Two Dissertations · §262 · John Davenant

Cap. II Sol. Arg. 6: Augustine — elect makes rich in faith as he makes heirs

Add this for the full sense: God does not elect from foresight of faith, yet he is rightly said to have chosen the rich in faith — because in time he makes such everyone he elected from eternity; and because, once made such, he already actually and almost visibly elects them, sets them apart from unbelievers, and takes them as his own. Close with Augustine on this very text (On the Predestination of the Saints 1.17): "God chose the faithful, but that they might become so, not because they already were. By electing he makes them rich in faith, just as he makes them heirs of the kingdom." That choosing is rightly said of them: he chose them so that he might do this in them.

Latin

Denique ad pleniorem verborum intelligentiam accedat & hoc quoque; Quamvis Deus non eligat homines ex praescientia fidei, recte tamen dicitur elegisse divites in fide, quia tales facit in tempore eos omnes, quos elegit ab aeterno; & quia tales factos jam actualiter & quasi visibiliter eligit, & ab infidelibus secretos in peculium suum transfert. Concludamus hoc responsum verbis illis quibus Augustinus hunc ipsum locum explicavit; Elegit Deus fideles, sed ut fiant, non quia jam erant. Eligendo ergo facit divites in fide, sicut heredes regni. Recte quippe in eis hoc eligere dicitur, quod ut in eis faciat, eos elegit. Haec ille, De Praedest. Sanct. lib. 1. cap. 17.

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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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