Two Dissertations · §470 · John Davenant

Cap. VI Arg. 8: Arminians twist the gift — sufficient grace to persevere if they will

This argument badly torments Arminians and Jesuits alike. Arminians dare not openly deny that persevering faith is God's gift — yet they strongly deny that the act by which God gives faith is always efficacious, certain, and invincible. They teach that when God gives men power to reach him, faith is already prepared as a gift if that grace continues. Doubtless they hold the same of perseverance: the 'gift' means only sufficient grace — power to persevere if they will. That kind of gift does not imply prior destination to eternal life; it is 'given' even to those who never had and never will have faith, perseverance, or eternal life.

Latin

Hoc argumentum valde torquet tam Arminianos quam Jesuitas. Arminiani itaque non ausint aperte negare, fidem perseverantem esse donum Dei, tamen strenue negant, actionem eam per quam Deus nobis fidem donat, semper efficacem, certam, et invictam esse. Atque porro docent, quando Deus dat hominibus potentiam ad ipsum perveniendi, fidem jam esse iisdem paratam ut donum, modo continuetur haec gratia. Proculdubio idem sentiunt de perseverantia, nempe hoc dono nil aliud designari quam illam sufficientem gratiam, qua datur hominibus potentia perseverandi si velint. Tale autem donum non arguit praeeuntem destinationem ad vitam aeternam; quia hoc modo fides et perseverantia donatur illis, qui nec fidem, nec perseverantiam, nec vitam aeternam unquam habuerunt aut habituri sunt.

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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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