Two Dissertations · §264 · John Davenant

Cap. II Arg. 7: Apoc. 3:11 — hold fast / crown grounds foresight-perseverance

Last: they take Revelation 3:11 — "Hold what you have, lest another take your crown." From that they say the crown of glory can be lost by an ungodly life, so God predestines no one to that crown unless he sees the person will persevere to the end in piety and faith. Without that foresight, they argue, predestination would be unsure — someone God meant for glory could drop out by weakness or wickedness.

Latin

Ultimum testimonium petitur ex Apoc. iii. 11. Tene quod habes, ne alius accipiat coronam tuam. Ex hisce verbis patet coronam gloriae amitti posse vita impia: Deus ergo neminem praedestinat ad hanc coronam gloriae, nisi quia videt illum ad extremum in pietate & fide perseveraturum. Si enim absque hac praevisione quenquam praedestinaret, incerta redderetur praedestinatio, & posset per suam infirmitatem aut pravitatem a gloria excidere, quem Deus voluit ad gloriam praedestinare.

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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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