Two Dissertations · §655 · John Davenant

Cap. IX Arg. 11 Sol: remaining charge — special grace prepared for some only makes baptism useless for the rest; we deny the consequence

So only this remains: because we say special grace that in fact leads to glory is prepared and given to some by God's sovereign will, and to others neither prepared nor given, we are judged to make baptism altogether useless for these latter. We deny that consequence.

Latin

Illud igitur unum reliquum est, ut quia nos dicimus specialem gratiam, et de facto ad gloriam perducentem quibusdam ex mero Dei beneplacito praeparari et donari, aliis nec praeparari nec donari, idcirco judicemur statuere Baptismum quoad hosce posteriores prorsus inutilem. Nos negamus hanc consequentiam.

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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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