Two Dissertations · §486 · John Davenant

Cap. VI Arg. 11: Arminian foresight election — no operative force left for the way

Weigh by contrast the Arminian invention — election from prior foresight of persevering faith. That sort of election strips election of all operative force for keeping or advancing the elect on the way of salvation. If they are elected to life only by regard to perseverance already kept to the last breath, election gave them nothing toward finishing the course in faith and holiness. They are taken to have overcome every difficulty and reached heaven's very threshold before God predestines them to life. That all the saved pressed on in faith and holiness, aimed straight at the kingdom, and all but entered the gates before they were predestined — or received any special grace by virtue of predestination — is plainly horrendous, intolerable to Christian ears that gladly hear Paul: whom he predestined, he also called; whom he called, he also justified; whom he justified, he also glorified (Rom. 8:30).

Latin

Jam e contra pensitemus hanc, quam fingunt Arminiani, electionem, ex antecedanea fidei perseverantis praevisione. Talis electio tollit omnem vim operatricem electionis, quoad electos in via salutis conservandos aut promovendos. Nam qui ad vitam non eliguntur, nisi ex intuitu praecedentis perseverantiae ad extremum usque halitum praestitae, illis electio nihil contulit ad hunc cursum in fide et sanctitate consummandum. Omnes siquidem difficultates superasse intelliguntur, atque ad ipsum limen caeli appulisse, priusquam a Deo ad vitam sive regnum caeleste praedestinentur. Omnes autem salvandos perrexisse in via fidei et sanctitatis, recta ad regnum caelorum tetendisse, et tantum non intra portas penetrasse, priusquam a Deo ad vitam praedestinati fuerint, aut virtute praedestinationis suae ullam specialem gratiam a Deo acceperint, horrendum plane est, et Christianis auribus intolerandum, quae libenter admittunt illud Apostoli: Quos praedestinavit, hos et vocavit; quos vocavit, hos et justificavit; quos justificavit, hos et glorificavit, Rom. viii. 30.

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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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