Two Dissertations · §336 · John Davenant

Cap. III Sol. Rat. 13: nearer point — gratuitous election stabilizes hortations as ordained media

Nearer the point: I say this doctrine of gratuitous election stabilizes hortations and corrections and kindles men's wills to live piously — because we preach God's secret will to elect certain persons without silencing his revealed will, which decrees those elect are led to their destined end only through means God ordained. Hortations, corrections, prayers, and the like are among those means Divine wisdom ordained to promote the elect's salvation.

Latin

Sed propius ad rem, Dico, hac doctrina gratuitae electionis stabiliri hortationes et correptiones, incendi hominum voluntates ad pie vivendum; quia sic arcanam Dei de eligendis certis hominibus voluntatem praedicamus, ut simul revelatam ejus voluntatem non taceamus, quae hosce electos non nisi per media a Deo ordinata ad finem illis destinatum perducendos decrevit. Hortationes autem, correptiones, orationes, et id genus alia, ab omnibus habentur inter illa media, quae promovendae electorum saluti Divina sapientia ordinavit.

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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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