Fathers

Two Dissertations · §89

Cap. 6 Arg. 4: Fourth inconvenience—Diospolis, African synod, and Orange overturned

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Fourth, grant that grace is given or denied according as human wills have or have not set an obstacle, and you overturn nearly everything the Councils defined against the Pelagians. First among them is what the Council of Diospolis sanctioned against Pelagius: let him confess that grace is not given from merit, so that it may be true grace—that is, freely given—through the mercy of him who said, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy (Exodus 33:19; Romans 9:15). For to give or withhold grace according as someone has used natural gifts rightly or not, or (as others put it) according as someone has or has not done what lies in him, is for the Fathers the same as giving from merits and denying from demerits. Nor will that word of the African Fathers in their synodical letter stand: grace itself is not recognized at all unless it is given; and as long as it is not in a person, he must of necessity resist it in word or deed. How can it make sense that Gentiles in corrupted nature are to receive evangelical grace by that quasi-law if they have not set an obstacle to grace, when by the necessity of a depraved and habitual disposition they must resist grace the whole time they lack it? Finally those decrees of the Council of Orange fall—canon 4: if anyone contends that God waits for our will so that we may be purged from sin, but will not confess that even our willing to be purged is wrought in us by the Holy Spirit's operation and infusion, he resists the Apostle; and canon 6: if anyone subjoins the help of grace to human humility and obedience, and so on, he resists the Apostle. I leave the rest.

Latin

Quarto, admitte hanc gratiae donationem aut negationem, prout humanae voluntates obicem posuerint aut non posuerint, everteris fere omnia in Conciliis contra Pelagianos definita; quale est illud inprimis in Diospolitano Concilio sancitum contra Pelagium, Fateatur gratiam non dari ex merito, ut vera sit gratia, id est gratis data, per ejus misericordiam qui dixit, MISEREBOR CUIUS MISERTUS FUERO. Dari enim aut non dari gratiam prout quis recte naturalibus donis usus fuerit aut non fuerit, vel (ut alii loquuntur) prout quis fecerit aut non fecerit quod in se est, apud Patres idem est quod dari ex meritis, & negari ex demeritis. Porro, nec stabit illud Patrum Africanorum in Epistola sua synodica. Ipsa gratia nullatenus agnoscitur, nisi detur: quae quamdiu non est in homine, tamdiu necesse est ut ei sermone repugnet aut opere. Quomodo intelligi potest, Ethnicis in statu corruptae naturae constitutis, ea quasi lege gratiam Evangelicam donandam, si gratiae obicem non posuerint, cum tamdiu necesse sit (necessitate nimirum pravae & habitualis dispositionis) ut gratiae resistant, quamdiu eadem careant? Denique, corruent illa Arausicani Concilii decreta, canone 4. Si quis, ut a peccato purgemur, voluntatem nostram Deum expectare contendit, non autem, ut etiam purgari velimus, per sancti Spiritus operationem & infusionem in nobis fieri confitetur, resistit Apostolo. Et Can. 6. Si quis humilitati & obedientiae humanae subjungit gratiae adjutorium, &c. resistit Apostolo. Mitto caetera.

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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