Two Dissertations · §431 · John Davenant

Cap. V Obj. 8 Sol: adults not saved or predestinated without faith — but distinguish praedestinare/servare

Sol. We grant no adult can be saved without faith — so God's will ordained, and he opened that ordination in the Gospel. We also grant no adult is predestinated to be saved without faith. But that can be taken ambiguously and needs distinct explanation. Predestination refers to an internal act within the secret of the divine mind; mind; mind; Saving denotes an external effect wrought in the man. So: no one is predestinated to be saved without considering antecedent faith as a means to producing that external effect — but we deny that no one is predestinated to be saved without considering antecedent faith as a motive for producing that internal act.

Latin

Sol. Agnoscimus, adultorum neminem absque fide salvari posse, idque quia Divina voluntas ita ordinavit; quam voluntatis suae ordinationem in Evangelio patefecit et promulgavit. Concedimus etiam, neminem adultorum praedestinari salvandum sine fide. Sed hoc ambigue sumi potest; eget itaque distincta explicatione. Cum igitur praedestinare denotat actum internum in arcano mentis Divinae, Servare effectum externum in homine operatum: dicimus, neminem praedestinari salvandum absque fidei antecedentis consideratione, sub ratione medii ad productionem effectus illius externi: sed negamus, neminem praedestinari salvandum absque consideratione fidei antecedentis sub ratione motivi, ad productionem actus illius interni.

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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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