Two Dissertations · §333 · John Davenant

Cap. III Rat. 13: absolute election evacuates hortation, correction, prayer, industry — Pelagian charge

Rat. 13. Another argument akin to this the ancient Pelagians also used to brandish against Augustine: namely, that this doctrine of absolute election of singular persons before foresight of merits empties every hortation and correction, makes prayers useless, extinguishes all industry, and finally brings despair on men. See Augustine, De bono perseverantiae 2.16, 17, 23, and nearly the whole of De correptione et gratia. From Hilary's and Prosper's letters among Augustine's Works (Tom. 7) it is plain the Pelagians objected all this invidiously. The same runs through Faustus of Riez, book 1 sect. 9 and 10, and that writing full of poison and pestilence. Sum of it: on our sentence, salvation is thrust on the elect whether idle or wicked, and denied to the those not chosen however hard they labor and live piously.

Latin

Rat. 13. Aliud argumentum huic affine est, quod etiam ab antiquis Pelagianis vibrari solebat in Augustinum; nimirum, Hanc doctrinam de electione absoluta singularum personarum ante praevisionem meritorum, hortationem omnem et correptionem evacuare, orationes inutiles facere, omnem industriam exstinguere, desperationem denique hominibus inferre. Haec apud Augustinum videre licet, De bono perseverantiae lib. 2. cap. 16. et 17. et 23. et per totum fere librum De correptione et gratia. Ex epistolis etiam Hilarii et Prosperi, quae extant inter Augustini Opera, Tom. 7. patet fuisse haec omnia invidiose objecta Augustino a Pelagianis. Quinetiam apud ipsum Faustum Regiensem haec omnia occurrunt, lib. 1. sect. 9. et 10. et passim per illud plenum veneni et pestilentiae scriptum. Summa omnium est; Ex hac sententia nostra, salutem ingerendam esse electis sive nihil agentibus, sive male agentibus, denegandam esse non-electis quantumvis laborantibus et pie viventibus.

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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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