Two Dissertations · §315 · John Davenant

Cap. III Sol. Rat. 9: faith foreseen before obtaining crown, not before destinating it

So Stephen's faith and patience were foreseen as going before his actually receiving the crown — not as going before the destinating of that crown. Divine foresight of the measure of grace God gave him, and which he exercised so gloriously, rested on the prior decree of election; the decree electing him to that glory did not rest on foresight of the faith he would receive from God and later show in the fight.

Latin

Praevisa igitur fuit fides et patientia Stephani ut antecedens ipsam coronae adeptionem; sed non fuit praevisa ut antecedens hujus coronae destinationem. Nam praescientia Divina de illa gratiae mensura quam largitus est Stephano, quamque ille exercuit tam gloriose, fundata fuit in praecedente decreto electionis; et non ipsum decretum electionis ad tantam gloriam, in praescientia fidei, quam accepturus a Deo et in certamine postmodum exseruit, fuit.

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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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