Two Dissertations · §775 · John Davenant

Cap. X Ultimum: if Fathers teach God foresaw the faith of those destined to life, they mean merits he himself would work by predestinating grace — Aug. De praedest. sanct. 10

So too when they teach that God foresaw the faith and obedience of those he destined to life, and passed by those he foresaw would be unbelieving and disobedient, they hold that God foresaw in anyone no good merits but those he himself would work in that person by predestinating grace. For by predestination God foresaw what he himself would do—as Augustine truly says (De praedestinatione sanctorum 10).

Latin

Sic etiam si quando doceant Deum praescire fidem et obedientiam eorum quos ad vitam destinavit, atque praeteriisse illos quos praevidit infideles et immorigeros futuros, non alia bona merita in quoquam praescisse Deum arbitrantur quam ea quae ipse in eodem per gratiam praedestinationis fuerat facturus. Praedestinatione quippe Deus ea praescivit quae fuerat ipse facturus, ut vere Augustinus, De praedest. sanctor. cap. 10.

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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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