Two Dissertations · §67 · John Davenant

Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Elect Obj. 2: Eternal love is not yet actual reconciliation

Objection 2. God is actually reconciled to whoever he actually loves. He loves every elect person from eternity. So, the objection runs, he has been actually reconciled to them from eternity—and they have been actually reconciled and justified from eternity.

Solution. Follow the distinction in Aquinas. God loves in two senses: by the purpose to communicate his goodness, and by the very act of communicating it (Sentences, book 3, distinction 19). The love that tracks the eternal purpose—theologians call it the love of eternal benevolence—does not already count the beloved as actually justified or actually reconciled. It only ranks that person among those who will infallibly be justified and reconciled. Words for acts that stay inside God, and words for acts that pass from God to us, therefore do different work. Dilection, Election, and Predestination name eternal, inward acts of God; people are called Beloved, Elect, and Predestined from the hidden good pleasure of the divine will conceived and kept in God himself. Calling, Justification, Reconciliation, and Glorification name outward acts that terminate on a creature who already exists and are as it were received into that creature. No one is properly Called, Justified, Reconciled, or Glorified from the hidden eternal purpose alone, but from the finished execution of that purpose and the effect it produces in human beings. We gladly grant that God has an eternal will to justify every elect person and reconcile each to himself. We still refuse to say they were justified or reconciled from eternity. In the same way we grant God an eternal will to create the world, yet deny that the world was created from eternity. What Zanchi said of the actual remission of sins fits the elect's actual reconciliation: it is most certain in the divine destination from eternity, yet it is not actually given on God's side, nor actually received on the human side, before the person repents and believes (Thomson, Diatribe, p. 96).

Latin

Obj. 2. Deus est illi actu reconciliatus, quem actu diligit. At diligit omnes electos ab aeterno: Ergo ab aeterno est illis actu reconciliatus: Ergo illi sunt etiam actu reconciliati & justificati ab aeterno. Solut. Distinguendum est cum Aquinate. Deus enim dicitur diligere dupliciter, secundum propositum communicandi bonitatem suam, & secundum ipsum actum communicationis, In 3. Sent. dist. 19. Amor ille secundum aeternum propositum, quem Theologi appellant amorem aeternae benevolentiae, non facit ut qui hunc in modum ametur, actu justificatus, aut actu reconciliatus a Deo habeatur, sed ut inter infallibiliter justificandos & reconciliandos censeatur. Est igitur diversa ratio illorum vocabulorum quae actus in Deo immanentes, & quae actus a Deo ad nos transeuntes denotant. Priora, qualia sunt Dilectio, Electio, Praedestinatio, sunt aeterni & interni actus ipsius Dei; atque ab illis homines dicuntur Dilecti, Electi, Praedestinati, propter arcanum beneplacitum Divinae voluntatis in seipso conceptum & absconditum. Posteriora, qualia sunt Vocatio, Justificatio, Reconciliatio, Glorificatio, sunt actus externi ad creaturam existentem terminati, & in eam quasi recepti; atque ab illis nemo proprie dicitur Vocatus, Justificatus, Reconciliatus, Glorificatus, ex solo illo arcano & aeterno Divinae voluntatis proposito, sed ex facta exsecutione ejusdem propositi, & producto effectu in hominibus. Fatemur ergo in Deo voluntatem aeternam justificandi & sibi reconciliandi omnes electos: negamus tamen eos ab aeterno justificatos aut reconciliatos dici oportere: Sicut agnoscimus fuisse in Deo aeternam voluntatem creandi mundum, & tamen negamus mundum fuisse ab aeterno creatum. Quod Zanch. dixit de remissione actuali peccatorum, id nos dicimus de actuali reconciliatione Electorum: Est quidem illa certissima in destinatione Divina ab aeterno, at actu non datur ex parte Dei, neque actu recipitur ex parte hominis, donec resipiscat & credat. Thomson, Diatr. pag. 96.

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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)

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