Two Dissertations · §138 · John Davenant

Cap. 7 Arg. 2 close: absolute intercession (Bannes/Suarez)—oblation intends the same elect

But now, to gather all this as into one bundle: those whom Christ by special intercession commended to the Father—that is, by absolute prayer (as Bannes has it on I q.23 art.5 p.297), or (as Suárez in tom. 3.1 q.19 disp.31 p.634) those for whom he prayed with an efficacious and absolute will that the merit of his death be applied to them efficaciously; those for whose keeping and guarding he mounts as it were extraordinary watch; those for whom he so sanctified himself that from him they efficaciously receive that sanctification which is worked in the hearts of the saved by the teaching of the Gospel; finally, those whom he will at last present to the Father, every one, safe and glorious—those, beyond all controversy, he also embraced with special intention in the very act of offering, and so in the whole work of redemption. For it is absurd that salvation was procured for them by the Mediator with special intention, if Christ’s death, which is the cause of human salvation, was not destined to them with special intention.

Latin

Jam vero ut haec omnia quasi in fasciculum recolligam: Quos Christus speciali intercessione Patri commendavit, hoc est, oratione absoluta (ut habet Bannesius in 1. qu. 23. art. 5. pag. 297.) vel (ut Suarezius in 3. tom. 1. quaest. 19. disp. 31. pag. 634.) pro quibus oravit efficaci & absoluta voluntate, ut meritum mortis suae eis applicaretur efficaciter, pro quibus servandis & custodiendis quasi extra ordinem excubias agit, pro quibus seipsum ita sanctificavit ut ab eo efficaciter percipiant eam sanctificationem quae per Evangelii doctrinam in cordibus salvandorum peragitur, denique, quos ad unum omnes Patri tandem sistet incolumes & gloriosos, eos extra omnem controversiam etiam in ipso actu oblationis, adeoque in toto opere redemptionis, speciali intentione complectebatur. Absurdum enim est, salutem speciali intentione fuisse illis a Mediatore procuratam, quibus mors Christi, quae est salutis humanae causa, non fuit speciali intentione destinata.

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John Davenant argues from Scripture that Christ's death is a remedy offered to every person, so that anyone who hears the Gospel may be called to believe, and then opens a second dissertation on predestination.

John Davenant (1572–1641) was Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, bishop of Salisbury from 1621, and England's leading delegate to the Synod of Dort. A Reformed theologian of the moderate school, he defended universal atonement language within a Calvinist frame.

The Two Dissertations (1650) press two theses: that Christ died sufficiently for all, and that God sincerely calls all who hear the gospel — against the novel claim that Christ died only for the elect in every sense. They are Davenant's mature statement of the hypothetical-universalist position that divided English Calvinists.

This volume covers the opening of the first dissertation through the close of chapter 3, with the theses on the extent of Christ's death.

Date1572–1641 AD (Bishop of Salisbury; 1650 Cambridge imprint)

The 1683 reprint was not used as base text. No modern English was copied.

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