Fathers

A Candid Inquiry into the Controversies among Evangelicals · §57

Mutual concessions on reprobation before the controversy on Christ's death

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Besides this, both sides concede the following.

1. Nothing takes place in time except from God's ordination, and that eternal.

2. In comparative predestination — these rather than those — the cause is God's highest good pleasure.

3. Foresight of the reprobate is infallible, and from it comes at least an infallible necessity of the event.

4. Regard to sins, unbelief, and final impenitence enters the reprobation decree; and no one is damned except for sins as the cause of his own ruin — so the State of the Controversy.

5. God is in no way the cause of sins, neither physical nor moral; no force from the decree is applied to sinners; and in the reprobate there is no necessity of sinning that destroys what is voluntary, free, and of deliberate choice — as we have argued at length above.

6. No one can know himself reprobate, unless perhaps by sinning against the Holy Spirit. So there is always room for repentance, for forgiveness of sins, and for salvation; and God by singular mercy has often worked conversion in the most lost — even in the last agony, in the final hour, in hell's very jaws — when every hope of pardon is finally cut off only after death.

7. God grants the reprobate many kinds of grace: divine forbearance, kindness, and outward invitation, from what we have said, and even inward light.

Latin

Cæterùm concessa utrimque sunt, 1. Nihil fieri in tempore, quod non ex ordinatione Dei, eâque aeterna. 2. Praedestinationis comparatae, horum potius quam illorum, causam esse Dei summum beneplacitum. 3. Praescientiam reproborum esse infallibilem unde saltem necessitas infallibilis eventûs. 4. Intuitum peccatorum, incredulitatis, impaenit. finalis, ingredi decretum Reprobat. nec damnari quemquam nisi propter peccata, ut causam suae perditionis, ex Statu Controv. 5. Deum peccatorum nullo modo causam esse, nec physicam, nec moralem, nec vim ullam ex decreto peccantibus admoveri, neque ullam in reprobis peccandi esse necessitatem destructivam τῷ ἑκουσίῳ, τῷ ἐλευθέρῳ, τῷ προαιρετικῷ, ut nos fusè in superioribus. 6. Reprobationis neminem posse sibi esse conscium, nisi fortè peccantem in Spiritum S. Hinc semper locum esse ut paenitentiae, sic remissioni peccatorum, saluti; Deo singulari misericordiâ operato saepè conversionem in maximè perditis, etiam in extremo agone, horâ ultimâ, in ipsis Orci faucibus, spe omni veniae demum post mortem praereptâ, &c. 7. Reprobis a Deo concedi multiplicem gratiam, puta tolerantiae divinae, beneficentiae, & externae invitationis, ex dictis, etiam interni luminis.

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.

Witnesses

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