Fathers

Two Dissertations · §81

Cap. 6 Arg. 2: Divine goodness leaves application-media to free good pleasure

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Second, we prove that it is not contrary to divine goodness—even once Christ’s death is granted—still to withhold the means of application from any people he pleases. Christ’s death itself is a benefit God freely spent on the human race. It is fair and fitting that free application of that benefit remain with the benefactor. From giving one gift he is never bound to give another unless a promise intervenes; and no one can rightly claim such a promise about the means by which Christ’s death is applied—neither the whole race in a lump, nor any single person for himself alone.

What jars with divine goodness is not that God does not lavish every benefit on every person, but that he would injure anyone, or unjustly deny or withdraw a good that is owed. Illumination by evangelical grace, even with Christ’s death supposed, is still not owed to nature already corrupted by sin. So Bannezius (on the First Part, question 23, article 3, page 279): natural and supernatural illumination do not stand on the same footing, for natural light is owed to nature itself, while the light of grace is not owed to nature—least of all to nature already spoiled by sin—but is conferred by grace. If it is conferred by grace, it is not owed to all. Among twelve sentences that belong to the Catholic faith, Augustine set this second one in Epistle 107: that the grace of God is not given to all people. If it is conferred by grace, it is not given or denied according to good or bad use of natural light. Prosper is right (Response 8 to the Chapters of the Gauls): it is impiety to say that the grace by which we are saved is either repaid to good merits or fenced off by evils. And in On the Calling of the Gentiles: there are no crimes so detestable that they can fence off the gift of grace.

Those who try to defend God’s justice and goodness by human guesswork, and contend that he supplies free means of salvation to everyone who uses natural gifts rightly or less badly, but denies them to those who have abused the same gifts, are—speaking with Augustine—ignorant of the height of grace, and have woven improbable fables. Like it or not, if we ask why those means by which people apply Christ to themselves for salvation are granted to these particular persons and not to others, we must set aside the disparity of persons or of human works and rise to God’s freest good pleasure: “When the same cause binds all at once, / nor are they discerned by merit who differ by gift,” as Prosper puts it elegantly in the Poem On the Ungrateful, chapter 25.

Latin

Secundo, probamus, non esse contrarium bonitati Divinae, etiam posita Christi morte, media tamen applicationis quibuscunque hominibus pro suo beneplacito haud impertire: Quia ipsa mors Christi est Beneficium ab ipso Deo gratis impensum humano generi: At aequum & congruum est, ut penes benefactorem sit libera sui beneficii applicatio; qui ex datione unius beneficii nunquam tenetur ad dationem alterius, nisi talis promissio intervenerit: quam promissionem, de concedendis mediis quibus mors Christi applicetur, neque omnes homines promiscue, nec quisquam singularis homo singulariter sibi factam potest recte asserere. Porro, bonitati Divinae disconvenit, non quodvis beneficium cuivis non elargiri, sed nocumentum cuiquam inferre, aut debitum aliquod bonum injuste cuiquam denegare aut subtrahere. Illuminatio autem per gratiam Evangelicam, supposita Christi morte, non est tamen debita naturae jam peccato corruptae. Sic Bannezius, In 1a. qu. 23. art. 3. pag. 279. Non est eadem ratio de illuminatione naturali & supernaturali, quia naturalis debita est ipsi naturae: illuminatio autem gratiae non est debita naturae, praesertim jam peccato corruptae, sed ex gratia confertur. Si ex gratia confertur, tum non omnibus debetur; Nam inter duodecim sententias quae ad fidem Catholicam pertinent, hanc secundam posuit Augustinus, Epist. 107. Gratiam Dei non dari omnibus hominibus. Si ex gratia confertur, tum non datur aut negatur pro bono aut malo usu luminis naturalis: nam ut recte Prosper, Resp. 8. ad Capit. Gallor. Impietas est affirmare ipsam gratiam qua salvamur aut bonis meritis rependi, aut malis arceri. Et, De vocat. Gent. Nulla sunt tam detestanda facinora quae possunt gratiae arcere donum. Qui igitur volentes humanis conjecturis justitiam & bonitatem Dei defendere, contendunt illum suppeditare gratuita salutis media illis omnibus qui recte aut minus male utuntur donis naturalibus, negare autem aliis qui iisdem donis fuerunt abusi (ut cum Augustino loquar) ignorantes altitudinem gratiae, fabulas improbabiles texuerunt. Velimus igitur nolimus, si causa quaeratur cur hisce singularibus hominibus concedantur illa media quibus Christum sibi applicant ad salutem, aliis non concedantur, disparitas hominum aut humanarum operationum praetermittenda est, & ad liberrimum Dei beneplacitum adscendendum; Cum causa eadem simul implicet omnes, Nec discernantur merito, qui munere distant, Ut eleganter Prosper, Carmine De Ingratis, cap. 25.

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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