Two Dissertations · §180 · John Davenant

Cap. 7 Theologi nostri: Musculus — electorum gratia Christ came

Musculus, who in the Common Places presses hard that Christ must be held universal Redeemer, still grants Christ's special intention to redeem the elect. On Romans 8 he says Christ came into this world for the elect's sake — which can only mean he came with a peculiar intention to save the elect without fail. That special aim, securing for the elect the applied fruit of his passion, belongs to them so properly that it does not stretch to others.

Latin

Musculus, qui in locis communibus acriter illud urget, Christum pro universali Redemtore habendum, tamen specialem Christi intentionem de redimendis electis agnoscit, in Rom. viii. ubi dicit, Electorum gratia Christum in hunc mundum venisse. Quod aliter intelligi non potest, quam peculiari intentione electorum infallibiliter servandorum in mundum venisse. Quae specialis intentio obtinendi ipsis electis fructum applicatum suae passionis est ita illorum propria, ut ad alios se haud extendat.

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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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