FathersVia Patrum

A Candid Inquiry into the Controversies among Evangelicals · §51

Further props: middle knowledge, grace for all who will use the means, and man discerning himself against Paul and Luther

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So it is supposed that faith can be foreknown in these and those before the decree to give the grace of faith — on which see the Controversy on Middle Knowledge, with the Pontificals IX and with the Remonstrants XII.

So they suppose that God wills to work in everyone this grace which is most special to the elect, to believers; and that the same grace is destined, as to its kind, to those whom God foresees will use the means granted them and will not spurn grace, by themselves or through their greater ones, and so on.

From this it seems to follow that a human being discerns himself — against Paul — and that in the human being there is a dispositive cause toward grace, or prior dispositions toward faith — against Luther's steady teaching in On the Bondage of the Will, On the Origin of Faith, and the Preface to the Epistle to the Romans, and elsewhere.

Latin

Ità supponitur, præsciri posse in his & illis fidem, antecedenter ad decretum de dandâ gratiâ fidei, quâ de re in Controv. de Scientia Media, cum Pontific. IX. cum Remonstr. XII. Ità supponunt, hanc gratiam quæ specialissima est electorum, credentium, velle Deum in omnibus operari: Ità, destinari eandem in specie, iis quos prævidet Deus usuros mediis sibi concessis, nec spreturos gratiam, per se aut per majores, &c. Undè sequi videtur, hominem se ipsum discernere, contra Paulum, & in homine esse causam dispositivam ad gratiam, vel dispositiones prævias ad fidem, contrà Lutheri constantem doctrinam, in Libris De Servo Arbitrio, De Origine Fidei, & Præfat. in Epist. ad Romanos, &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.

Witnesses

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