Two Dissertations · §480 · John Davenant

Cap. VI Arg. 10: foresight election empties the secret — Peter and Judas already explained

All the Orthodox in this business of predestination and passing by have owned that secret — and reject predestination from foresighted human acts just because that empties the secret. If Peter was predestined because God foresaw he would believe and persevere, and Judas passed by because foresaw he would die in unbelief, the reason for predestining and not predestining is already out in the open, with nothing secret left.

Latin

Omnes Orthodoxi in hoc praedestinationis et praeteritionis negotio tale arcanum agnoverunt, et Praedestinationem ex praevisis actibus humanis eo argumento rejiciunt, quod tale arcanum excludat. Nam si Petrus praedestinatus fuerit quia praevidebatur a Deo ut crediturus, et in fide perseveraturus, Judas praeteritus fuerit quia praevidebatur ut in sua infidelitate moriturus, ratio praedestinandi et non praedestinandi jam in propatulo erit, nec quicquam arcani in se continebit.

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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.

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