Two Dissertations · §245 · John Davenant

Cap. II Sol. Arg. 3 close: love infused from election — Augustine De grat. Christi 26

No one would love God unless God poured charity into him; God would pour saving charity into no one unless he had first destined him to salvation. So he does not destine eternal life from foresight of our love — from the purpose of election to eternal life he infuses that love. Close with Augustine, who hammers the Pelagians everywhere: "That we might receive the love with which we should love, we were loved when we did not yet have it" (On the Grace of Christ against Pelagius, ch. 26).

Latin

Nemo Deum diligeret, nisi Deus charitatem illi infunderet; nemini charitatem salutiferam infunderet, nisi eum prius ad salutem destinasset. Non ergo ex praevisione dilectionis nostrae destinat nobis vitam aeternam, sed ex proposito electionis ad vitam aeternam infundit nobis hanc dilectionem. Concludamus hoc responsum nostrum verbis Augustini, qui mallei instar ubique contundit Pelagianos. Sic ergo ille, Ut acciperemus dilectionem qua diligeremus, dilecti sumus, cum eam nondum haberemus. De grat. Christi contr. Pelag. cap. 26.

Report a mistake in this passage

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.

Printed text used

Also checked PDF of the 1650 (Latin · print facsimile)
Also checked DjVu machine-read text of the 1650 (Latin)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

Report a mistake