Fathers

Two Dissertations · §212

Cap. 1 subject: bare election vs means — Davenant's judgment

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My judgment in brief. First: if by Predestination you mean bare designation to the end of glory (as many older Scholastics do), and by Reprobation only the negation of that act — the decree to pass by and not elect — I do not think foresight of sin must be supposed as something prior in the subject so predestined or reprobated. Why? In God's mind and will no act is really prior to another; all before-and-after is taken from the mutual dependence of the things themselves. Where the things have no causal dependence, Divine decrees about them admit no before or after. Sin is altogether beside the point for the act of Divine election or non-election. It is not the reason of either act (all confess that), nor a qualification of the subject without which those acts cannot fall — as rationality is; the angels already showed that. Since sin is neither cause why someone is elect to glory or permitted to fall short of it, nor a disposition required for either act, it is improper to say the decree to elect or not elect is prior in God's mind to foresight of sin — and improper to say foresight of sin was prior to that decree — for among independent things there is no before or after in God's mind or will. Those who try to blacken, with I know not what horrid consequences, the view that considers election and passing-by without foresight of sin are twisting ropes out of sand.

Latin

Sed ut paucis expediam quid mei judicii sit hac in re. Primo, si per Praedestinationem quis intelligat solam designationem ad finem gloriae (sicuti multi intelligunt ex antiquioribus Scholasticis) & per Reprobationem solam negationem hujus actus, vel ipsum decretum praetereundi & non-eligendi, puto non esse necessarium ut supponamus peccatum fuisse praevisum in subjecto sic praedestinato aut reprobato, tanquam praecedaneum. Ratio haec est; Quia in actibus mentis & voluntatis Divinae unus non est realiter prior alio, sed tota haec prioritas & posterioritas desumitur ex mutua rerum dependentia: ubi ergo nulla est dependentia causalitatis inter res ipsas, nulla debet aut potest esse consideratio prioritatis aut posterioritatis in decretis Divinis, quae circa easdem versantur. Jam vero peccatum ad actum Divinae electionis vel non-electionis omnino impertinenter se habet: non est enim ratio actus sive hujus sive illius (ut omnes fatentur) neque est talis subjecti qualificatio, absque qua hi actus in subjectum cadere non possunt, sicuti est rationalitas; quod exemplo Angelorum antea demonstratum est. Cum itaque peccatum nec causa sit cur aliquis eligatur ad gloriam, aut permittatur deficere a gloria, nec dispositio subjecti sive ad hunc actum, sive ad illum necessaria, improprie loquitur, qui dicit hoc decretum eligendi aut non eligendi esse prius in mente Divina praevisione peccati; improprie etiam loquitur qui dicit praevisionem peccati fuisse priorem hoc decreto, cum inter res independentes nulla sit ponenda aut prioritas aut posterioritas, sive in mente, sive in voluntate Dei. Atque hinc colligere potestis, illos qui conantur horrendis nescio quibus consequentiis illorum sententiam deturpare, qui considerant decretum electionis & praeteritionis absque praevisione peccati, funiculos ex arena nectere.

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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