Two Dissertations · §182 · John Davenant

Cap. 7 Theologi nostri: Zanchius — sufficiently for all, efficaciously for elect

Zanchi (Miscellanies, On the Predestination of the Saints, p. 14): it is not false that Christ died for all men — his passion is offered to all in the Gospel. Yet he died efficaciously only for the elect, because they alone share the passion's efficacy. That they alone so share it must be referred to the special, effectual will of Christ suffering and of the Father accepting this victim — for the elect in a more peculiar way than for others. In sharing saving good, the divine will goes before the human.

Latin

Zanchius, in Miscellaneis, tract. De praedest. san. pag. 14. Falsum non est, Christum mortuum pro omnibus hominibus: Omnibus enim passio Christi offertur in Evangelio. Sed pro electis tantum efficaciter mortuus est: quia scilicet ipsi tantum efficacitatis passionis Christi participes fiunt. Quod autem illi soli fiant participes hujus passionis efficaciter, id referendum est ad specialem & efficacem voluntatem Christi patientis, Deique Patris hanc hostiam acceptantis, pro electis magis peculiari modo quam pro aliis. In boni enim salutiferi participatione voluntas Divina praecedit humanam.

Report a mistake in this passage

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.

Printed text used

Also checked PDF of the 1650 (Latin · print facsimile)
Also checked DjVu machine-read text of the 1650 (Latin)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

Report a mistake