Two Dissertations · §190 · John Davenant

Cap. 7 Contra Obj. 4: incongruity of faith given only to elect

Obj. 4. Last comes this charge: it is hardly fitting — indeed plainly incongruous — that God, who willed Christ's death, with its rich treasury of merits, to be equally applicable to all under the condition of faith for obtaining eternal life, should meanwhile refuse to prepare and give that same faith, for those same merits, equally to all, and should give persevering saving faith to the elect alone — and that for Christ's merits by a special Divine intention, a particular regard directed toward them

Latin

Obj. 4. Ultimo in loco & illud objici potest, Parum consentaneum, imo plane incongruum esse, ut Deus, qui Christi mortem, cum divite thesauro meritorum eodem incluso, omnibus voluerit esse ex aequo sub Fidei conditione applicabilem ad consecutionem vitae aeternae, noluerit interim ex aequo hanc ipsam fidem propter eadem Christi merita omnibus praeparare & donare, sed ipsam fidem perseverantem & salutiferam solis electis dederit, idque propter Christi merita speciali quadam Dei intentione, speciali quodam intuitu ad eos restricta & ordinata.

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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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