Two Dissertations · §234 · John Davenant

Cap. II Arg. 1: Vasquez from Matt. 25:34 — kingdom prepared for foresight works

First argument (Matt. 25:34ff.): "Come, you blessed of the Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the world's beginning. For I was hungry, and you gave me…" Vasquez: here Christ offers a kingdom prepared from the world's origin — that is, from eternity — and at once gives the reason they should receive what was prepared and destined, which is to mark the cause of that preparation. If the preparation rested on some other ground, and not on these very works named, the cause Christ himself assigns would be empty and none. Therefore people are elect to heavenly glory from foresight of their good works (ST I q.23 a.3, disp. 89.2).

Latin

Primo, Ex illis verbis Matth. xxv. 34, &c. Venite benedicti Patris, possidete regnum paratum vobis ab initio mundi. Esurivi enim, & dedistis mihi, &c. sic argumentatur Vasques, Hoc in loco Christus offert regnum praeparatum ab origine mundi, id est, ab aeternitate; atque reddit simul rationem cur debeant accipere praeparatum & destinatum, quod est causam ipsius praeparationis indicare. Nam si praeparatio sit alia ratione, & non propter haec ipsa opera quae nominantur, inanis & nulla plane esset causa quam hic ipse Christus assignavit. Ergo homines eliguntur ad gloriam caelestem ex praevisione operum suorum bonorum. In 1. quaest. 23. art. 3. cap. 2. disp. 89.

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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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