Two Dissertations · §243 · John Davenant

Cap. II Sol. Arg. 3: Augustine In Joh. 86 — praescientia pleaded against grace

Augustine (In John, tract. 86) puts it best: they defend God's foreknowledge against his grace when they say we were elect before the world's foundation because God foresaw we would be good. They were not elect because they were good — they would not have been good unless elect. So we may say the same of those who claim we were elect because God foresaw us as loving him: we would never love God unless we had been elect.

Latin

Optime Augustinus, in Johan. tract. 86. Praescientiam Dei defendunt contra gratiam Dei, qui dicunt nos electos ante mundi constitutionem quia praescivit nos Deus futuros bonos. Non enim electi sunt quia boni fuerunt, qui boni non essent nisi electi essent. Quidni igitur & nos dicamus, eos praescientiam Dei defendere contra gratiam Dei, qui dicunt nos electos, quia Deus praescivit nos ut illum diligentes? cum utique Dei amantes nunquam essemus nisi electi fuissemus.

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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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