Fathers

Two Dissertations · §83

Cap. 6 Arg. 3: External media withheld from nations under Old and New Testaments

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So far we have argued about the immediate means. Now we come down to the means of those means. Christ’s death and merit have had their force in God’s acceptance from the world’s beginning. Yet under the Old Testament God did not grant the external means of application to every human being alike. As the Psalmist says, “He declares his word to Jacob; he has not done thus to every nation” (Psalm 147:19–20). Paul speaks the same way: “In past ages God allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways” (Acts 14:16).

Prosper marked the same point: it is not far from ordinary observation, he says, through how many ages countless thousands of people, left to their errors and impieties, have perished without any knowledge of the true God (On Free Choice, page 225). Looking to New Testament times (On the Calling of the Gentiles 2.17), he adds: even now in the farthest parts of the world there are nations on whom the Savior’s grace has not yet shone. From this it follows that even with Christ’s death granted, God is still not bound by his goodness or justice to provide and offer to every person the means by which they can apply Christ to themselves. In God the move from fact to right works both ways: God does this, therefore he does it justly; God does not do this, therefore no right binds him to do it.

Latin

Hactenus de mediis immediatis disputatum est: Ad media horum mediorum descendamus. Christi mors ac meritum habuit in acceptatione Dei ab origine mundi suam efficaciam: Deus tamen sub Vetere Testamento externa applicationis media non omnibus hominibus universim concessit, sed, ut loquitur Psalmista, Verbum suum denunciat Jacobo: non fecit taliter omni nationi, Psal. cxlvii. 19, 20. Et in eandem sententiam Paulus, Act. xiv. 16. Deus praeteritis aetatibus sivit omnes gentes ambulare in viis suis. Prosper hoc idem annotavit, Non est, inquit, remotum ab inspectione communi, quot secula, quam innumera hominum millia erroribus suis impietatibusque dimissa, sine ulla veri Dei cognitione defecerint, De lib. arbitr. pag. 225. Et De vocat. Gent. 2, 17, Novi Testamenti tempora respiciens, dicit, Sunt etiam nunc in extremis mundi partibus aliquae nationes, quibus gratia Salvatoris nondum illuxit. Ex quibus sequitur, etiam posita Christi morte, Deum nihilominus haud teneri ratione bonitatis aut justitiae suae media omnibus & singulis providere & offerre, quibus possunt Christum sibi applicare. In Deo enim a facto ad jus optime sequitur argumentum tam affirmando quam negando; Deus hoc facit, ergo juste facit; Deus hoc non facit, ergo nullo jure tenetur ut faciat.

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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