Two Dissertations · §727 · John Davenant

Cap. X Arg. V Minor: given/not-given distinction precedes human faith and perseverance — John vi. 37: coming to Christ depends on the Father's giving as antecedent cause

Now to the Minor: let us show that this distinction of those given and not-given to Christ precedes human faith and perseverance, and also precedes absolute foresight of human unbelief and pertinacity. That it precedes faith and perseverance is gathered from these words: Whatever the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out (John vi. 37). From those words it is plain: coming to Christ and remaining in Christ — that is, believing in Christ and persevering in faith — depends on this giving of the Father as on an antecedent cause.

Latin

Veniamus nunc ad Minorem, et ostendamus hanc distinctionem datorum et non-datorum Christo antecedere fidem et perseverantiam humanam, antecedere etiam praevisionem absolutam infidelitatis et pertinaciae humanae. Quod fidem et perseverantiam antecedat ex illis verbis colligitur, Quicquid mihi dat Pater, ad me veniet: et eum qui venit ad me non ejiciam foras, Joann. vi. 37. Manifestum est ex hisce verbis, venire ad Christum et permanere in Christo, quod est credere in Christum et in fide perseverare, ex hac datione Patris, tanquam ex antecedente causa dependere.

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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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