Two Dissertations · §477 · John Davenant

Cap. VI Arg. 9 close: Christ and Christian infants not from foresight — nor the rest

Or Grevinchovius meant all infants are saved alike, so there is no infant election. Against that one unsound disputant stands the catholic Church's judgment: all infants are born children of wrath; not all are reborn — only those God dignifies with not owededed grace. Sum: Christ is not predestined from foresight of merits; nor Christian infants. Therefore neither are the remaining Christians — whose election is of one kind and the same ratio with their Head's, and among themselves.

Latin

Sed Grevinchovius fortasse id voluit, omnes infantes salvari promiscue, ac proinde nullam esse electionem infantium. Sed huic uni malesano disputatori oppono catholicae Ecclesiae judicium, quae semper sensit omnes infantes nasci filios irae, renasci autem non omnes, sed illos solos quos Deus indebita gratia dignatur. Summa est: Christus non est praedestinatus ex aliqua praevisione meritorum; neque infantes Christianorum: Ergo nec reliqui Christiani, quorum omnium electio est uniusmodi et ejusdem rationis cum electione sui Capitis, et inter se.

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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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