Two Dissertations · §61 · John Davenant

Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Obj. 2: No injury when the gospel binds the fruit to faith

Suppose that after accepting a sufficient ransom God still does not receive everyone into grace. Then, the objection says, he would wrong Christ, because he would not grant to human beings what Christ merited for them by dying. He would also deal unjustly with human beings, because he would still hold them bound by sins as by debts, even though Christ wiped out all those debts with his blood.

Neither side is injured. Not Christ: he himself did not will that the satisfaction he offered for the sins of the human race should avail for the actual reconciliation of particular persons unless their faith intervened, as we proved above. It would therefore be an insult to Christ if anyone were admitted into the actual fellowship and share of this grace while still not believing in Jesus Christ, the Author of salvation and our Redeemer. Nor are human beings injured when they are not received at once into God's favor simply on account of Christ's dying act, for that was neither owed to them nor promised. We cannot claim from Christ's death any benefit against or beyond the order and covenant established by God and by Christ and opened to us in the Gospel.

That order stands fixed, and the Gospel expressly sets this condition: the grace of reconciliation and the gift of eternal life overflow to sinners from Christ's death if they believe; if they do not, they remain bound by sins and perish in their unbelief. "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; but whoever does not obey the Son will not see life, and the wrath of God remains on him" (John 3:36).

Latin

Si post acceptatum λυτρον sufficiens Deus non recipiat omnes in gratiam, Christo injurius esset, quia non gratificatur hominibus quod Christus moriendo pro illis meruit: cum hominibus etiam injuste ageret, quia eos peccatis, quasi debitis, constrictos adhuc tenet, quorum omnia debita Christus suo sanguine dispunxit. Neutri infertur injuria. Non Christo, quia ipse noluit satisfactionem a se praestitam pro peccatis humani generis valere ad actualem reconciliationem hominum singularium, nisi interveniente fide eorundem, ut supra probatum est. Esset igitur Christo contumeliosum, si in societatem & participationem actualem hujus gratiae quilibet admitteretur, nondum credens in Autorem salutis & Redemtorem nostrum Jesum Christum. Neque hominibus infertur injuria, eo quod non recipiantur illico in favorem Dei propter ipsum actum Christi morientis, quia hoc neque debitum fuit hominibus, neque promissum. Non possumus enim ex morte Christi vendicare nobis ullum beneficium contra, aut praeter ordinem ac pactum a Deo Christoque constitutum, nobisque in Evangelio patefactum. Est autem hic ordo stabilitus, haec conditio expresse posita in Evangelio, quod reconciliationis gratia & beneficium vitae aeternae ad peccatores ex morte Christi redundaret, si crederent; sin minus, manerent obstricti peccatis, & perirent in sua infidelitate: Qui credit in Filium, habet vitam aeternam; qui vero non obtemperat Filio, non videbit vitam, sed ira Dei manet super eum, Joh. iii. 36.

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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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