Two Dissertations · §222 · John Davenant

Cap. II open: Variæ sententiæ — election from foresight merits; agenda

CAP. II. Here I set out the various opinions of those who teach that election rests on our foresight merits. We come at last to the business this labor was meant for. First we will argue election — or predestination — to salvation and eternal blessedness; then the other half of the controversy: non-election, passing-by, or reprobation.

Latin

CAP. II. Variae illorum sententiae referuntur, qui electionem praevisis nostris meritis inniti docuerunt. Accedamus tandem ad ipsum negotium cui hanc operam nostram destinavimus. Et primo de Electione sive Praedestinatione ad salutem & aeternam beatitudinem disputabimus: dein ad illam alteram hujus controversiae partem, de Non-electione, Praeteritione, sive reprobatione deveniemus.

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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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