Two Dissertations · §202 · John Davenant

Cap. 1 vocabulary: Electio proper — glory; Thomas; vs praedestinatio

The election we must treat, then, is the singular act of the Divine will that from eternity sets certain ones apart for the end of glory — eternal life — and passes others by. Thomas rightly notes that this election, like love, is presupposed to predestination. All the predestined are understood as elect and beloved: beloved insofar as God wills them the good of eternal life; elect insofar as he wills them that good and does not will it to others. Taken properly, election looks only to the end: it is God's will to confer glory on particular persons while passing others by. Theologians do sometimes blur election with predestination. When the words are kept apart, election belongs chiefly to the end itself; predestination belongs to the means — as we will now show.

Latin

Electio igitur, de qua nobis agendum erit, denotat singularem actionem voluntatis Divinae ab aeterno separantis quosdam ad finem gloriae seu vitae aeternae, aliis praeteritis. Atque haec electio, sicuti etiam & dilectio, praesupponitur praedestinationi, ut recte annotavit Thomas. Nam omnes praedestinati intelliguntur electi & dilecti: Dilecti, quatenus Deus vult illis bonum aeternae vitae; electi, quatenus vult illis hoc bonum quod non vult aliis. Proprie igitur & recte sumpta electio solum finem respicit, & est voluntas Divina conferendi gloriam singularibus quibusdam personis, cum praeteritione aliorum. Quanquam fatendum est, a Theologis nonnunquam confundi electionem cum praedestinatione: Quando vero distinguuntur, electio praecipue & proprie refertur ad ipsum finem, uti dictum est; praedestinatio ad media, uti nunc ostendetur.

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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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