Two Dissertations · §412 · John Davenant

Cap. V Obj. 3 Sol: foresight of elects' faith inferred from election — Acts 13:48; Prosper on dignity

Granted that, election is not drawn from antecedent foresight of faith — rather a sure foresight in God of the elects' faith is inferred from antecedent election, according to Acts 13:48: as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. So God rightly foresees as about to believe, before they receive destination decree he ordained to receive it. What Prosper said of charity we also affirm of faith (On Free Will, p. 125): of this so great, ineffable good no one was found worthy; but whoever was elected by God was made worthy. That learned Father, scourge of Pelagians and Semipelagians, did not say: whoever considered and foreseen as endowed with charity or faith was afterward elected — but: whoever was elected by God afterward became partaker of faith and charity.

Latin

At hoc concesso non elicitur electio ex antecedanea fidei praevisione: sed certa in Deo fidei electorum praevisio infertur ex antecedanea electione, juxta illud celebre dictum, Actor. xiii. 48. Crediderunt quotquot ordinati fuerunt ad vitam aeternam. Unde etiam recte dicatur, Deum praevidere illos omnes crediturus, antequam accipiant vitam aeternam, quos decreto praedestinationis ad hanc vitam aeternam accipiendam ordinavit. Quod itaque Prosper de charitate dixit, id de fide etiam constanter affirmamus, Hoc tanto et tam ineffabili bono nemo inventus est dignus: Sed quicunque electus est a Deo, factus est dignus, de lib. arbit. pag. 125. Non dixit doctissimus Pater, et Pelagianorum ac Semipelagianorum Mastigium, Quicunque consideratus et praevisus ab ipso Deo ut dono charitatis aut fidei praeditus, ille postmodum ab eo electus est, sed, Quicunque a Deo electus est, ille postmodum fidei et charitatis factus est particeps.

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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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