Two Dissertations · §610 · John Davenant

Cap. IX vocatione Sol cont.: Peter and Paul absolutely predestined to life and to the whole series of means — will of end absolutely joined to will of means

We say Peter, Paul, and the rest are absolutely predestined to eternal life — not that they know that decree absolutely before they believe, or that they gain eternal life with the faith-condition never performed — but that God elects them absolutely and freely not only to eternal life itself but to the whole series of means by which they are brought to it. In execution the end hangs on conditional use of means; yet in God predestining Peter, Paul, or any particular person, the purpose of the end was not conditioned but wholly aligned with the purpose of the means — so that by one and the same simplest act by which God willed glory for Peter or Paul he also willed faith and all else from whose conditional use glory is promised. In a word: God did not decree to save Peter without the condition reed to give Peter faith as absolutely and precisely as salvation. That is the common saying: Predestination is preparation of grace now and of glory hereafter.

Latin

Nos dicimus, Petrum, Paulum, reliquosque ad vitam aeternam absolute praedestinatos, non quod ipsi antequam credant absolute sciant hoc Dei decretum, aut quod ipsi vitam aeternam consequantur fidei conditione minime praestita; sed quod a Deo absolute et gratuito eliguntur, non modo ad ipsam vitam aeternam, sed ad totam seriem mediorum quibus ad eam perducuntur. Licet itaque in exsecutione finis pendeat a conditionali usu mediorum, tamen in Deo praedestinante Petrum, Paulum, aut quamcunque personam singularem, voluntas finis non fuit conditionata, sed absolute connexa cum voluntate mediorum; ita ut uno et eodem simplicissimo actu, quo Deus voluit Petro aut Paulo gloriam, voluerit etiam et fidem, ceteraque omnia ex quorum usu conditionali gloria promittitur. Uno verbo, Deus non decrevit servare Petrum sine conditione fidei, sed tam absolute et precise fidem Petro dare decrevit, quam salutem. Atque hoc est quod vulgo dicitur, Praedestinationem esse praeparationem gratiae in praesenti, et gloriae in futuro.

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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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