[Loci Communes Theologici; Collected from all his extant lectures, theses on loci communes, ancient and more recent manuscripts, and diligently compiled, arranged, and augmented, with an index of chapters and subjects, by Nicolaus Arnoldus, Doctor and Professor of Sacred Theology in the Academy of Franeker; Final edition, thoroughly corrected of nearly innumerable errors found in previous editions; (Amsterdam: Ludovicus & Daniel Elzevir, 1667)]
Johannes Maccovius (c. 1588–1644), born Jan Makowski in the year of our Lord 1588 in Lobzenic, Great Poland, emerged as a radiant star in the firmament of Reformed scholastic theology. Of noble Polish lineage, he was nurtured in learning first at the gymnasium of Danzig under the tutelage of the renowned Bartholomaeus Keckermann, wherein he laid a strong foundation in the arts and the philosophy of Aristotle. Ever zealous for wisdom, he journeyed as a peregrinus academicus through the academies of Germany, including Prague, Marburg, Heidelberg, and Leipzig, before at length attaining the celebrated University of Franeker in Friesland. At Franeker he attained his doctorate in sacred theology in 1614, being speedily advanced to the office of professor ordinarius, where he exercised his gifts for near thirty years. Maccovius did tenaciously defend the purity of Reformed doctrine, being noted for his supralapsarian convictions concerning predestination and for his subtlety in scholastic method, wherein he was esteemed above many. With keen intellect and ardent zeal, he contended for the faith against Jesuits, Socinians, Arminians, and all adversaries of orthodox Calvinism. His disputations were many, and his classes thronged with students from Poland, Hungary, Transylvania, and beyond, whom he instructed with rigor and piety. Throughout his course he was not without controversy: his method, logical distinctions, and strong assertions occasioned strife, notably with Sibrandus Lubbertus and William Ames, as well as censure at the Synod of Dordrecht. Yet he was acquitted of heresy and confirmed in his teaching. His principal works, Collegium Theologicum and Distinctiones et Regulae Theologicae, endure as monuments of Protestant learning. Having completed his pilgrimage, he fell asleep in Christ at Franeker in 1644, leaving an enduring legacy among the Reformed.
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Reprobation is the eternal decree of God whereby God from eternity, from His mere good pleasure, decreed certain ones who were possible for Him to make, to permit to fall, to leave in the fall, and to condemn eternally.
The object of reprobation in respect to the end, as it is in intention, is man as creatable and liable to fall.
This I demonstrate by these reasons:
God permitted sin, and indeed with a certain end. Therefore, before man sinned, he was ordained to the end to which one comes through sin. But one comes through sin, unless God delivers us through Christ, to eternal death. Therefore, eternal death will be the end of reprobation. Therefore, some men were ordained to eternal death antecedently to sin.
Conversely, if they were ordained, then they were considered either as made or as possible to be made. Not the former, for this would be to do a thing without knowing why. Therefore, the latter.
God imputed Adam’s sin to the whole human posterity naturally descended from him. Therefore, He did this for a certain end. But what end can be given except that He decreed to manifest His justice by the punishment of some, and His mercy by the deliverance of some from punishment? Therefore, God willed to punish some antecedently to sin. Therefore, He willed them either considered as made or as possible to be made; not the former, as shown before, therefore the latter.
In respect to the end as it is in execution, the object of reprobation is man to be created, created, to be permitted to fall, and fallen.