Two Dissertations · §660 · John Davenant

Cap. IX Arg. 12 Sol: right prayer for others does not require certain faith that our prayers will save them — outcomes are contingent; command to pray for all (even enemies) suffices

To form prayers rightly for other people, we need not be persuaded by certainty of faith that our prayers will profit them unto salvation. Nothing false or contingent can underlie our faith; yet whether they will gain any profit from our prayers is plainly contingent and uncertain. It is enough that God has commanded us to embrace all men in charity, and to pray for others — even for enemies.

Latin

Ad preces rite concipiendas pro aliis hominibus non requiritur, ut certitudine fidei nobis persuasum sit, preces nostras illis ad salutem profuturas. Nam fidei nostrae nihil aut falsum aut contingens subesse potest; at plane contingens et incertum est, utrum illi aliquid emolumenti ex precibus nostris sint percepturi. Sufficit quod Deus praeceperit nos omnes homines charitate complecti, et pro aliis, etiam pro inimicis, orare.

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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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