Two Dissertations · §389 · John Davenant

Cap. IV Arg. 8: from the order of execution — whom God saves/destroys in time he decreed from eternity

Arg. 8. From the order of execution they argue: those and such as God saves and destroys in time, he decreed from eternity to save and destroy. But in time God saves only those who persevere in faith, as such, and destroys unbelievers as such. Therefore from eternity he decreed to save only the faithful as such. They prove the Major from God's immutability; the Minor from the Gospel's standing voice — life promised to believers, death threatened to unbelievers.

Latin

Arg. 8. Ab ordine exsecutionis sic disputant; Illi et tales quos et quales Deus in tempore salvat et perdit, illos et tales ab aeterno decrevit salvare et perdere: Atqui Deus solos perseverantes in fide, qua tales, in tempore salvat; incredulos, qua tales, perdit: Ergo Deus ab aeterno decrevit solos fideles, qua tales, salvare. Majorem probant ab immutabilitate Dei: Minorem ex perpetua voce Evangelii, quod credentibus vitam pollicetur, incredulis mortem interminatur.

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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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