Two Dissertations · §216 · John Davenant

Cap. 1 prol. IV: works foresight and faith foresight as distinguishers

So too if someone maintains that only those are elected to glory whom God foresees clothed with merits or good works to the end of life, and that only those are reprobated or not elected whom he foresees clinging perseveringly to demerits or evil works — then that person makes foresight works, good or evil, into distinguishing conditions, and by their difference different Divine acts of predestination and reprobation are assigned to different people. Likewise if someone teaches that God elects only those he foresees will persevere in faith, and passes by and rejects only those he foresees will persevere in unbelief — then faith and unbelief become the distinguishing conditions by whose discrimination the distinct acts of predestination and reprobation fall on distinct persons.

Latin

Sic etiam, si quis tueatur illos solos eligi ad gloriam, quos Deus praevidet meritis sive bonis operibus ornatos usque ad finem vitae suae, atque eos solos reprobari sive non-eligi, quos praevidet demeritis sive malis operibus perseveranter adhaerescentes, is praevisa opera, prout bona fuerint vel mala, ponit conditiones distinguentes, pro quarum differentia differentes actus Divinae praedestinationis & reprobationis diversis hominibus conveniunt. Item, si quis doceat Deum illos solos eligere quos praevidet perseveraturos in fide, illos solos praeterire & rejicere quos praevidet perseveraturos in infidelitate, is hanc fidem & infidelitatem constituit conditiones distinguentes, pro quarum discrimine distincti actus praedestinationis & reprobationis cadunt in distinctas personas.

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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.

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