Two Dissertations · §303 · John Davenant

Cap. III Sol. Rat. 7: Major fails — good pleasure may discriminate; none disposed to glory

Sol. The Major's consequence fails. It does not follow that wherever God acts from mere good pleasure he must always deal equally with equals — on the contrary, because he acts from good pleasure he can discriminate in conferring his gifts where there was no difference in persons' qualities or state. And Gregory's first support for the Major — that with foresight of works excluded all are equally disposed to receive election — is false and unskillful. He should have said all are wholly undisposed to receive glory and disposed to undergo hell's pains. What disposition for election to glory is found in one reckoned a child of wrath by nature, stained with original corruption?

Latin

Sol. Vacillat Majoris consequentia. Neque enim sequitur, ut in quibus Deus agit ex mero suo beneplacito, semper aequaliter agere cum aequalibus teneatur: Imo e contra, quia agit ex beneplacito, potest discrimen facere in collatione suorum beneficiorum ubi nullum fuit discrimen in qualitatibus aut statu personarum. Quod autem affertur primo in loco ad confirmationem Majoris, scilicet Exclusa praescientia operum, omnes esse aeque dispositos ad donum electionis recipiendum, falso et imperite a Gregorio asseritur. Dicere debuisset omnes esse prorsus indispositos ad gloriam recipiendam, atque dispositos ad poenas gehennae subeundas. Quae enim dispositio, ut eligatur ad gloriam, in illo reperitur, qui naturae irae filius, et labe originali contaminatus consideratur?

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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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