Two Dissertations · §423 · John Davenant

Cap. V Obj. 6 Sol: Christ Head has causal priority — even the destined grafting comes from him

Christ the Church's Head is so joined to all his members that he holds causal priority over all the rest, and every outflow of free good to others comes through and for him — not only after they are grafted into Christ by faith, but so that even the benefit of being destinated to be grafted by faith is fetched from him and conferred on us in him. That Christ was predestinated Savior of the faithful only is true — he leads all the predestinated to salvation only by faith — not because faith is found in all the predestinated before the election decree itself.

Latin

Nam Caput Ecclesiae Christus ita conjunctus est cum membris suis omnibus, ut ipse prioritatem Causalitatis respectu reliquorum omnium obtineat, atque ut per et propter ipsum omnis boni gratuiti effluxus ad alios derivetur: derivatur autem non solummodo postquam sunt Christo insiti per fidem, sed ita ut hoc ipsum beneficium, quod per fidem illi inserendi destinantur, ab eo arcessendum sit, et in eo nobis conferendum. Quod igitur dicunt, Christum praedestinatum esse Salvatorem fidelium solummodo, id quidem verum est, quia non nisi per fidem omnes praedestinatos ad salutem perducit; non autem quia fides in omnibus praedestinatis ante ipsum decretum electionis invenitur.

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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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