Fathers

Two Dissertations · §121

Cap. 6 Arg. 8 Fathers reply: Augustine—conversion hangs on God preparing the will, not excited assent

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The holy orthodox Fathers speak far otherwise. They taught that vivifying, regenerating, converting grace for the soul itself is not given or withheld by the contingent yes or no of free choice, but by God’s free and absolute will, which does or does not choose to take away the mad hardness of the human heart. Augustine comes first. He always held that, once the work of human redemption was finished on the cross, some people have grace because God by special mercy worked in them so that they received it; others lack it because God would not, by pitying them, soften their rebellious hardness. Fine is Retractations 1.10: When I said all people can turn themselves to keep God’s commands if they will, let the Pelagians not take that as spoken on their side. It is wholly true that all can do this if they will; but the will is prepared by the Lord, and is so enlarged by the gift of charity that they can. From those words it is plain that conversion of the human will to God does not hang on this condition—If the will, once excited, chooses to obey—but that its very willing and its very ability hang on a preparation of God and an infusion of charity. The same Augustine, Epistle 107: How can one say everyone would have received grace if those to whom it is not given had not refused it by their own will, when it is not given to many infants who have no contrary will? A little later: How are merits of human will weighed here, when those to whom that grace is not given have a like case with those to whom it is given, and yet by God’s just judgment it is not given?

Latin

At longe aliter sancti et orthodoxi Patres, qui gratiam vivificantem, regenerantem et convertentem ipsam animam non ad contingentem assensum dissensumque liberi arbitrii dari aut non dari docuerunt, sed pro gratuita et absoluta Dei voluntate humani cordis insanam duritiem tollere volentis aut nolentis. Prodeat primo Augustinus, qui semper pertendit, posito opere humanae redemtionis in cruce peracto, quosdam homines habere gratiam, quia Deus speciali misericordia in eis hoc egit ut eam acciperent; quosdam non habere, quia Deus noluit miserendo illorum rebellem duritiem emollire. Praeclarum est illud Retract. lib. 1. cap. 10. Quod dixi omnes homines posse se convertere ad Dei praecepta implenda, si velint, non existiment Pelagiani secundum eos esse dictum. Verum est enim omnino omnes homines hoc posse si velint; sed praeparatur voluntas a Domino, et tantum augetur munere charitatis, ut possint. Ex quibus verbis liquet, conversionem humanae voluntatis ad Deum non pendere ex conditione hac, Si ipsa excitata velit parere; sed ipsum Velle ejus et ipsum posse pendere ex praeparatione quadam Dei, et infusione charitatis. Idem Augustinus, Epist. 107. Quomodo dicitur omnes homines gratiam fuisse accepturos, si non illi quibus non donatur eam sua voluntate respuerent, cum multis non detur parvulis, qui non habent contrariam voluntatem? Paucis interjectis, Quomodo in hac re merita pensantur voluntatis humanae, quandoquidem illis quibus gratia ista non datur, similem cum eis quibus datur habentibus causam, justo tamen judicio Dei non datur?

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.

Witnesses

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