Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

ON THE

DEATH OF CHRIST,

AS TO ITS EXTENT AND SPECIAL BENEFITS:

CONTAINING A SHORT

HISTORY OF PELAGIANISM,

AND SHEWING THE AGREEMENT OF THE DOCTRINES OF THE

CHURCH OF ENGLAND

ON GENERAL REDEMPTION, ELECTION, AND PREDESTINATION,

WITH THE

PRIMITIVE FATHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH,

AND ABOVE ALL, WITH THE

HOLY SCRIPTURES.

BY THE

RIGHT REVEREND JOHN DAVENANT, D.D.

DEPUTY TO THE SYNOD OF DORT. &c. &c.

And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me 1 should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

John vi. 39, 40.

Ipse est (ut ait Apostolus) salvator omnium hominum, maximè fidelium. Quæ Sententia si tranquillo consideretur intuitu, totam Controversiam dirimit.

Prosper De Vocat. Gentium, lib. 2, cap. 31.

MDCCCXXXII.

TO THE

KIND READER.*

It is not of much consequence to know whether the Author delivered this Dissertation to his auditors in the Public School, before he was sent to the Synod of Dort by His Majesty the King of Great Britain, or immediately after his return; whichever it might be, the work certainly shews that he was a man of great genius, and most acute judgment, a Doctor who was truly an ornament to the School and the Professor's Chair, which indeed he left vacant to the great loss and grief of the University, when he was promoted to the Bishopric of the Church of Salisbury.

It is to be attributed to the iniquity of the times, that this Dissertation did not come to light sooner, for then under the pretext of restraining the itching desire of some, who it was exclaimed exposed nothing else scarcely to the people, but the most profound decrees of God, and especially of Reprobation, to the great prejudice of piety, some persons obtained from the King a prohibition, that no

This Address is taken from an Edition of the Dissertatio de Morte Christi published in 12mo. in 1683, and is the substance of a much longer one (as far as applicable to this piece) prefacing the Edition published in folio in 1650, together with the Dissertatio de Predestinatione et Reprobatione. Vide Life, &c. Vol. I. p. xlviii.

« PreviousContinue »