Fathers

Two Dissertations · §80

Cap. 6 Arg. 1 close: No covenant ties Gospel revelation to better use of nature

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If by Christ’s death a covenant has been established under which remission of sins is promised to any believer, but no covenant has been established under which the gospel is promised to any ethnic person who uses natural gifts rightly, or less badly, then it is rash—Christ’s death being granted—to conclude that God is bound by faithfulness, goodness, justice, or any bond whatever, on account of better use of nature, to reveal to people the mystery of evangelical grace. Yet it is most certain that no such covenant exists anywhere. Therefore the revelation or denial of the gospel depends on God’s good pleasure, who hides it or reveals it as he pleases, not on the varied acts of human beings.

We confirm the major premise from this: God is bound to no one and owes nothing to anyone except by a free and voluntary promise—“For who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him?” (Romans 11:35). Into that sense Augustine speaks: the Lord makes himself a debtor not by receiving, but by promising (on Psalm 83). He promises nothing spiritual to the works of corrupted nature, however splendid. He has set himself no law that would bar him from giving spiritual goods to people, however wicked and covered with every kind of crime. So we must not explain from the disparity of persons or of human works why the gospel and the knowledge of Christ are given to some and not to others. We must rest in the good pleasure of the divine will, according to the Apostle: “He called us with his calling, not according to our works, but according to his purpose and the grace that was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (2 Timothy 1:9).

Still someone may press: even if God is bound neither by debt nor by any promise sealed by Christ’s death to reveal Christ to those who use nature’s light well, still—since from unpromised grace he often gives many things to people—what keeps us from saying he keeps this common pattern in distributing evangelical grace: grant it to those who use natural light more rightly, and withhold it from those who, by abusing nature’s light worse than others, have made themselves more unworthy of the light of grace? Scripture’s steady witness against that blocks us. It refers the gift of saving grace not to the person who works better, but to God loving and pitying one more than another (Romans 9). Experience blocks it too. Often a person more modest and temperate from early childhood, and for the most part master of lusts, lives and dies where Christian grace cannot be preached to him at all; while another given to lust and covered with crimes is so governed by God that he hears, believes, and is saved.

So we say every mortal by bad use of nature makes himself unworthy of the gospel; and that God, in giving or denying the gospel, does not weigh degrees of human dignity and unworthiness and from them draw a common rule for indulging grace or withholding it. Sometimes he denies it to those who have used nature’s remnants less badly, and meanwhile grants it to those who abuse the same remnants far worse; sometimes the reverse. So the reason why God deigns to give grace to this one and not to that one must be referred to God’s own good pleasure, not to unequal human works.

Latin

Si Christi morte stabilitum sit pactum secundum quod cuivis credenti promittitur remissio peccatorum, nullum autem pactum stabilitum sit, secundum quod cuivis homini ethnico naturalibus donis recte, aut minus male utenti promittatur Evangelium, tum temerarium est, posita Christi morte, concludere Deum ex fidelitate, vel ex bonitate, vel ex justitia, vel quoquo pacto teneri propter meliorem usum naturae revelare hominibus mysterium gratiae Evangelicae. Sed certissimum est, tale pactum nusquam exstare: Ergo revelatio vel denegatio Evangelii ex beneplacito Dei dependet, abscondentis illud vel revelantis prout sibi placuerit, non ex diversis hominum actibus. Majorem inde confirmamus, quod Deus nemini tenetur, nemini quicquam debet, nisi ex promissione gratuita & voluntaria: Quis enim prior dedit illi, & retribuetur ei? Rom. xi. 35. In quam sententiam Augustinus, debitorem Dominus ipse se facit, non accipiendo, sed promittendo. In Psal. 83. Nihil spirituale promittit corruptae naturae operibus, quantumvis splendidis. Nullam sibi dixit legem, qua arceatur ne donet bona spiritualia hominibus, quantumvis improbis, & omni flagitiorum genere coopertis. Non ergo debemus a disparitate hominum vel operationum humanarum rationem reddere, cur Evangelium & cognitio Christi quibusdam impertiatur, quibusdam non, sed acquiescendum est in beneplacito voluntatis Divinae: juxta illud Apostoli, 2 Tim. i. 9. Vocavit nos vocatione sua, non secundum opera nostra, sed secundum propositum suum & gratiam quae data est nobis in Christo Jesu ante tempora secularia. Sed adhuc obtendi potest. Utcunque Deus neque ex debito, neque ex promisso aliquo morte Christi firmato teneatur revelare Christum bene utentibus lumine naturae, tamen cum ex gratia non promissa multa soleat dare hominibus, quid impedit quin dicamus illum servare hunc modum communem in distribuenda gratia Evangelica, ut concedat eam iis qui rectius utuntur lumine naturali, non concedat iis qui abutendo prae caeteris lumine naturae, indigniores se reddiderunt lumine gratiae? Impedit quo minus hoc admittamus perpetua Scripturae testificatio in contrarium, quae non ad hominem melius operantem, sed ad Deum magis amantem & miserentem unius quam alterius, refert salutiferae gratiae communicationem, Rom. ix. Impedit etiam ipsa experientia. Saepe enim fit, ut homo ab ineunte pueritia modestior, temperantior, & ex magna parte libidinum victor, eo loco vivat & moriatur ubi gratia Christiana ei praedicari nullo modo possit: Alter libidini deditus, facinoribus coopertus, ita a Deo gubernetur ut audiat, credat & salvetur. Dicimus itaque omnes mortales ex malo usu naturae sese indignos reddere Evangelio: Deum in communicando aut negando Evangelio non solere pensare gradus dignitatis & indignitatis humanae, atque hinc petere regulam communem gratiae indulgendae aut non indulgendae; sed aliquando negare eam illis qui minus male usi sunt reliquiis naturae, & interim concedere eam illis qui multo pejus iisdem abutuntur; aliquando e contra: unde apparet rationem discriminis cur Deus hunc dignetur gratia, illum non dignetur, ad beneplacitum ipsius Dei referri oportere, non ad dispares hominum operationes.

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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