Two Dissertations · §459 · John Davenant

Cap. VI Arg. 5: Arminian foresight — certainty only from God intuiting, not specially causing

In Arminian predestination, where foresighted faith drags election after it, there is no certainty of salvation from God as special cause — only from God as onlooker. Of Arminius's four decrees describing predestination, none gives any singular person certainty of salvation by an infallibly operating cause; elect salvation stays certain to God only as one who sees.

Latin

At in illa Praedestinatione Arminiana, ubi fides praevisa post se trahit electionem, nulla est certitudo salutis ex Deo specialiter causante, sed solummodo ex Deo intuente. Nam in quatuor Arminii decretis, quibus praedestinationis naturam describit, nullum est quod certitudinem salutis singulari alicui personae apportet, per modum causae infallibiliter operantis; sed salutem electorum Deo certam relinquit per modum intuentis.

Report a mistake in this passage

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.

Printed text used

Also checked PDF of the 1650 (Latin · print facsimile)
Also checked DjVu machine-read text of the 1650 (Latin)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

Report a mistake