Two Dissertations · §708 · John Davenant

Cap. X Arg. II: Arminius's Exam of Perkins — some get only sufficient grace with foresight it will be rejected; elect get efficacious grace with foresight they will believe; God decreed not to give efficacious grace to some by reprobation

But now in his Examination of Perkins's Predestination (pag. 57 etc.), from Augustine's mind — and perhaps Scripture's sense, as he himself says — he acknowledges this: to some men, from the providence decree, only sufficient grace is administered, with God's certain forescience that free choice will reject it; to others, from the predestination decree, not only sufficient grace but efficacious, with God's certain forescience that by that grace's benefit those to whom it is fitted and applied will in fact will, believe, and be converted. A little later: God established not to give this efficacious grace to certain ones — and that by the reprobation decree.

Latin

Jam vero in Examine Praedestinationis Perkinsianae, pag. 57. etc. ex mente Augustini, forte et Scripturae sensu (sic enim ipse loquitur) agnoscit quibusdam hominibus ex decreto providentiae administrari gratiam tantummodo sufficientem, ac cum certa Dei praescientia quod sit rejicienda a libero hominis arbitrio; ex decreto autem praedestinationis administrari aliis non modo sufficientem gratiam, sed efficacem, cum certa Dei praescientia fore ut beneficio hujus gratiae reipsa velint, credant et convertantur illi quibus accommodatur et adhibetur. Paulo post: Deus hanc gratiam efficacem quibusdam non dare statuit, idque decreto reprobationis.

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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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