Two Dissertations · §60 · John Davenant

Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Solut. 1: A universal cause still needs each one’s application by faith

We acknowledge the fullest sufficiency of the ransom—indeed its infinite superabundance. Our answer, however, is this: Christ's merit, considered in itself alone, does operate sufficiently as a universal cause of human salvation; yet a universal cause does not produce effects in particular persons before it is applied to each one. By Christ's death itself, therefore, a most sufficient universal cause was instituted, from which (as Aquinas says) any sins of any persons could be expiated. But before that cause puts forth its expiatory power for the liberation and reconciliation of individuals, it must be applied to each by faith. The Apostle himself teaches this clearly in Romans 3:25: "Whom God set forth as a propitiatory through faith in his blood," and so on.

So although Christ's death is a sufficient satisfaction for the sins of the human race, it cleanses us by way of a remedy: it must first be applied to each person before it can produce the effect of reconciliation and healing. And that application is made only through faith.

Latin

Agnoscimus plenissimam lytri sufficientiam, imo infinitam ejusdem superabundantiam: sed respondemus, Hoc meritum Christi in se solo consideratum operari quidem sufficienter, ut causam salutis humanae universalem; universalis autem causa non producit effectus in singularibus ante singularem applicationem. Ipsa igitur morte Christi instituta est causa universalis sufficientissima, ex qua (ut loquitur Aquinas) possent quaecunque quorumcunque peccata expiari; sed priusquam haec causa vim suam exserat expiatoriam ad liberationem & reconciliationem singulorum, oportet eam applicari singulis per fidem. Quod ipse Apostolus perspicue docuit Rom. iii. 25. Quem proposuit Deus propitiatorium per fidem in sanguine ipsius, &c. Quamvis ergo haec mors Christi sit sufficiens satisfactio pro peccatis humani generis, cum tamen per modum remedii nos purget a peccatis, est unicuique prius applicanda, quam possit effectum reconciliationis & sanitatis producere: Applicatio autem non fit nisi per fidem.

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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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