Archive for November 7th, 2008
[Note: Davenant was the leader of the English delegation to Dort. For a brief comment on Davenant’s Dortian orthodoxy, see Richard Muller’s comments here and here.]
Davenant:
Unlimited Expiation:
1) That the Apostle here lays down what be calls reconciliation procured from God through the mediation of Christ, as a common benefit for the whole world. And indeed to haw reconciled the world generally can mean nothing else than to have ordained and granted to the world that universal remedy or propitiatory sacrifice of the death of Christ, which is applicable to all. Secondly, It is proper to observe, in what sense God is said actually to have reconciled the world to himself by the merit of the offering of Christ, namely, because the sacrifice of Christ being made, he will not impute their trespasses unto them; that is, He will not require from any man that he should make satisfaction for his own sins, that being impossible; nor, further, will he punish any one for his sins who shall make use of this propitiatory sacrifice. And lastly, it is to be remarked, that this reconciliation, this not imputing of sins, of which the Apostle speaks, is considered as performed on the part of God and Christ, as soon as Christ is understood to have laid down his life for the sins of the world. But on the part of sinful men there remains the Ministry of the Gospel, by which it is made known to men; there remains that the Gospel should be believed, before men are brought as it were into the actual possession of this grace. Davenant, Dissertation on the Death of Christ, 347-348.
2) He who by undergoing death by the ordination of God sustained the punishment due not only to the sins of certain individual persons, but of the whole human race; His passion, by virtue of the same ordination, is applicable not only to certain definite persons, but to every individual of the human race. But Christ by dying sustained the punishment due to the sins of the world: Therefore, he willed that his death should be, as it were, an universal cause of salvation applicable to all. He who denies the major, is bound to shew why God willed that his Son should bear the sins of the human race, if he was unwilling to appoint in his death a cause at least applicable to the human race, although the application world not follow in many. Davenant, Dissertation on the Death of Christ, 354.
3) Now let us descend to the minor, in which it is affirmed, that Christ sustained the punishment due to the sins of the human race. Thus the Scriptures speak, All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity, of us all. Isaiah liii. 6. Thus the Fathers speak, The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is the ransom of the whole world, from which they are excluded, who, either being delighted with their captivity are unwilling to be redeemed, or after redemption have rerurned to the same slavery. Prosper ad Capit. Gallor. sent. super. 9. Davenant, Dissertation on the Death of Christ, 355.
4) The last argument is taken from a comparison of the twofold covenant, and according to it, of a twofold ordination of men to salvation. As, therefore, in the covenant of nature, that is, the agreement with Adam at the time of creation, salvation was procurable by Adam and all his posterity under the condition of obedience to be paid to the law of nature, and to the express commandment of God; so in the covenant of grace, which was confirmed by the blood of the Mediator, salvation is also understood to be procurable for all men under the condition published in the Gospel, that is, of faith in this Mediator, who hath made satisfaction for the sins of the human race. Davenant, Dissertation on the Death of Christ, 364.