Two Dissertations · §736 · John Davenant

Cap. X Arg. VI close: unbelief foreseen in negation of efficacious grace; Augustine De praedest. sanct. 6 — preparing / not preparing the will precedes foresight of faith or unbelief

So reprobation is not to be set from foresight of antecedent unbelief, nor election from foresight of faith. Final unbelief in the reprobate is foreseen in the antecedent denial of efficacious grace; persevering faith in the elect is foreseen in the antecedent preparation of that grace—so that on both sides rule, authority, supremacy, and control over futures and non-futures rest with God as supreme arbiter. This is what Augustine taught (De praedestinatione sanctorum 6): Some believe; others contradict. These will to believe; those will not. Who does not know this? Who denies it? But since the Lord prepares the will for some and not for others, and so on. So the decree to prepare or not prepare human wills is prior to foresight of human faith or unbelief—which is as much as to say that predestination and preterition of singular persons is prior to absolute foreknowledge of faith or unbelief in them.

Latin

Non ergo reprobatio ponenda est ex praevisione antecedaneae infidelitatis, nec electio ex praevisione fidei; sed infidelitas reprobatorum finalis praevidetur in antecedente negatione gratiae efficacis, et fides electorum perseverans praevidetur in antecedente praeparatione gratiae efficacis: ut utrobique principatus, authoritas, superioritas et determinativa potestas sive rerum futurarum sive non-futurarum sit penes Deum tanquam supremum arbitrum. Hoc illud est quod docuit Augustinus, de praedest. sanct. cap. 6. Alii credunt, alii contradictunt. Volunt ergo isti credere; nolunt autem illi. Quis hoc ignoret? quis hoc neget? Sed cum aliis praeparetur, aliis non praeparetur voluntas a Domino, &c. Unde patet decretum de praeparandis et non praeparandis humanis voluntatibus esse praevisa sive fide sive infidelitate humana prius: Quod perinde est ac si diceremus, praedestinationem et praeteritionem singularium personarum esse absoluta praescientia fidei aut infidelitatis in eisdem priorem.

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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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