Two Dissertations · §143 · John Davenant

Cap. 7 Arg. 3: special love in the offering—Aquinas; Probatur 3 open (John 10:28 / 17:24)

Holy Scripture meant to open to us this special intention of Christ in offering himself, sprung from special love, whenever it mentions Christ’s death as related to the Church alone, to the sheep alone, to the members alone of the mystical body—according to that word of Aquinas (Part 3, q.24 art.4): “God preordained the salvation of the elect, by predestining from eternity that it be completed through Jesus Christ.” The last point is proved: the testimonies brought forward contain the will of God the Father and of Christ—not inefficacious or conditioned, but absolute and efficacious—concerning the saving of those sheep through Christ’s death. For speaking of the same sheep Christ says in John 10:28: “I give them eternal life, and they will not perish forever.” And in John 17:24: “Father, I will that where I am, they also whom you have given me may be with me.”

Latin

Hanc specialem Christi in sese offerendo intentionem ex speciali amore ortam sacra Scriptura nobis voluit patefacere, quoties de morte Christi relata ad solam Ecclesiam, ad solas oves, ad sola membra corporis mystici facit mentionem: juxta illud Aquinatis, Part. 3. qu. 24. art. 4. Deus praeordinavit electorum salutem, ab aeterno praedestinando ut per Jesum Christum compleretur. Probatur ultimum, scilicet, Voluntatem Dei Patris Christique non inefficacem aut conditionatam sed absolutam & efficacem, de salvandis praedictis ovibus per mortem Christi, testimoniis allatis contineri; Quia de iisdem ovibus loquens Christus Johann. x. 28. Ego, inquit, vitam aeternam do eis, & non peribunt in aeternum. Et Johann. xvii. 24. Pater, volo ut ubi ego sum, sint & illi mecum quos mihi dedisti.

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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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