Two Dissertations · §346 · John Davenant

Cap. IV open: duplex decretum — general (all believers) and singular (named from foreseen faith)

With predestination thus set from foresight of faith, Arminius and his followers establish a double decree. The first is general: God decreed to receive all believers into grace for Christ's sake, and to gift those persevering in faith with eternal life. The second is singular and terminates on particular persons: God established to gift with eternal glory this one and that by name — Peter, Paul, John — whom from eternity he foresaw would believe and remain in faith.

Latin

Praedestinatione ergo hunc in modum ex praevisione fidei constituta, duplex Praedestinationis decretum ab Arminio, ejusque sectatoribus stabilitur. Prius generale est, quo Deus decrevit omnes credentes in gratiam recipere propter Christum, eosdemque in fide perseverantes aeterna vita donare. Posterius singulare est, et ad singulares personas terminatur: Quo Deus statuit hunc et illum nominatim, puta Petrum, Paulum, Johannem, quos ab aeterno praevidit credituros, et in fide permansuros, aeterna gloria donare.

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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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