Two Dissertations · §458 · John Davenant

Cap. VI Arg. 5: Matt. 24; Rom. 11:5; Eph. 1:11 — elect salvation certain because God so acts

Hence Matt. 24 (to deceive, if possible, even the elect), Rom. 11:5 (a remnant according to election), and Eph. 1:11 (predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things by the counsel of his will). Quoad God, the elect's salvation is certain: from the election decree he has resolved so to work in their hearts that they are led to faith and penitence, remain in faith and newness of life, and at last die in the Lord.

Latin

Unde illud Matth. xxiv. Adeo ut seducant, si fieri posset, etiam electos. Et Rom. xi. 5. Reservatio secundum electionem. Et Ephes. i. 11. Cum essemus praedestinati secundum propositum ejus qui omnia efficit ex consilio voluntatis suae. Quoad Deum igitur certa est salus electorum; quia ex decreto electionis statuit miris modis ita agere in cordibus eorum ut perducantur ad fidem et paenitentiam, ut in fide et vitae novitate permaneant, ac tandem moriantur in Domino.

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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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