Two Dissertations · §723 · John Davenant

Cap. X Arg. V Major: John x. 28–29 — the Father gave Christ certain sheep no force can snatch; giving = electing singular persons to defend and lead infallibly to eternal life

The Major's truth is plain from these Scripture witnesses (John x. 28–29): No one snatches my sheep out of my hand. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. What sense have the words The Father gave Christ certain sheep that no force can snatch — unless this: God the Father, by electing, gave Christ certain singular persons, whom he decreed to defend against all assaults and snares of flesh, world, and devil, and at last to lead infallibly to the fruition of everlasting life?

Latin

Majoris veritas ex hisce Scripturarum testimoniis patet; Joann. x. 28, 29. Nemo rapit oves meas de manu mea. Pater meus, qui eas dedit mihi, major omnibus est: neque quisquam potest eas rapere e manu Patris mei. Quaero quis sensus horum verborum, Pater Christo dedit oves certas, quas nulla vis potest rapere, nisi, Deus Pater eligendo dedit Christo singulares quasdam personas, quas decrevit contra omnes carnis, mundi, et diaboli impetus insidiasque defendere, atque tandem ad fruitionem aeternae vitae infallibiliter perducere?

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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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