Two Dissertations · §691 · John Davenant

Cap. IX Arg. 14 Sol close: election decree unknown a priori — elect cannot conclude they need not obey; no election-knowledge until they feel the study of obeying God

Further: the election decree is plainly unknown to men before any experience, and is revealed to the elect themselves only from s testimony. So what the Arminians gather — that these elect can conclude they need not be solicitous about rendering obedience — is not only false, but alien to reason and common sense. The elect themselves cannot have even the slenderest knowledge of their election before they feel in themselves this study of obeying God and living religiously. Nor will God's Spirit deign to give that testimony to a man wallowing in the mire of foulest lusts. How then will he conclude from apprehending his election that he needs no holiness of life — when he can gather he is elect no other way than from the effects of the Holy and sanctifying Spirit?

Latin

Porro, cum electionis decretum sit hominibus a priori plane incognitum, et non nisi ex effectis et Spiritus testimonio ipsis electis revelatum, non modo falsum, sed a ratione et sensu communi alienum est, quod colligunt Arminiani, posse hosce electos concludere apud se nil opus esse ut soliciti sint de praestanda obedientia. Nam ipsi electi ne tenuissimam quidem suae electionis cognitionem habere possunt, priusquam sentiant in se hoc studium obediendi Deo, et vitam suam religiose transigendi: neque Spiritus Dei dignabitur hoc testimonium homini in caeno libidinum turpissimarum volutanti exhibere. Quomodo igitur concludet ex apprehensione electionis suae nil sibi opus esse sanctitate vitae, qui aliter colligere non potest se esse electum, quam ex effectis Spiritus sancti et sanctificantis?

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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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