Two Dissertations · §291 · John Davenant

Cap. III Sol. Rat. 4: Jesuits vs other Pontificii — Mary/Apostles absolute; Valentia

Add also: the Jesuits themselves diverge here from other Roman doctors, who teach that the virgin Mary, the blessed Apostles, and other eminently holy persons were absolutely predestined to glory before any foresight of merits — and it is likely the best were predestined in the best way. Of those eminently holy ones Valentia writes: such are predestined to eternal life before any regard of God’s foresight to their final cooperation (In 1. q. 23). But leave the Jesuits fighting one another:

Latin

Sed illud etiam adjungamus, Jesuitas hunc ab aliis Pontificiis diffidere; qui virginem Mariam, beatos Apostolos, aliosque eximie sanctos, ad gloriam absolute praedestinatos docent ante omnem praescientiam meritorum: Verisimile autem est optimos fuisse optimo modo praedestinatos. De illis igitur eximie sanctis sic scribit Valentia, Tales ante respectum Divinae praescientiae ad finalem eorum cooperationem, praedestinantur ad vitam aeternam, In 1. qu. 23. Sed linquamus Jesuitas compugnantes:

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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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