Two Dissertations · §275 · John Davenant

Cap. III Rej. Rat. 1: Augustine Ep. 107 / 1 Tim. 2:4 — God not willing all alike

Epistle 107's fourth of twelve catholic sentences: we know grace is not given to all; and where it is given, not by works' merits, nor even by the will's merits of those who get it — clearest in infants. Soon after, on the usual objection about God's general desire to save al, he adds words worth quoting: those who fight this plain truth miss how "God wills all to be saved" is said when so many are not. Not because they refuse, but because God does not will — obvious in infants. So "GOD WILLS ALL MEN TO BE SAVED," though he does not will so many saved, means all who are saved are saved only if he wills; any other reading must not contradict that open truth: many are not saved though men will it, if God does not. So Augustine.

Latin

Et Epist. 107. inter duodecim sententias quae ad fidem rectam & catholicam pertinere affirmat, haec quarta est, Scimus gratiam non omnibus hominibus dari, & quibus datur, non solum secundum merita operum non dari, sed nec secundum merita voluntatis eorum quibus datur: quod maxime apparet in parvulis. Et non multo post, hanc ipsam objectionem respiciens, quae obtendi solet de voluntate communi & indifferenti quoad salutem omnium, haec verba adjungit, recitatione nostra & observatione vestra dignissima: Manifestum est eos qui huic resistunt tam perspicuae veritati, non intelligere omnino qua locutione sit dictum, quod omnes homines vult Deus salvos fieri, cum tam multi salvi non fiant. Non quia ipsi, sed quia Deus non vult: quod sine ulla caligine manifestatur in parvulis. Quod igitur dictum est, OMNES HOMINES VULT DEUS SALVOS FIERI, cum tam multos nolit salvos fieri, ideo dictum est, quia omnes qui salvi fiunt, nisi ipse velit non fiunt; & si quae alio modo intelligi possunt, ut tamen huic apertissimae veritati, in qua vides tam multos, volentibus hominibus, sed Deo nolente, salvos non fieri, contraria esse non possunt. Hactenus Augustinus.

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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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