Two Dissertations · §467 · John Davenant

Cap. VI Arg. 8: no one foreseen persevering to whom God has not yet decreed the gift

Eighth argument: no one was ever foreseen as having persevering faith unless God had already decreed to give that excellent gift. If God has decreed perseverance for Peter, Paul, or any particular person, that one is already elected and ordained to life — for the gift of perseverance itself carries an infallible ordination to eternal life. It is hardly reasonable that God should elect particular persons to life by foresight of his own gift, which he never gives or decrees to give except to those he has already destined to eternal life.

Latin

Octavo, sic argumentamur. Nemo unquam praevisus est ut habens fidem perseverantem, cui Deus nondum decrevit hoc eximium donum impertire. Quod si Deus jam decreverit Petro, Paulo, aut cuilibet homini singulari dare perseverantiam; manifestum est illum jam esse a Deo ad vitam electum et ordinatum. Nam in ipso perseverantiae dono sita est infallibilis ad vitam aeternam ordinatio. Parum igitur rationi consentaneum est, ipsum Deum eligere singulares personas ad vitam ex praevisione proprii sui doni, quod nunquam dedit, aut dare decrevit, nisi illis quos antecedenter ad vitam aeternam destinavit.

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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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