Two Dissertations · §489 · John Davenant

Cap. VI Arg. 12: Hague reply — segregation of believers; Davenant restates the question

The Remonstrants answer at the Hague Colloquy (p. 53): segregation of believers is segregation of singular persons — for believers are singular persons (p. 51). If we mean election reaches certain singulars as singulars, apart from any qualities in them, and especially without regard to faith, they flatly deny election regards singulars that way. Easily answered. We grant believers are singular persons — every act is of singulars. What we deny is that by Whoever believes shall be saved God segregates some singulars unto faith or life, others passed by.

Latin

Huic argumento respondent Remonstrantes in Colloquio Hagiensi, pag. 53: Segregationem credentium esse segregationem singularium personarum; agnoscunt enim credentes esse singulares personas, pag. 51. Verum si id volumus, electionem sese extendere erga personas quasdam singulares, tanquam singulares, citra ullas qualitates in ipsis consideratas, et nominatim absque consideratione fidei, tum se pernegare electionem hoc modo singulares personas respicere. Sed haec facile refelluntur. Agnoscimus credentes esse singulares personas; nam omnis actio est singularium: sed hoc decreto, Quisquis crediderit, salvus erit, segregari a Deo singulares aliquas personas ad fidem vel vitam, aliis praeteritis, id demum pernegamus.

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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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