Two Dissertations · §295 · John Davenant

Cap. III Sol. Rat. 5: loving and electing make worthier; Colossians 1:12

The reason: by loving and electing, God makes those he loves and elects worthier and better. Human choice cannot create disparity of worth in what it chooses, so it must aim at the object where greater dignity is already assumed. For divine election's justice and wisdom it is enough that, though all people are unworthy of this electing gift, God by electing makes those he elects to glory fit and worthy ahead of others to share the saints' lot in light (Colossians 1:12).

Latin

Hujus autem rei hanc rationem afferre licet, Quia Deus diligendo et eligendo facit eos digniores et meliores, quos diligit et eligit. Humana electio, quae facere non potest disparitatem dignitatis in rebus electis, tenetur tendere in illud objectum in quo praesupponitur major dignitas: sed ad Divinae electionis justitiam et sapientiam statuendam sufficit quod cum omnes homines sint indignissimi hoc electionis beneficio, Deus eligendo facit illos quos ad gloriam eligit prae aliis dignos et idoneos ad participandam sortem sanctorum in lumine, Coloss. i. 12.

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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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