Two Dissertations · §257 · John Davenant

Cap. II Arg. 6: James 2:5 — poor elect / rich in faith grounds foresight-election

Sixth: Vasquez leans on James 2:5 — "Has not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom he promised to those who love him?" The Jesuit reads it: God chose those who were poor in this world because they were rich in faith and charity — chose them to glory, the inheritance of the kingdom. So, they say, election to glory hangs on God's foresight of who will finally be rich in faith and works.

Latin

Sextum testimonium quo nititur Vasques, habetur Jacob. ii. 5. Nonne Deus elegit pauperes in hoc mundo, divites in fide, & heredes regni, quod promisit Deus diligentibus se? Hoc est, interprete Jesuita, Deus eos qui in hoc mundo pauperes erant, quia erant in fide & charitate divites, elegit ad gloriam, sive regni hereditatem. Electio igitur ad gloriam est ex praescientia Dei, qui videt quinam tandem futuri sunt divites in fide & operibus.

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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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