Two Dissertations · §447 · John Davenant

Cap. VI Arg. 3: no Scripture tip for election from foresight faith — Si credideris, praedestinaberis?

On the other side, adversaries cannot produce so much as one tip of Scripture hinting that men were chosen above others from a foresighted condition of prior faith. If the predestining decree really presupposes believing, and election follows once that condition is met, that bargain must be shown from Holy Scripture — inventing promises outside God's word is sheer temerity. Where then is If you believe, you shall be predestined? Or Whoever believes shall be predestined? There is Whoever believes shall be saved — God requires faith as antecedent to decreed salvation. There is no Whoever believes (or is foreseen to believe) shall be predestined — God does not require faith as antecedent to his decree.

Latin

Jam e contra, adversarii ne unum quidem apicem ex Scripturis proferre possunt quo innuatur homines fuisse electos prae aliis ex praevisa antecedentis fidei in illis conditione. At si decretum praedestinandi praerequirat conditionem credendi, atque hac conditione impleta electio credentis consequatur, stipulatio haec ex sacris Scripturis est demonstranda. Nam fingere promissiones aut pacta extra verbum Dei est summae temeritatis. Quaero igitur, Ubi habetur haec promissio, Si credideris, praedestinaberis? Vel, Quicunque crediderint, praedestinabuntur? Extat promissio talis, Quisquis crediderit, salvabitur; quia Deus exigit conditionem fidei tanquam antecedaneum ad salutem decretam: At non extat haec, Quisquis crediderit, aut quisquis praevidetur crediturus, praedestinabitur; quia Deus non exigit fidem tanquam antecedaneum ad suum decretum.

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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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