Two Dissertations · §409 · John Davenant

Cap. V Obj. 2 Sol close: crass error — God never bound himself Si prius credideris, licebit praedestinare

So it is a serious mistake to think that God's first eternal destinating of a singular person to life is bound by the same laws that bind temporal attainment on the human side. The same God who told man, If you believe, I will give you will be saved — never bound himself: If you first believe, then I may predestinate you to life; otherwise I may not.

Latin

Crassus igitur error est opinari, primam illam et aeternam personae alicujus singularis a Deo ad vitam destinationem iisdem legibus adstrictam, quibus temporalis consecutio quoad ipsos homines adstricta est. Idem enim Deus qui homini hanc legem dixit, Si credideris, dabo tibi vitam, vel salvus eris, nunquam hanc legem sibi imposuit, Si prius credideris, licebit mihi te praedestinare ad vitam; secus haud licebit.

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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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