Two Dissertations · §284 · John Davenant

Cap. III Sol. Rat. 3: grant analogy-order; God can destine the crown from mere grace first

Sol. We grant the postulate: there is no priority/posteriority in the acts of the divine will or mind themselves; that order is borrowed from analogy to human willing and from how the objects depend on one another. To the comparison itself: first, we can show why an earthly prince does not mark someone out for the prize except after seeing the victory — and yet God, on the contrary, can first from mere grace destine someone singularly to the crown, and then prepare and give the gifts through which that person will be foreseen as brought to the crown.

Latin

Sol. Concedimus illud postulatum, nimirum, Non esse aliquem ordinem prioritatis & posterioritatis in actibus sive voluntatis sive mentis Divinae; sed hunc ordinem desumi ex analogia ad voluntatem humanam; & ex dependentia obiectorum, quam habent inter se. Ad inductam autem comparationem respondemus, Primo, posse nos manifestam causam afferre cur Princeps terrestris non designat aliquem singulariter ad premium, nisi ex precedente intuitu Victoriae, & Deus tamen possit e contra primo ex mera gratia destinare aliquem singulariter ad coronam, & consequenter praeparate & dare illi ea dona, per quae praevidebitur producendus ad coronam.

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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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