Two Dissertations · §151 · John Davenant

Cap. 7 Quartum: sufficienter / efficaciter—death for elect by absolute saving will

A fourth argument is the distinction most received among all theologians: that Christ died for all sufficiently, for the elect efficaciously. Just as from the first half we refuted those who deny that Christ’s death, by God’s decree, is an applicable remedy for all people, so from the second half those must be refuted who deny that Christ’s death, and that by God’s decree, is a remedy to be applied to the elect efficaciously and infallibly. What else can “He died for the elect efficaciously” mean than that he died with an absolute intention and efficacious will to save the elect?

Latin

Quartum argumentum nobis praebebit receptissima illa inter omnes Theologos distinctio, qua dici solet, Christum pro omnibus mortuum fuisse sufficienter, pro electis mortuum efficaciter. Nam sicuti ex priore membro refutavimus illorum sententiam, qui negant Christi mortem ex decreto Dei esse omnibus hominibus remedium applicabile, ita ex hoc posteriore illi sunt refutandi, qui negant Christi mortem, idque ex decreto Dei, esse remedium electis efficaciter & infallibiliter applicandum. Quis enim potest esse alius sensus horum verborum, Mortuus est pro electis efficaciter, quam, Mortuus est absoluta intentione & efficaci voluntate servandi electos?

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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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