Two Dissertations · §327 · John Davenant

Cap. III Rat. 12: efficacious election from mere good pleasure destroys free choice

Rat. 12. If God efficaciously elects some to glory from the mere good pleasure of his will, and not from foreknowledge of merits, free choice is plainly destroyed. No one can resist God's efficacious will — so those so predestined to glory will not keep free power to lose it. Posit that antecedent will for the salvation of Peter and Paul: either they are under absolute necessity to do what salvation requires (believe, live piously, persevere in faith and piety, and so arrive at salvation), or God's efficacious decree can be made void. Both absurd and impossible. Therefore we must not posit efficacious election of some to glory except from foresight of merits that will arise from free choice preceded by God's grace.

Latin

Rat. 12. Si ponamus Deum efficaciter eligere quosdam ad gloriam ex mero beneplacito voluntatis suae, et non ex praescientia meritorum, tolletur plane liberum arbitrium. Nam cum nemo potest resistere efficaci voluntati Dei, non manebit in eorum libera potestate gloriam amittere, qui hoc modo sunt ad gloriam praedestinati. Posita itaque tali antecedente voluntate Dei de salute Petri et Pauli, aut erit in illis absoluta necessitas operandi ea quae sunt necessaria ad salutem, puta credendi, pie vivendi, in fide et pietate perseverandi, atque adeo perveniendi ad ipsam salutem, aut Dei decretum efficax potest fieri irritum. Utrumque absurdum et impossibile. Ergo non debemus ponere electionem aliquorum efficacem ad gloriam, nisi ex praescientia meritorum quae orientur ex libero arbitrio per gratiam Dei praevento.

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