Two Dissertations · §195 · John Davenant

Prefatio: preach free election; Pontifical reduction of the mystery

If we follow Paul's steps, imitate holy Augustine, and hold the doctrine received in this our Church, there is no danger of scandal. But if we let the doctrine of free election be overwhelmed and buried — or, worse, if we calmly endure it when certain Papal writers and others have badly corrupted it and twisted it the other way — that lazy silence will not escape suspicion. A ready defense of the truth would meet us if published falsehood displeased us. None of you, I think, fails to see that many Papal writers have reduced this whole mystery of election and reprobation — at which Paul stood astonished — to an all-too-clear and easy account of the difference, teaching that some are chosen from foreknowledge of merits, others rejected from foreknowledge of demerits.

Latin

Si Pauli vestigia premamus, si sancti Augustini exemplum imitemur, si doctrinae in hac Ecclesia nostra receptae adhaerescamus, nullum scandali periculum est. E contra, si obrui & sepeliri patiamur doctrinam gratuita electionis, aut (quod turpius est) si illam a quibusdam Pontificiis aliisque pessime corruptam & in contrarium detortam aequo animo feramus, non carebit utique suspicione haec iners taciturnitas: occurreret enim nobis expedita defensio veritatis, si falsitas promulgata displiceret. Neminem vestrum latere arbitror, ex Pontificiis scriptoribus multos, totum hoc mysterium electionis & reprobationis, in quo Paulus obstupuit, ad nimis claram facilemque discriminis rationem revocasse, dum alios ex praescientia meritorum electos, alios autem ex praescientia demeritorum rejectos philosophorum.

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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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