Two Dissertations · §500 · John Davenant

Cap. VI Arg. 13 close: two impieties — explode foresight election; good use is benefit, not mover

In a word: this view — electing singular persons to life from their foresighted faith — involves two things most hostile to grace: that God's first love destining them to life arises from the good use of grace-prevented free choice; and that faith itself is not infused into certain persons by a special gift, but conceived in them by a special good act of free choice. All the orthodox must explode it. On the contrary: the good use of grace God foreknew was not the cause that moved him to elect these before others — it was rather a special benefit of election.

Latin

Ut verbo absolvam: Quandoquidem haec opinio de electione singularium personarum ad vitam ex praevisa fide eorundem involvit haec duo maxime gratiae inimica, nempe, Primum Dei amorem quo ad vitam destinat singulares personas oriri ex bono usu liberi arbitrii per gratiam praeventi, et ipsam fidem non certis personis ex speciali dono infundi, sed ex speciali bono actu liberi arbitrii in certis personis concipi, ab omnibus orthodoxis explodenda est; et e contra statuendum, bonum usum gratiae a Deo praescitum non fuisse causam quae Deum movebat ut hos prae aliis eligeret, sed fuisse potius speciale beneficium electionis.

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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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