Fathers

A Candid Inquiry into the Controversies among Evangelicals · §56

First falsehoods of the newer Lutherans: Stoic fate, confusing permission with efficiency, and equating damnation's cause with the decree

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Most of the first falsehoods of the newer Lutherans are pinned-on charges and Reformers' words wrenched out of shape — though those Reformers speak with Scripture at every turn, as we have just shown in the State of the Controversy.

They fasten on us Stoic fate, Manichaean heresy, and the so-called Predestinarian heresy — and with them an absolute reprobation after the fact, with no eye to sins or unbelief.

In the same way they confuse God's permission of sin as a means that pleases Him with His sending sin in, with efficient causation, and the like.

They also argue badly: if sin and unbelief are the cause of damnation, then they must also be the cause of the decree to damn — as if God's willing, which has properly no cause outside God, worked by the same account as the things He wills, which come about through means.

So likewise with the good pleasure of grace and mercy in Christ (Ephesians 1:5, 9, and the like).

Latin

ΠΡΩΤΑ ψεύδη novorum Lutheranor. pleraque in affictis consistunt, & intortis violenter dictis Reformatorum, cum Scripturâ ubique loquentium, ut nos modò in Statu Controvers. V. gr. dùm nobis affingunt Fatum Stoïcum, Manichaicam Haeresim, & Praedestinatianam illam vulgò; adeòque Reprobationem absolutam a posteriori, citra respectum peccatorum, vel incredulitatis. Ita dum confundunt peccati permissionem ut medium Dei placitum, & peccati immissionem, efficientiam, &c. Malè etiam inferunt, si peccatum, incredulitas, &c. est causa damnationis, Ergò & causam esse decreti de damnando; quasi sit eadem ratio volitionis divinae cujus nulla extrà Deum causa propriè dicta est, & rerum volitarum quae per media fiunt. Sic εὐδοκίαν gratiae, misericordiae in Christo, Eph. I. 5. 9. &c.

About this text

Samuel Strimesius — Prefatio through Controversiae Post Lutherum Controv. III-XIII + XV Tolerantia, Hexades Annotationum Prooemium and Annotatio I through Decem Theses / Francus plus Annotatio II §.I-§.VI and Annotatio III §.I–§.VII (through Cassellanum 1661) from Ingenua in Controversias Evangelicorum (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1708). Honest partial; Prefatio silence reasons, Annotatio III §.VIII+ fruits / §.IX+, Hexades theses body, deeper Controversiae / Part II remain.

English follows the locked 1708 Francofurti ad Viadrum Latin of Prefatio §I–II, Crimina defenses through III, Part I Protheoria through Controversiae Obices/Historia/Varii gradus, Formula Discord/Disparitas, Ulterius confirmatur / Classes / Formula protest / triplex differentia, Coena Domini Controversiae Priores through Precariae Hypotheses (Controv. print pp. 34–40), Controversiae Post Lutherum Natae Controv. III–XV tip (providence through De Tolerantia mutua; Controv. print pp. 40–78), Hexades Annotationum Prooemium H.I–§.III (Hexades print pp. 1–4 / PDF ~182–185), and Annotatio I De Augustana Confessione §.I–§.VIII tip (Hexades print pp. 5–24+ / PDF ~186–205+), reconstructed from Google Books PDF page images (ONB copy, id 3epYAAAAcAAJ) with pdftotext as check. No modern English was copied. Sister Halle digitization of Ingenua in Arminianismum (DOI 10.25673/65287) remains Anubis-blocked — skipped; Controversias only. Prefatio silence reasons, Annotatio I §.IX+, Hexades theses body beyond §.VIII, and remainder of Controversiae / folio remain.

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