Two Dissertations · §425 · John Davenant

Cap. V Obj. 7: without foresight-faith condition the whole Gospel is inverted

Obj. 7. If election is not set from an antecedent condition of foresight faith, the whole Gospel is inverted. The Gospel first commands faith, then under that condition promises salvation — but those who resist Arminius have God first ordaining salvation to a singular person, then faith. The Gospel says, Believe and you will live; their doctrine says, Because I will to give you life, therefore I will to give you faith — the very overturning of the Gospel. So concede election from a foresight-faith condition, or explode Gospel doctrine.

Latin

Obj. 7. Si electio non ponatur ex antecedanea fidei praevisae conditione, tum Evangelium totum invertitur. Nam cum Evangelium prius mandet fidem, deinde sub conditione fidei salutem promittat, doctrina eorum qui Arminio repugnant, ponit Deum primo alicui personae singulari ordinasse salutem, deinde vero fidem. Evangelium dicit, Crede, et vives: haec vero doctrina dicit, Quoniam tibi volo dare vitam, propterea tibi volo dare fidem, quae est ipsissima Evangelii eversio. Concedenda ergo electio ex praevisae fidei conditione, aut Evangelii doctrina explodenda est.

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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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