Two Dissertations · §685 · John Davenant

Cap. IX Arg. 14 Sol cont.: priority of Mediator-decree vs elect-saving decree is hard speculation — execution-order is clear; eternal conception-order only God knows

This argument leads us into a very difficult speculation, ill-suited for establishing dogmatic theology. It hangs on priority and posteriority between those two decrees Mediator, and saving the elect — both conceived and established from eternity. As for me: I know the order of execution, by which God willed benefits to reach men, can be sketched with no trouble. But in what order he held them sealed from eternity in his mind and will — let only him presume to tell who dares claim he has been with God from the secret eternal counsels.

Latin

Haec argutatio vocat nos ad speculationem valde difficilem, et dogmaticae Theologiae fundandae minime accommodatam. Nicitur enim consideratione Prioritatis et Posterioritatis in illis duobus voluntatis Divinae decretis, de dando Mediatore, et de electis servandis, quae utraque ab aeterno fuerunt concepta et constituta. Ad me quod attinet, scio ordinem exsecutionis, secundum quem Deus voluit beneficia ad homines pervenire, nullo negotio posse delineari: at quo ordine Deus ea consignata tenuit ab aeterno in mente ac voluntate sua, is solus enarrare praesumat qui se Deo ab arcanis et aeternis consiliis fuisse etiam affirmare audeat.

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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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