Two Dissertations · §338 · John Davenant

Cap. III Rat. 14: conformity of decree and temporal execution — Achilles of foresight-election

Rat. 14. Last they argue from the conformity between God's election decree and its temporal execution: in the same order in which things are executed in time, God from eternity decreed they should be executed. Divine immutability requires he not act otherwise in time than he from eternity decreed he would. So since in temporal execution he leads none of the elect to glory except in view of good works and final perseverance, he could not from eternity elect them to glory except under that same view. If before the world's foundations he elected them to glory freely, not from foreseen works, yet at execution will not give glory except from works, he has changed his will — most unworthy of divine wisdom. All Papists who hold election from foreseen works trust this argument heavily and boast it is their Achilles.

Latin

Rat. 14. Ultimo in loco argumentantur a conformitate quae est inter ipsum decretum electionis Divinae et temporalem exsecutionem ejusdem, hanc in modum; Eodem ordine quo res in tempore mandantur exsecutioni, Deus ab aeternitate decrevit ut mandarentur. Pertinet enim ad immutabilitatem voluntatis Divinae, ut non aliter agat in tempore, quam ab omni aeternitate se acturum esse decrevit. Quandoquidem igitur in temporali exsecutione salutis electorum, neminem perducit ad gloriam nisi intuitu bonorum operum et perseverantiae finalis, non potuit ab aeterno aliter ad gloriam illos eligere nisi ex eodem intuitu. Nam si ante jacta mundi fundamenta illos ad gloriam elegit gratuito, et non ex operibus praevisis, et cum ad exsecutionem ventum fuerit, non vult illis dare gloriam nisi ex operibus, mutavit voluntatem suam, quod est Divina sapientia indignissimum. Omnes Papistae qui electionem ex operibus praevisis fieri contendunt, huic argumento valde confidunt, et quasi Achilleum esse jactitant.

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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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