Two Dissertations · §402 · John Davenant

Cap. V Obj. 1 Sol: election is eternal purpose — love in the electing One, not yet poured out

Sol. Election is the eternal purpose or decree to take certain men, others passed by, to the efficacious infallible attainment of grace and glory — and in that sense it is rightly Love unto salvation: not love already poured out outwardly on the elect, but love still enclosed in the eternal purpose in the electing One himself. So God embraced Paul not yet born, much less converted or believing, with his secret love, having in himself an eternal immutable purpose to impart grace and glory to him. Let the first proposition pass: election is love unto salvation.

Latin

Sol. Electio est aeternum propositum sive decretum assumendi quosdam homines, aliis praeteritis, ad efficacem et infallibilem gratiae gloriaeque consecutionem: atque hoc sensu recte dicitur Amor ad salutem: Non amor in effectu externo adhuc effusus in electum, sed amor in proposito aeterno adhuc inclusus in ipso eligente. Sic Paulum nondum natum, nedum conversum aut credentem, Deus complectebatur suo arcano amore, habens scilicet in sese aeternum et immutabile propositum gratiam gloriamque eidem impertiendi. Transeat ergo illa prima propositio, Electionem esse amorem ad salutem.

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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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