Two Dissertations · §238 · John Davenant

Cap. II Sol. Arg. 2: praescientia practica / scientia approbationis — Catharinus

Weigh the words more closely. Paul did not say "whom he foresaw," but "whom he foreknew" (οὓς προέγνω). This foreknowledge is practical, not bare intuition — what theologians call the knowledge of approbation. Sense: those God loved and, by his eternal good pleasure, set apart from others and approved — those he predestined. Scripture often uses "know" for love or approval, and "not know" for hate or rejection ("I never knew you," Matt. 7:23; "The Lord knows the way of the righteous," Ps. 1:6). So Catharinus on this place: What is "he foreknew," if not "he foreloved"?

Latin

Sed ipsa verba expendamus paulo accuratius. Non dixit Apostolus, quos praevidit; sed, quos praescivit, οὓς προέγνω. At haec praescientia practica est, non intuitiva: & scientia approbationis vocatur a Theologis. Sensus igitur est; Quos Deus dilexit, & ab aeterno suo beneplacito secretos ab aliis comprobavit, hos praedestinavit, &c. Nihil usitatius in Scripturis quam ut scire sive cognoscere ponatur pro amare sive approbare; sicuti nescire pro odisse & improbare. Non novi vos, Matth. vii. 23. Novit Dominus viam justorum, Psal. i. 6. Hinc Catharinus in hunc ipsum locum, Quid est quod praescivit, nisi predilexit?

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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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