Two Dissertations · §299 · John Davenant

Cap. III Sol. Rat. 6: if justice means congruent merit, concurrence impossible

Sol. I answer: if Javellus means some justice other than that God acts as befits his own goodness and faithfulness, I deny that justice is found in every act where he deals kindly with wretched people. And if he so takes God's justice that acting justly means, in the gift of election, looking to some congruent human merit — then, in that sense, justice concurring with mercy in every dealing with people is not only false but impossible.

Latin

Sol. Sed respondeo; Si justitiam aliam Javellus intelligat, praeter illam quae sita est in hoc, quod Deus agat prout convenit bonitati suae et fidelitati, nego justitiam reperiri in omnibus illis actionibus, in quibus miseris hominibus facit benigne. Cum igitur Javellus ita justitiam Dei intelligat, ut juste agere inde dicatur, quod in beneficio electionis respiciat ad aliquod meritum congruum hominis; hoc sensu, justitiam concurrere cum misericordia in omni actione erga homines, dico non solummodo esse, sed impossibile.

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About this text

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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