nature buys supernatural light

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A few preliminaries, then I turn to confirming the thesis. First, notice that those on the opposite side think God is bound by a fixed decree and statute to give the talent of grace to those who use the talent of nature well. Second, they presume that any pagan, even one sitting in the shadow of death, can by free choice use that natural talent well or badly. Third, from that difference between those who use natural gifts rightly and those who do not, they try to explain why God deigns to light some with the gospel and the knowledge of Christ and does not deign to light others. Use the gifts rightly, they say, and the person is gradually to be led into saving knowledge of Christ; abuse them wickedly, and he is justly stripped of that knowledge.

Augustine seems to stand on the opposite side in De Natura et Gratia, chapters 8 and 9. There he grants that for certain infants the means of salvation could not be applied; and he also owns that adults who died in a region where they could not hear Christ’s name could in no way become just by nature and free choice. We likewise affirm that no decree, law, or promise of God exists by which anyone could safely conclude: this person used natural light rightly, or less badly; therefore God will illuminate him with supernatural grace.

Arminius does say God pledged this by Christ’s word, “To the one who has, it will be given” (Matthew 13:12). But the Reverend of Salisbury speaks more truly and more learnedly: Arminius hints a fallacy here, and commits it—leaping from the one who has in the state of nature to a gift in the state of grace, and making the light of faith the wage of unbelievers’ diligence. For what is promised, and in what kind the use falls, is increase in that same kind. Alvarez, a Roman Catholic writer, votes with us here: no law was ever enacted that helps of grace must be given to those who do all that is in them from nature’s faculty; nor did the Lord Christ by his death merit, or will to merit, such a law. The Apostle Paul teaches that the dispensation of supernatural grace runs not according to the use and works of the human will, but according to the purpose and counsel of the divine will: “He works all things according to the purpose and counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).

Latin

Paucula praemittam, dein ad thesin confirmandam accedam. Primo igitur observandum est, in contraria sententia constitutos putare, Deum quasi fixo decreto ac statuta lege obligatum, ut bene utentibus talento naturae impertiat talentum gratiae. Secundo, praesumunt quemlibet hominem Paganum, etiam in umbra mortis sedentem, posse pro libertate voluntatis suae bene aut male uti hoc talento naturali. Tertio, ab hoc discrimine recte aut secus utentium donis naturalibus, causam reddere conantur, cur Deus quosdam dignetur Evangelio & cognitione Christi illustrare, alios non dignetur. Si quis recte donis illis utatur, hunc paulatim ducendum statuunt in salutiferam Christi cognitionem: Si vero improbe illis abutatur, tum dicunt illum merito privari cognitione Christi. Augustinus videtur in contraria sententia fuisse constitutus, libro de Nat. & Gratia, cap. 8. & 9. Ubi quibusdam infantibus media salutis applicari non potuisse concedit; ubi etiam agnoscit adultos in ea regione defunctos ubi non potuerunt Christi nomen audire, per naturam & liberum arbitrium justos fieri nullo modo potuisse. Nos etiam affirmamus, nullum decretum, nullam Dei legem aut promissionem exstare, juxta quam certo quis posset concludere, Hic homo recte aut minus male usus est lumine naturali, ergo Deus illuminabit eum gratia supernaturali. Dicit quidem Arminius, Deum hoc spopondisse isto Christi dicto, HABENTI DABITUR. Sed multo verius & doctius Reverendus Sarisburiensis, Fallaciam innuit, hic committit Arminius, qui habenti in statu naturae per saltum promittit donum in statu gratiae, & incredulorum diligentiae lucem fidei mercedem facit. Nam quod in re, & quo in genere usus, in eodem quoque incrementum promittitur. Alvarez homo Pontificius nobis hac in re suffragatur, Nulla lex fuit unquam statuta de dandis auxiliis gratiae, facientibus totum quod in se est ex facultate naturae; neque Christus Dominus morte sua meruit, aut mereri voluit talem legem. Apostolus Paulus dispensationem gratiae supernaturalis procedere docet, non secundum usum & opera voluntatis humanae, sed secundum propositum & consilium voluntatis Divinae: Operator omnia secundum propositum & consilium voluntatis suae, Ephes. i. 11.

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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