Two Dissertations · §73 · John Davenant

Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Scripture elect: Rom 5, Eph 2, Col 1 seem to reconcile enemies before faith

Still other places are brought to prove that reconciliation with God does not begin when through faith we embrace the Mediator, but that every elect person was already reconciled to God from eternity. Romans 5:10 is of that kind: "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son." So is Ephesians 2:4–5: "because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, he made us alive together with Christ." And so is Colossians 1:21–22: "you who were once alienated and enemies in mind in evil works he has now indeed reconciled in the body of his flesh through death," and so on.

From those places the adversaries infer that reconciliation does not wait on the act of faith. God, they say, is already reconciled to his own even while they still stand unbelieving and hostile to him. Benefits like these, they argue, are not the mark of a God merely placable and reconcilable, but of one already placated and actually reconciled.

Latin

Sunt quaedam alia loca quae afferuntur ut probent reconciliationem nostram cum Deo non tum fieri cum per fidem amplectimur Mediatorem, sed electos omnes fuisse Deo ab aeterno reconciliatos. Hujusmodi sunt, Rom. v. 10. Cum inimici eramus, reconciliati sumus Deo per mortem filii sui. Item, Ephes. ii. 4, 5. Propter multam charitatem qua dilexit nos, etiam cum mortui eramus in peccatis, una vivificavit nos cum Christo. Denique Coloss. i. 21, 22. Vos, Cum eratis alienati & inimici mente in operibus malis, nunc sane reconciliavit in corpore carnis suae per mortem, &c. Ex hisce locis apparet reconciliationem non consequi actum fidei, sed Deum esse reconciliatum suis etiam tum cum illi increduli & inimici existant Deo. Non enim argumentum est Dei placabilis & reconciliabilis, sed placati & actu reconciliati, quando homines dignatur talibus beneficiis.

Report a mistake in this passage

About this text

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.

Printed text used

Also checked PDF of the 1650 (Latin · print facsimile)
Also checked DjVu machine-read text of the 1650 (Latin)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

Report a mistake