Two Dissertations · §251 · John Davenant

Cap. II Arg. 5: 1 Tim. 2:4 — common will to save all grounds foresight-election

Fifth: from 1 Timothy 2:4 — "God wills all men to be saved" — they argue that from this common will to save all, God gives everyone sufficient grace to reach salvation. So some are elect to glory and others passed by only because he foresaw who would cooperate with that grace and persevere in holiness, and who would not cooperate at all, or would not remain in good works and faith. Therefore, they say, there is no election to glory except from foresight of merits.

Latin

Quinto, ex 1 Timoth. ii. 4. Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri, hunc in modum argumentantur, Deum ex hac communi voluntate salvandi omnes, dare omnibus sufficientem gratiam qua ad salutem perducantur. Quod itaque quosdam eligit ad gloriam, quosdam praeterit, id inde evenire, quod praevideat quosdam cooperaturos huic gratiae & in sanctitate perseveraturos, quosdam aut non omnino cooperaturos, aut in bonis operibus & fide non permansuros: Ergo nulla est electio ad gloriam nisi ex praescientia meritorum.

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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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