Two Dissertations · §424 · John Davenant

Cap. V Obj. 6 Sol close: Arminius's foresight-election puts free will under election, not Christ

Finally: if election were from foresight faith as Arminius philosophizes, the absurdity he tries to pin on us would truly follow. Posit the law Whoever believes will be elected to life — then men not even existing in the divine purpose in Christ, but considered wholly outside Christ, by believing merit or at least by agreement obtain their election. Under that election each one's free choice is laid as foundation rather than Christ, when one descends from a universal law to the actual particular election of men.

Latin

Addo denique, si electio esset ex fide praevisa, ut philosophatur Arminius, id absurdi revera sequeretur, quod nobis conatur impingere. Nam posita lege tali, Quisquis credet, ad vitam eligetur, manifestum est homines ne proposito quidem Divino in Christo existentes, sed extra Christum omnimode consideratos, credendo mereri, aut saltem ex pacto consequi, electionem suam. Tali autem electioni liberum uniuscujusque arbitrium fundamenti loco potius substernitur, quam Christus, quando ab universali lege ad actualem particularem hominum electionem descenditur.

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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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