Two Dissertations · §293 · John Davenant

Cap. III Rat. 5: foresight election would be acceptor personarum

Rat. 5. If God elected some to glory from foresight of merits and passed others by, he would be an acceptor of persons. A just, rational election presupposes some disparity between elect and those not chosen, and the prudent always chooses what is better. Since no difference ned apart from foresight of merits in some that are not foreseen in others, it follows that God's election always rests on that kind of foresight of human merits.

Latin

Rat. 5. Si Deus ex meritis praevisis eligeret quosdam ad gloriam, aliis praeteritis, esset acceptor personarum. Nam electio justa et rationabilis disparitatem quandam inter electos et non-electos praesupponit; et prudens semper quod est melius eligit. Cum ergo nulla excogitari possit differentia inter homines absque hac praevisione meritorum in aliquibus, quae non praevidentur in aliis, consequens est ut dicamus, electionem Dei semper inniti hujusmodi praescientiae humanorum meritorum.

Report a mistake in this passage

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.

Printed text used

Also checked PDF of the 1650 (Latin · print facsimile)
Also checked DjVu machine-read text of the 1650 (Latin)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

Report a mistake