Two Dissertations · §273 · John Davenant

Cap. III Rej. Rat. 1: reprobates only under 'if they will' — not equal termini

Toward the reprobate he had no will aimed next at their salvation: defenders must tack on "if they themselves will." Since God foresees their Not-willing and will not give them what he really gives the elect, that will clearly does not terminate equally on elect and those not chosen salvation.

Latin

Quoad reprobandos, non habuit voluntatem quae proxime referebatur ad eorum salutem: nam qui id defendunt, coguntur hoc additamentum apponere, Si ipsi voluerint. Cum ergo Deus praevideat hoc ipsorum Nolle, & nolit illis dare id, quod revera dat electis, manifestum est hanc voluntatem Dei non ex aequo terminari ad salutem electorum & non-electorum.

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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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