Two Dissertations · §371 · John Davenant

Cap. IV Arg. 4 Sol: in Christo refers to the electing act — Eph. 1:3, 2 Cor. 5:19 parallels

In Christ refers not to the elect man's state but to the electing God's act. Arminians expose He chose us in Christ as: us already existing in Christ, or foreseen as believing and inserted by faith, whom God then chose. But in Christ joined to a divine act does not always mean the subject already exists in Christ beforehand. Eph. 1:3: God blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ — and among those blessings is the first gift of faith and repentance, given not to those already in Christ but to those alien from him, to bring them to Christ and insert them. So God in Christ reconciled the world to himself (2 Cor. 5:19) and created us unto good works (Eph. 2:10). Remonstrants themselves say God regenerates men in Christ (Coll. P. 99). In all these, in Christ cannot without absurdity mean already existing in Christ beforehand. So to elect in Christ is nothing but, in electing, to look to Christ the Mediator and Head of the Church, and by his grace to destine members to be joined to him and glorified.

Latin

Nam illa verba, in Christo, non ad statum hominis electi, sed ad actum eligentis Dei sunt referenda. Arminiani sic exponunt, Elegit nos in Christo, id est, Nos existentes in Christo, vel nos consideratos et praevisos ut credentes in Christum, et per fidem in illum insertos, Deus postmodum elegit. Sed haec loquendi formula, in Christo, quoties conjungitur cum aliquo actu Divino, non semper innuit subjectum, in quod tendit ille actus, considerari ut existens in Christo antecedenter. Verbi causa, Eph. i. 3. Deus benedixit nobis omni benedictione spirituali in Christo. At inter spirituales benedictiones est ipsa prima fidei et poenitentiae donatio, quae non dantur existentibus in Christo, sed alienis a Christo, ut ad Christum adducantur, et ei inserantur. Sic Deus dicitur in Christo mundum sibi reconciliasse, 2 Cor. v. 19; in Christo ad bona opera nos condidisse, Eph. ii. 10. Denique ipsi Remonstrantes docent Deum regenerare homines in Christo, Coll. pag. 99. In hisce omnibus locis verba illa, in Christo, non possunt nisi absurdissime exponi, in Christo antecedenter existentes. Eligere igitur in Christo nil aliud est, quam in eligendo respicere ad Christum Mediatorem et Caput Ecclesiae, ejusque gratia membra illi conjungenda et glorificanda destinare.

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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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