Two Dissertations · §140 · John Davenant

Cap. 7 Arg. 3: three observations—elect titles, not the promiscuous race, efficacious will

In all these places three things must be noticed. First, by the names sheep, Church, children of God, and body of Christ are meant sheep, children of God, or members of Christ—not so much already united in act by a faith received as still to be united by God’s counsel and intention through a faith yet to be received. Second, under those titles the human race cannot be meant promiscuously. Third, when it is said that Christ died that he might gather these children, sanctify this Church, acquire this Church, and the like, what is marked in Christ as he offers himself is not an inefficacious will, or some conditioned intention that might miss its intended effect, but an efficacious will and an intention joined to an infallible outcome.

Latin

In hisce omnibus locis tria observanda. Primo, nomine ovium, Ecclesiae, Filiorum Dei, corporis Christi designari oves, filios Dei sive membra Christi, non tam actu unita per fidem acceptam quam consilio & intentione Dei unienda per fidem accipiendam. Secundo, sub praedictis titulis humanum genus promiscue non posse designari. Tertio, cum dicitur Christum mortuum fuisse ut hosce filios congregaret, ut hanc Ecclesiam sanctificaret, ut hanc Ecclesiam acquireret, &c. denotari in Christo sese offerente non voluntatem inefficacem, aut intentionem aliquam conditionatam, quae intento effectu carere possit, sed voluntatem efficacem, & intentionem cum infallibili eventu conjunctam.

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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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