Prefatio: return to theological labor; scope of the inquiry
Preface delivered to the University. What the poet said of farmers — "The finished labor returns for farmers in a circle" (Georgics 2) — fits theologians still more truly, especially those whose chair itself demands labor and sweat, not leisure or quiet. So I will enter these rounds of theological work that my office requires, eager and willing; and I will ask God first to steer me through the whole course of this undertaking so that I do not swerve even a little from the fixed center of sacred truth. The work I take up is steep in itself and blocked with many difficulties. For what is higher, or farther from human sense, than that eternal decree of Divine predestination by which, before the world's foundations were laid, we confess that certain ones were chosen before others — indeed with others plainly passed by — to share eternal life in Christ? We have given our labor to explaining that business, yet under this rule: let no one of you expect that I will touch every question theologians treat in this matter (that would be immense labor, and superfluous too), or any of those curious little puzzles by which unhealthy little men torture themselves, vex others, and finally obscure and twist the Christian faith. Steady faith rejects captious and useless questions; and whoever truly hears as a believer shows himself devout toward Divine wisdom, not craving his own (Hilary, On the Trinity 1; so also Tertullian, On the Resurrection). In this inquiry, then, we will set ourselves only a few of the most necessary points, and we will not dig deeper than Scripture's light lets us go. If we keep to that rule, Augustine rightly judged that this doctrine of predestination should be taught not only among the learned but also to the people (On the Perseverance of the Saints 2.16), and that it can be said so as to be milk for little ones and solid food for the grown.
Latin
Prefatio habita ad Academicos. Quod de agricolis dixit Poeta, Redit agricolis labor actus in orbem, Georg. 2, id Theologis verius convenit; ac praesertim illis quibus ipsa Cathedra laboris & sudoris necessitatem, non otii aut quietis opportunitatem subministrat. Hos igitur circulos orbesque laboris Theologici, quos mihi pro officii mei ratione conficiendos video, alacri & lubenti animo ingrediar: Deumque inprimis precabor, ut me sic dirigat in toto hoc operis suscipiendi curriculo, ne vel tantillum deflectam ab immobili illo centro sacrae veritatis. Est autem opus quod aggredior in se arduum, multisque difficultatibus obstructum. Quid enim altius, aut ab humanis sensibus remotius, quam illud aeternum decretum praedestinationis Divinae, quo ante jacta mundi fundamenta quosdam prae aliis, imo aliis plane praeteritis, ad vitam aeternam in Christo participandam electos confitemur? Huic negotio explicando operam nostram addiximus; ea tamen lege, ne quis vestrum exspectet ut vel omnes quaestiones, quae in hac materia tractantur a Theologis, attingam (immensi hoc, addo etiam, & supervacui laboris esset), vel ullas omnino ex illis curiosis quaestiunculis, quibus malesani homunciones seipsos torquere, alios vexare, fidem denique Christianam obscurare solent & pervertere. Respuit enim captiosas & inutiles quaestiones fides constans; &, quisquis fidelis vere audit, Divinae sapientiae se religiosum ostendit, non libidinosum suae, Hilar. 1. De Trinit. ut graviter Tertullianus, De Resurr. Proponemus ergo nobis in hac disquisitione nostra paucula quaedam ex maxime necessariis tractanda; eaque non rimabimur altius quam quo Scriptura praelucente penetremus. Huic regulae si adhaerescamus, doctrinam hanc praedestinationis non modo inter eruditos proponendam, sed ipsi populo divulgandam, recte & sapienter judicavit Augustinus, De persev. sanctor. lib. 2. cap. 16. idque ita fieri posse docuit, ut id quod dicitur, & parvulis lac, & grandibus esca sit.