Fathers

Two Dissertations · §85

Cap. 6 Arg. 3 close: Human unworthiness is circumstance, not the discriminating cause

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Third, they answer that evangelical grace is denied to some because by continual law-breaking they have made themselves unworthy of those to whom divine grace should be offered. This reply will only make our position clearer. First I take what no sober mind will deny: every person in corrupted nature has made himself unworthy of evangelical grace, if you attend to his sins. Then I add that human dignity and unworthiness—or greater and lesser unworthiness—is not the rule by which God proceeds in dispensing or denying the gospel to particular persons or to nations. That being so, unworthiness is always found in those denied the gospel, and also in those who receive it. So this unworthiness has the nature of a circumstance that always accompanies both those who get the gospel and those who do not; it does not have the force of a discriminating cause why it is given to these and not to those. In this matter we must come down to the sole pleasure of the divine will, who, when it pleases him, confers helps both on those who do and on those who do not do what is in them—as Alvarez says in On Helps, disputation 58.

But because this reply, which teaches that human unworthiness fences off evangelical grace, seems quietly to hint that some could have procured the same by their dignity, hear what the orthodox Fathers taught the Pelagians on this very point. Augustine, Epistle 107, page 500, shows that Christ’s saving grace is not granted or denied by the rule of greater or lesser unworthiness. For brevity I omit the words. Prosper presses this again and again (On the Calling of the Gentiles, book 1, chapter 15): a part of humankind is set free while a part perishes; and if we ascribe that to the merits of wills, so that grace seems to have neglected the bad and chosen the good, the case of innumerable peoples will rise against us, to whom through so many ages no announcement of heavenly teaching has flashed. Nor can we say that those later ones on whom the light has risen were better, and so on. In the Poem On the Ungrateful, chapter 12, the same Prosper shows that the Pelagians’ own opinion was this: God by his goodness wills to call all to grace, but the will of some, oppressed by vices under the first light, has been made unworthy of the second. Against them, in chapter 14, he contends that examples can be brought of wicked hearts converted by God’s power, hearts in which nothing of the matter had ever settled, and which bore no sign or sense of justice.

The sum of the argument comes to this: evangelical grace is not given because people are judged worthy of it—no one worthy of so great a gift is found—nor is it denied because some have stood more unworthy than the rest, since this light has been granted to the worst and meanwhile denied to others less depraved. We must therefore rest in the secret good pleasure of the divine will, who, that his mercy may shine the more, does not regularly grant the gospel’s light to those who use nature’s light well or less badly, but on the contrary calls the faithless and negligent to himself, and unworthy, ungrateful sinners. From this it is plain that it always remains free for God, and in no way alien to his goodness, to give or not to give to any people whatever the gospel and the other means needed for applying Christ’s merits, according to the good pleasure of his will, with no account taken of dignity or unworthiness, or of greater and lesser human unworthiness.

Latin

Tertio respondent, Evangelicam gratiam quibusdam denegari, quia continuis contra legem praevaricationibus indignos sese praestiterunt quibus gratia Divina offeratur. Sed haec responsio sententiae nostrae veritatem magis illustrabit. Nam illud imprimis sumo (quod nemo sanus negabit) quemlibet hominem in statu corruptae naturae Evangelica gratia indignum (si ejus peccata attendantur) sese praestitisse: tum & illud addo, Dignitatem & indignitatem hominum, sive majorem & minorem indignitatem, non esse illam regulam secundum quam Deus procedit in dispensando vel denegando Evangelio sive singularibus personis sive nationibus. Quibus positis, sequetur indignitatem semper reperiri in iis quibus Evangelium negatum, sed in iis etiam quibus conceditur. Habebit ergo haec indignitas naturam circumstantiae, quae semper concomitatur personas quibus datur & quibus non datur Evangelium; sed non habebit rationem causae discriminantis, cur hisce detur, illis non detur Evangelium. Hac igitur in re ad solum placitum Divinae voluntatis est deveniendum, qui facientibus & non-facientibus quod in se est, quando sibi placet auxilia confert, ut loquitur Alvarez, De Auxil. disp. 58. Sed quia haec responsio, quae indignitate hominum gratiam Evangelicam arceri docet, videtur tacite innuere, quosdam dignitate eorundem eandem procurari potuisse, audiamus quid orthodoxi Patres contra Pelagianos in hoc ipso negotio docuerint. Augustinus Epist. 107. pag. 500. ostendit salvificam Christi gratiam non concedi aut negari hominibus secundum hanc regulam majoris aut minoris indignitatis. Brevitatis causa verba non appono. Prosper saepissime hoc inculcat: De vocat. Gent. l. 1. c. 15. Liberatur pars hominum, parte pereunte: & si hoc voluntatum meritis voluerimus adscribere, ut malos neglexisse gratia, bonos autem elegisse videatur, resistet nobis innumerabilium causa populorum, quibus per tot secula nulla caelestis doctrinae annunciatio coruscavit. Nec meliores fuisse illorum posteros possumus dicere, quibus lux orta est, &c. Idem Prosper in Carmine De Ingratis, cap. 12, ostendit hanc fuisse Pelagianorum ipsissimam sententiam, nempe, Quod Deus pro bonitate sua omnes ad gratiam vocare velit, sed quod voluntas nonnullorum, Lumine primo Per vitia oppressa, sit facta indigna secundo, At ille e contra, cap. 14. exempla proferri posse contendit Quae doceant virtute Dei conversa malorum Corda, quibus rei nihil unquam insiderat, & quae Nullum justitiae signum sensumve gerebant. Summa hujus argumenti huc redit, Gratiam Evangelicam non dari hominibus quia digni eadem judicantur, cum nemo dignus tanto munere reperitur; neque negari hominibus quia indigniores caeteris exstiterunt, cum pessimis hoc lumen concessum fuerit, & aliis interim minus depravatis denegatum. Acquiescendum igitur in arcano voluntatis Divinae beneplacito, qui, ut magis splendeat sua misericordia, non regulariter lumen Evangelii concedit bene aut minus male utentibus lumine naturae; sed e contra infideles & negligentes vocat ad seipsum, atque peccatores indignos & ingratos. Atque hinc patet, semper liberum Deo manere, & a bonitate ejus nullo modo alienum esse, dare vel non dare quibusvis hominibus Evangelium aliaque media ad applicationem meritorum Christi necessaria, pro beneplacito voluntatis suae, nulla habita ratione dignitatis aut indignitatis, vel majoris & minoris indignitatis humanae.

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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