Fathers

Two Dissertations · §737

Cap. X Arg. VII open: Arminius’s three decrees leave church-acquisition to free will; Grevinchovius and Episcopius admit redemption may apply to none / church may wholly fail

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If, as Arminius sets it, after God’s decree to give Christ as Mediator and Savior, and the second decree to save any under the condition of repentance, faith, and perseverance, and the third to administer to all the means needed for repentance and faith—if, with those three decrees in place, election and reprobation of singular persons, salvation and damnation, hang on foresight of men’s faith or unbelief—then it follows that free will was left able to empty out the end of the Lord’s passion, the acquiring of the Church. So that Christ not dying in vain, and having a church of elect efficaciously redeemed by his blood, would come not from some antecedent decree or special grace of God electing certain members to Christ the Head and predestining them to be made alive and saved through him, but from the contingent working of human wills. For all mortals, if taken as not yet elect and not predetermined by that special providence we call Predestination to have faith and persevere in it, can stay in unbelief, spring back from faith once received, in a word fall from salvation and leave Christ the Redeemer with no redeemed church at all. Those who fetch election and reprobation from foresight of faith and unbelief cannot deny this consequence. Grevinchovius admitted it candidly (Dissert. De morte Christi, p. 14): We assert that redemption could have been obtained for all, and yet applied to none because of the intervening unbelief of all. So Episcopius, resting on this Arminian principle, confesses the whole church on earth can fail, and that Christ need not always have some true church on earth in order to remain King and Head.

Latin

Si, ut ponit Arminius, post decretum Dei de dando Christo Mediatore et Salvatore, et illud alterum quo decrevit quosvis sub conditione resipiscentiae, fidei et perseverantiae salvos facere, itemque et illud tertium quo decrevit media ad resipiscentiam et fidem necessaria omnibus administrare; si, inquam, positis hisce tribus decretis, singularium personarum electio et reprobatio, salus et damnatio dependeat ex praevisa hominum sive fide sive infidelitate, tum sequitur, hominum libero arbitrio relictum fuisse, ut possent finem Dominicae passionis, hoc est, acquisitionem Ecclesiae, prorsus evacuare: Ita ut, quod Christus frustra mortuus non fuerit, quod habeat Ecclesiam electorum sanguine suo efficaciter redemptam, non ex antecedaneo aliquo decreto, aut speciali gratia Dei membra quaedam Christo Capiti eligentis et per Christum vivificanda et salvanda praedestinantis, sed ex contingente operatione humanarum voluntatum evenerit. Universi enim mortales, si considerentur ut nondum electi, nec speciali illa providentia Dei, quam Praedestinationem vocamus, ad habendam fidem et perseverandum in eadem praedeterminati, possunt in sua incredulitate manere, possunt a fide suscepta resilire, possunt, uno verbo, a salute excidere, et Christum Redemptorem, absque Ecclesia redempta prorsus relinquere. Hanc consequentiam non possunt negare, qui electionem et reprobationem ex praevisione fidei et infidelitatis conantur arcessere. Ingenue itaque illam admisit Grevinchovius, Dissert. De morte Christi, pag. 14. Asserimus, inquit, potuisse omnibus impetratam esse redemptionem, et tamen nullis applicatam propter intervenientem omnium infidelitatem. Sic etiam Episcopius hoc principio Arminiano innixus, fatetur totam Ecclesiam in terris deficere posse, neque necesse esse ad hoc, ut Christus Rex et Caput maneat, illum habere semper Ecclesiam aliquam veram in terris.

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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