Two Dissertations · §330 · John Davenant

Cap. III Sol. Rat. 12: Augustine — God inclines hearts; elect act freely by inspired willing

Hear Augustine: when God wills something that must be done only by willing people, their hearts are inclined to will it by him who works in us, wonderfully and ineffably, even the willing (De praed. Sanct. 1.20). So the Jesuit's first assumption was false — that once God's efficacious will for the elect's salvation is posited, they necessarily and not freely will and do what brings them to salvation. They act freely, because God himself inspires in them a most free willing so to act.

Latin

Sed Augustinum audiamus: Cum Deus vult fieri aliquid, quod non nisi volentibus hominibus oportet fieri, inclinantur eorum corda ut hoc velint eo inclinante, qui in nobis mirabili modo et ineffabili operatur et velle, De praed. Sanct. lib. 1. cap. 20. Falsum ergo fuit illud prius assumptum Jesuitae, Posita, scilicet efficaci voluntate Divina de salute electorum, eos necessario, et non libere velle ac facere ea per quae perducuntur ad salutem: libere enim agunt, quia ut sic agant, ipse Deus inspirat illis liberrimum velle.

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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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