Two Dissertations · §318 · John Davenant

Cap. III Rat. 10: Valencia, Vasquez, Faustus — election must rest on foresight of works

Gregory of Valencia presses this; Vasquez uses it too. Even the old Pelagians turned it on the Catholics — so Faustus of Riez (De lib. Arb. 1.4): for those predestined to life prayer will not be necessary; for those appointed to death it cannot help — superfluous in the one case, powerless in the other. What they say of prayer they could conclude of every other good work: superfluous once an antecedent, gratuitous decree of divine election is posited. Therefore election must be set on foresight of works.

Latin

Hoc argumentum urgetur a Gregorio de Valencia. Vasques etiam eodem argumento utitur. Quinetiam antiqui Pelagiani Catholicos hoc argumento oppugnabant: Sic enim Faustus Regiensis, Praedestinatis ad vitam necessaria non erit oratio; deputatis ad mortem prodesse non poterit: in istis supervacua, in illis infirma judicabitur; lib. 1. De lib. arb. c. 4. Quod de oratione, id de caeteris omnibus bonis operibus eadem argumentandi formula concludi potuit, esse nimirum supervacua, posito antecedente et gratuito decreto electionis Divinae. Electio igitur ponenda ex praescientia operum.

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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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