Fathers

Two Dissertations · §82

Cap. 6 Arg. 3 open: From fact to right—immediate media given or denied by mercy

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From fact to right we argue this way. God leaves undone nothing that it would be alien to divine goodness, justice, or prudence not to do. It is wrong to doubt that, for he who is Goodness, Justice, and Wisdom themselves cannot, in acting or not acting, ever leave the rule of goodness, justice, or wisdom. So I attach the minor and affirm: even with Christ’s death granted, God has denied in the past, and still denies, to many nations and many particular people those means without which Christ’s death is applied to no one.

That will be plain if we look either at the immediate means of salvation—repentance, faith, regeneration, sanctification—by which a person is set in spiritual life and salvation and in actual share of Christ’s death and merits, or at the external means God uses as instruments to produce those first ones: the sending of teachers and pastors, the preaching of the gospel, and every other help without which those inward, immediate means cannot ordinarily be wrought.

As for the first set, faith itself and saving knowledge of Christ is a special gift given to some and denied to others, according to the good pleasure of the divine will: “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; to them it has not been given” (Matthew 13:11). “No one can come to me unless it has been given him by my Father” (John 6:65). “By grace you have been saved through faith—and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). “Faith is not of all” (2 Thessalonians 3:2). The same holds for repentance, regeneration, and sanctification: a special mercy that procures them gives them to some, and the same mercy, not unfolding its riches, denies them to others. “Turn us, O Lord, to yourself, and we shall be turned” (Lamentations 5:21). “He has mercy on whom he wills; whom he wills he hardens” (Romans 9:18). “Not of bloods, nor of the will of man, but of God they were born” (John 1:13). “Blessed be God who according to his mercy has regenerated us” (1 Peter 1:3). I pass over the rest. From these it is clear that God gives or denies those means in which union with Christ and salvation are immediately set according to the good pleasure of his will, not according to a difference in the human will.

All the orthodox Fathers press this hard against the Pelagians. Ambrose on Luke 7:9: God calls whom he deigns, and makes devout whom he wills. Augustine, Epistle 107: We know grace is not given to all people, nor according to the merits of the will of those who receive it. In the same letter he adds that those denied this grace often differ by no merit and no will, but share a like condition with those who receive it. Fulgentius, On the Incarnation and Grace, chapter 19: As in fleshly birth the formation of the divine work precedes every will of the one being born, so in spiritual birth, by which we begin to put off the old self, no one can have a good will by his own motion. And chapter 21: If God has not given to a person through his grace, that person can never will to believe in God, because grace does not find this will already there—it works it in the person. So God does not hand out these inward means promiscuously to everyone who might apply Christ’s death to himself. Nor may our opponents claim that God’s giving or withholding of faith springs from human wills resisting or not resisting, since Scripture expressly refers this to God’s good pleasure to pity or not to pity, and the Fathers in plain words shut out any disparity of human wills before grace is received.

Latin

A facto ad jus sic argumentamur. Deus nihil facere praetermittit, quod non facere vel a bonitate, vel a justitia, vel a prudentia Divina est alienum. Nefas est hac de re dubitare, cum impossibile sit eum qui est ipsa Bonitas, Justitia & Sapientia, in agendo vel non agendo a regula bonitatis, justitiae aut sapientiae unquam discedere. Attexo igitur Minorem, & affirmo, Posita Christi morte, Deum tamen negasse olim, & nunc negare multis nationibus, multis singularibus hominibus media illa, sine quibus mors Christi nemini applicatur. Hoc luculenter patebit, sive consideremus media salutis immediata, quibus scilicet homo collocatur in statu vitae spiritualis & salutis, atque in actuali participatione mortis & meritorum Christi, qualia sunt Paenitentia, Fides, Regeneratio, Sanctificatio; sive perpendamus media externa, quibus tanquam instrumentis Deus utitur ad illa priora producenda, qualia sunt Missio Doctorum & pastorum, Praedicatio Evangelii, caeteraque omnia opitulamenta absque quibus illa interiora & immediata salutis media ordinarie effici non possunt. Quod attinet ad priora, ipsa fides & salutifera agnitio Christi est speciale donum datum his, negatum illis, pro beneplacito Divinae voluntatis: Vobis datum est nosse mysteria regni caelorum; illis non est datum, Matth. xiii. 11. Nemo potest venire ad me, nisi fuerit ei datum a Patre meo, Joh. vi. 65. Gratia salvati estis per fidem: & hoc non ex vobis: Dei donum est, Ephes. ii. 8. Fides non est omnium, 2 Thess. iii. 2. Par ratio est paenitentiae, regenerationis, sanctificationis, quae omnia speciali misericordia procurante dantur quibusdam, eadem misericordia opes suas minime explicante aliis denegantur. Converte nos, Domine, ad te, & convertemur, Thren. v. 21. Misereatur cujus vult, quem vult indurat, Rom. ix. 18. Non ex sanguinibus, neque ex voluntate viri, sed ex Deo nati sunt, Joh. i. 13. Benedictus Deus qui secundum suam misericordiam regeneravit nos, 1 Pet. i. 3. Mitto caetera. Ex hisce constat, Deum media illa, in quibus conjunctio cum Christo & salus immediate constituta est, dare aut negare hominibus pro beneplacito voluntatis suae, non pro discrimine voluntatis humanae. Hoc omnes Patres orthodoxi contra Pelagianos fortiter defendunt. Ambrosius in Luc. vii. 9. Deus quem dignatur vocat, & quem vult religiosum facit. Augustinus, Epist. 107. Scimus gratiam non omnibus hominibus dari, sed nec secundum merita voluntatis eorum quibus datur. In eadem epistola porro docet, Eos quibus haec gratia non datur, nullo plerunque merito, nulla voluntate distare, sed similem cum eis quibus datur habere causam, &c. Fulgentius, lib. De Incarn. & grat. cap. 19. Sicut in nativitate carnali omnem nascentis hominis voluntatem praecedit operis Divini formatio, sic in spirituali nativitate, qua veterem hominem deponere incipimus, nemo potest habere bonam voluntatem motu proprio. Et cap. 21, Si Deus per suam gratiam homini non dederit, nunquam potest homo in Deum velle credere, quia hanc ipsam voluntatem gratia non invenit, sed operatur in homine. Clarum est igitur, Deum non dare haec interna media promiscue omnibus hominibus, quibus Christi mortem sibi possunt applicare. Neque hic obtendere possunt adversarii, hanc fidei dationem, & non-dationem Divinam ex resistentia, aut non-resistentia humanarum voluntatum originem ducere, cum Scripturae expresse hoc revocent ad beneplacitum Dei misereri volentis aut nolentis, ac Patres expressis verbis excludant disparitatem humanarum voluntatum ante receptam gratiam.

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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