Two Dissertations · §226 · John Davenant

Cap. II: Semipelagians — initiative from us; perseverance by free will

The Semipelagians took up part of Pelagius's poison. Count among them Faustus of Riez, Cassian the Conferencer, the Massilians, and all who admit grace is needed to live godly, persevere, and reach eternal life — yet still claim that from us there first comes a beginning of labor and effort, which God's grace then follows, and for the sake of which saving grace is given. Consequently they hold that once a person has gained God's grace by striving and labor, he stays in that grace, faith, and good works not by any gift flowing from election, but by his own free choice; and that election to eternal life rests on foresight of that will.

Latin

Pelagii venenatum dogma Semipelagiani ex parte amplexi sunt; in queis numero Faustum Regiensem, Cassianum Collatorem, Massilienses, aliosque omnes, qui confitentes gratiae necessitatem ad pie vivendum, in pietate perseverandum, & vitam aeternam consequendam, defendunt tamen ex nobis praecedere quoddam initium laboris & conatus, quod Divina gratia subsequitur, & cujus intuitu haec gratia salutaris nobis donatur. Tenent etiam consequenter, postquam homo conando & laborando Dei gratiam adeptus est, non per donum aliquod quod manat ab electione, sed per liberum arbitrium suum perseverare in hac gratia, fide, & bonis operibus; atque ex praescientia talis voluntatis eligi ad vitam aeternam.

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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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