Two Dissertations · §488 · John Davenant

Cap. VI Arg. 12: true election decree segregates singular persons

The true election decree segregates singular persons — those God, others passed by, has from special mercy infallibly destined to obtain salvation. The very word elect proves it: under its formal sense one is accepted, the other rejected. But in that Arminian decree — Whoever believes shall obtain eternal life; whoever remains unbelieving shall perish — there is no segregation of singular persons, no passing by or rejection of others, since by it God promises salvation equally to anyone and threatens perdition equally to anyone.

Latin

Verum decretum electionis est segregativum singularium personarum, quos Deus aliis praeteritis ex speciali misericordia ad salutem obtinendam infallibiliter destinavit. Ipsum vocabulum eligendi hoc arguit, sub cujus formali significatione indicatur acceptio unius, altero rejecto. At in illo Arminianae electionis decreto, Quicunque crediderit, vitam aeternam obtinebit; Quicunque incredulus manserit, peribit, nulla est singularium personarum segregatio ab aliis, nulla aliarum praeteritio aut rejectio, cum Deus tali decreto cuilibet homini ex aequo salutem polliceatur, cuilibet ex aequo perditionem interminetur.

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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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