Two Dissertations · §181 · John Davenant

Cap. 7 Theologi nostri: Calvin — Heb. 2 children given; three notes

Calvin on Hebrews 2 at Behold I and the children God has given me: Christ brings none to the Father, he says, except those the Father himself has given him. That gift hangs on eternal election: those the Father destined for life he places in the Son's keeping to guard them. Mark three points. First, the Father from the election decree has singularly destined some for life. Second, Christ the Mediator received those elect as peculiarly entrusted to him by the Father. Third, Christ keeps a singular care of them, guarding and ruling them in this life until he brings them to eternal life. With that set down, it would be unreasonable and ungodly to deny that, in the very work of his offering and of mankind's redemption, Christ intended these elect's salvation by a peculiar intention — absolute and effectual.

Latin

Calvinus in Hebr. ii. ad illa verba, Ecce ego & pueri quos mihi dedit Deus, Nullos, inquit, adducit Christus ad Patrem, nisi ab ipso sibi datos. Hanc vero donationem ex aeterna electione pendere scimus: quia quos Pater destinavit ad vitam, eos in custodiam Filio suo tradit, ut ipsos tueatur. Tria hic notanda: Primum est, Deum Patrem quosdam ex decreto electionis singulariter ad vitam destinasse: Secundum, Christum Mediatorem hosce electos quasi peculiariter sibi commendatos a Patre accepisse: Tertium, singularem curam horum electorum Christum gerere, eosque ita tueri & regere in hac vita, ut tandem perducat ad aeternam. Quibus positis, ab omni ratione & religione abhorrerer, qui iret inficias, Christum, in ipso opere oblationis suae & redemtionis humanae, horum electorum salutem peculiari intentione, id est, absoluta & efficaci, intendisse.

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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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