Two Dissertations · §282 · John Davenant

Cap. III Resp. Rat. 2 close: Semipelagian charge — Augustine election yields faith/sanctity/perseverance

Finally, in this argument Vasquez crosses into the Semipelagian camp and leaves Augustine, who everywhere teaches men are not elected to eternal life from foresight of faith or good works — rather all our good works arise because we were predestined to eternal life. Faith: not elected because they believed, but elected that they may believe (De praed. Sanct. 1.17). Holiness: certain and plain we will be holy because God elected us, predestining that by grace we should be such (ibid. 18). Perseverance: to saints predestined by grace into God's kingdom, perseverance itself is given (De corr. Et grat. 12). So after election all our goods are foreseen, because they spring from election itself.

Latin

Postremo, in hoc suo argumento Vasques transit in castra Semipelagianorum, & Augustinum deserit, qui passim docet, non eligi homines ad vitam aeternam ex praescientia fidei aut bonorum operum, sed inde potius oriri omnia nostra bona opera, quod fuimus praedestinati ad vitam aeternam. Hinc fides: Non eliguntur quia crediderunt, sed eliguntur ut credant, De Praedest. sanct. lib. 1. cap. 17. Hinc sanctitas: Certum & manifestum est, ideo nos sanctos futuros, quia elegit nos Deus, praedestinans ut per gratiam tales essemus: ibid. cap. 18. Hinc perseverantia: Sanctis in regnum Dei per gratiam praedestinatis, donatur ipsa perseverantia, De corr. & gratia, cap. 12. Post electionem igitur omnia nostra bona praevidentur, quia ab electione ipsa proficiscuntur.

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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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