Two Dissertations · §396 · John Davenant

Cap. IV Arg. 9 Sol: owed conclusion is foresight-election; Major imperfect if made universal

Sol. Notice: in no Remonstrant argument does the owed conclusion appear. One thing is to conclude that the decree to save believers is election itself; another, that election itself is from foresight of antecedent faith — the conclusion we waited for in vain and never saw. Discuss their reason as it stands. The Major explains election quite imperfectly, and is not true throughout if taken universally as it must be, unless we let a slippery syllogism be forced on us. Make it universal: every divine decree on human salvation whose foundation is Christ is election itself of singular persons to salvation. Attach the Minor: the decree to save believers (any men, if they believe) is that Christ-founded salvation decree. Therefore that decree is election itself of singular persons.

Latin

Sol. Observandum est, in nullo argumento Remonstrantium debitam conclusionem prodire. Nam aliud est concludere, Ergo decretum de salvandis credentibus est ipsissima electio ad salutem; aliud, Ergo Electio ipsissima ad salutem fit ex praevisione fidei antecedaneae. Hanc conclusionem frustra exspectavimus, quae nusquam visa est comparere. Sed rationem praedictam, qualem qualem, discutiamus. Major imperfecte admodum explicat rationem Electionis; nec vera est usquequaque, si universaliter intelligatur, sicuti oportet, nisi syllogismum vaders velimus nobis obtrudere. Fiat ergo universalis, hoc modo, Omne Dei de salute humana decretum cujus fundamentum est Christus, est ipsissima singularium personarum electio ad salutem. Attexatur Minor, At decretum de salvandis credentibus (id est, quibuslibet hominibus, si credant) est illud decretum salutis cujus fundamentum est Christus: Ergo hoc decretum de salvandis Credentibus est ipsissima singularium personarum electio ad salutem.

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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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