Two Dissertations · §308 · John Davenant

Cap. III Sol. Rat. 8: goodness wills some good to each — not equal goods by foresight

Sol. From God's being good by nature it rightly follows that he wills some good to every creature of his — not that he wills every good to every creature, or the same equal goods to equal creatures. Even in dispensing so-called goods of Nature or Fortune he is not bound to give them from foresight of good use, nor to impart them to the majority. We see strength of body, sharpness of mind, beauty of form, and abundance of riches are not given from foresight of good use — for the most part they go to those who abuse them worst: to injury, fraud, lust, luxury. And even those goods are granted only to few.

Latin

Sol. Ex eo quod Deus sit natura bonus, recte infertur, illum velle bonum omni suae creaturae; sed non recte, illum velle quodvis bonum cuivis creaturae, aut aequalia et eadem bona aequalibus creaturis. Nec in Naturae quidem aut Fortunae falso dictis bonis dispensandis tenetur Deus aut haec dispensare ex praeviso bono usu eorum, aut ea majori parti hominum impertire. Videmus siquidem neque robur corporis, neque acumen mentis, neque formae venustatem, neque divitiarum affluentiam dari ex boni usus praescientia. Nam, ut plurimum, dantur illis, qui hisce omnibus pessime abutuntur, ad injuriam, ad fraudem, ad libidinem, ad luxuriam. Haec tamen ipsa bona non nisi paucis conceduntur.

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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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