Two Dissertations · §139 · John Davenant

Cap. 7 Arg. 3: death bound to absolute purpose for certain persons—sheep, sons, Church texts

3. The third argument is drawn from those Scripture testimonies in which Christ’s death, joined and as it were folded together with a sure and absolute purpose of giving eternal life, is not spread out to all human beings but is restricted to certain persons—and that by Christ’s own special intention. Such are John 10:15: “I lay down my life for my sheep.” John 11:51–52: Jesus was about to die that he might gather into one the scattered children of God. Ephesians 5:25–26: “Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her and present her to himself in glory.” Titus 2:14: Christ gave himself for us that he might cleanse for himself a people of his own, and so on. He purchased the church with his blood (Acts 20:28). Ephesians 1:22–23: he gave him as Head over all things to the church, which is his body. Add also Ephesians 5:23: “He himself is the Savior of his body.”

Latin

3. Argumentum tertium ab illis Scripturae testimoniis petitur in quibus mors Christi conjuncta & quasi complicata cum certo & absoluto proposito dandi vitam aeternam, non ad omnes homines diffunditur, sed ad certas personas, idque ex speciali intentione Christi ipsius, restringitur. Talia sunt, Johann. x. 15. Animam meam pono pro ovibus meis. Johann. xi. 51, 52. Jesus moriturus erat, ut filios Dei dispersos in unum congregaret. Ephes. v. 25, 26. Christus dilexit Ecclesiam, & semetipsum tradidit pro ea, ut illam sanctificaret, & sibi gloriosam exhiberet. Tit. ii. 14. Christus dedit semetipsum pro nobis, ut mundaret sibi populum peculiarem, &c. Acquisivit ecclesiam sanguine suo, Actor. xx. 28. Ephes. i. 22, 23. Dedit eum Caput super omnia ecclesiae, quae est corpus ipsius. Cui adde illud, Ephes. v. 23. Ipse est Servator corporis sui.

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About this text

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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