Two Dissertations · §175 · John Davenant

Cap. 7 Scholastici: Scotus and Hugh of St Victor on elect-directed passion

4. Scotus (Sentences III, dist. 19, single question) has much that illustrates our view. First: just as the Word foresaw his passion to be offered to the Father for the elect, so he offered it effectually unto its effect, and the whole Trinity effectually accepted that passion for them; for no others was it effectually offered or eternally accepted. So Scotus grants that by the Trinity's eternal decree Christ's passion was offered and accepted for the elect in a singular way, with special intention. 5. Hugh of St Victor (On the Sacraments I.8.7), treating Christ's passion: Human nature was corrupted by sin and wholly owed to damnation; if all had been damned, that would not have been injustice. But grace came and chose some from the mass of the whole by mercy unto salvation, and left some by justice unto damnation. Hugh teaches plainly that Christ, coming and offering himself for the race's sins, kept a singular eye on the elect he chose from that mass, whom he decreed — and in fact always does — to bring to salvation by his death's merits according to God's eternal good pleasure.

Latin

4. Scotus in 3. Sentent. dist. 19. quest. unica, multa habet quae valde conducunt ad sententiam nostram illustrandam, illud inprimis, Sicut Verbum praevidit passionem suam Patri offerendam pro electis, sic eam efficaciter obtulit in effectum, & tota Trinitas pro eis passionem efficaciter acceptavit, & pro nullis aliis fuit efficaciter oblata, nec ab aeterno acceptata. Agnoscit Scotus, ex aeterno decreto totius Trinitatis passionem Christi fuisse singulari quodam modo & speciali intentione oblatam & acceptatam pro electis. 5. Hugo de S. Victore, De Sacr. fid. lib. 1. part. 8. cap. 7. Ubi tractationem instituit De passione Christi, sic scribit, Natura humana per peccatum corrupta fuit, & tota per peccatum damnationi debita erat, & idcirco, si tota damnata fuisset, injustitia non fuisset. Venit autem gratia, & elegit quosdam de massa universitatis per misericordiam ad salutem, quosdam autem per justitiam deseruit ad damnationem. Aperte docet Hugo, Christum in mundum venientem, & pro peccatis humani generis sese offerentem, habuisse respectum singularem ad electos, quos de massa universitatis elegit, quosque ad salutem pro aeterno Dei beneplacito per merita mortis suae perducere decrevit, & de facto semper perducit.

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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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