Two Dissertations · §189 · John Davenant

Cap. 7 Contra Obj. 3 + Sol.: OT elects and meritorious cause

Obj. 3. If Christ in offering himself, and God in accepting that sacrifice, had a special intention to vivify and surely save all the elect by that sacrifice's virtue and merit, we seem to shut Old Testament elect out of the privilege — those born and dead before Christ's sacrifice was shown on the cross. Sol. On general sufficiency or special efficacy I answer: Christ's sacrifice had the same virtue under the Old Testament, before the outward act of exhibition, that it has under the New after Christ was really shown and offered on the cross. Just as special grace reaches New Testament elect from God's special intention by the merit of this sacrifice already actually exhibited, so special grace flowed to Old Testament elect from the same God's special will by the merit of that same sacrifice still to be exhibited. For Christ was the Lamb slain from the world's beginning, both in the readiness of his will and in the Father's acceptance. Note the difference: a cause that works physically or naturally must already be in act before its power yields an effect; a cause that works meritoriously or morally — such as Christ's passion — can yield an effect before it actually exists, if it at least stands beforehand in the knowledge and acceptance of him who, with regard to it, dispenses the benefits of his grace. Here a meritorious cause is kin to a final cause: not yet existing in act, but only foreseen and weighed, it still moves the agent to act. So we say Christ's passion and its dependent merits, foreseen as to be offered to God and applied specially to Jacob, not Esau, moved God to give Jacob the special grace he denied Esau. Suarez puts it well (In 3, q. 49, art. 4, comm.): that special love by which, for Christ's merits — exhibited or foreseen — God sanctifies and reconciles people can fall under Christ's merits, whether by meriting for us the effect of that love, or God's love (or election) freely fixed on us.

Latin

Obj. 3. Si in Christo seipsum offerente, Deoque illud sacrificium acceptante, sit specialis quaedam intentio de vivificandis & infallibiliter salvandis electis omnibus virtute & merito ejusdem sacrificii, videmur ab hoc speciali privilegio excludere electos sub Veteri Testamento, qui nati ac denati fuerunt ante hoc sacrificium Christi in cruce exhibitum. Sol. Quoad rationem sufficientiae generalis sive efficaciae specialis, respondeo, Christi sacrificium eandem virtutem habuisse sub Veteri Testamento, ante externum actum exhibitionis, quam habuit & habet sub Novo, post Christum realiter in cruce exhibitum & oblatum. Sicuti igitur ad electos sub N. T. ex speciali intentione Dei derivatur gratia specialis a merito hujus sacrificii jam actu exhibiti, ita ad electos sub V. T. ex speciali ejusdem Dei voluntate dimanavit gratia specialis a merito ejusdem sacrificii postmodum exhibendi. Christus enim erat Agnus occisus ab origine mundi, tam in praeparatione voluntatis suae, quam in acceptatione voluntatis Paternae. Est itaque hic observandum, aliam esse rationem causae ejus quae operatur Physice sive naturaliter, aliam ejus quae operatur meritorie sive moraliter. Causa physice agens, actu ponatur est necesse, priusquam ejus virtute effectum aliquod producatur: at causa agens meritorie sive moraliter, qualis est passio Christi, potest effectum producere priusquam actu exsistat, si praecedat saltem in ejus cognitione & acceptatione ad quem spectat ejusdem intuitu beneficia gratiae suae hominibus dispensare. Nam hac in re causa Meritoria habet cognationem quandam cum causa Finali, quae nondum actu exsistens, sed tantummodo praevisa & praeconsiderata, valide movet agentem ad hoc vel illud agendum. Hoc modo dicimus passionem Christi, meritaque ab eadem dependentia, praevisa ut Deo offerenda & applicanda specialiter Jacobo, & non Esavo, habuisse rationem causae moventis Deum ad donandum Jacobo illam specialem gratiam, quam Esavo negavit. Recte Suarez, in 3. qu. 49. art. 4. in comm. Illa specialis dilectio, qua propter merita Christi, sive exhibita sive praevisa, Deus homines sanctificat, & sibi reconciliat, potest cadere sub meritis Christi, sive promerendo nobis effectum illius dilectionis, sive dilectionem (vel electionem) Dei ad nos libere terminatam.

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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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