Two Dissertations · §697 · John Davenant

Cap. X: human will leading divine will is neither worthy of God nor of Scripture — predestination is preparation of efficacious grace and glory from mere mercy, not election from foreseen faith

We judge that scheme — predestination and reprobation in which human will leads the divine — neither worthy of God nor agreeable to Scripture. On the contrary side, as we have shown, Predestination is something else. It is not election of singular persons to everlasting life from their foreseen faith and perseverance. It is God's mere-mercy preparation of efficacious grace for certain persons, and of everlasting glory for them from that same mercy.

Latin

Hanc praedestinationem et reprobationem, in qua humana voluntas ducit Divinam, nec Deo dignam putamus, nec sacris literis consentaneam. E contra igitur, sicuti monstravimus, Praedestinationem non esse singularium personarum ex praevisa illarum fide et perseverantia electionem ad vitam aeternam, sed praeparationem gratiae efficacis certis quibusdam personis ex mera Dei misericordia, et praeparationem gloriae sempiternae iisdem ex eadem misericordia.

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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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