Two Dissertations · §312 · John Davenant

Cap. III Rat. 9: glory depending on others' sins needs foresight — Stephen's martyrdom

Rat. 9. Where someone's glory hangs on others' sins, they say it cannot be decreed except from foresight. Take Stephen: his glory somehow depended on the impiety of the Jews who would stone him — so God could not decree him glory, at least not in the degree that so glorious a martyrdom would give, unless that sin (which occasioned the martyrdom) was foreseen, and with it his patience and faith, by which he won outstanding martyr's glory from their cruelty. So if not to all, at least to some glory is destined from foresight of merits.

Latin

Rat. 9. Quorum gloria dependet ex peccatis aliorum, iis non potest decerni nisi ex praevisione: ut verbi causa, quia gloria Stephani aliquo modo pendebat ex impietate Judaeorum qui illum erant lapidaturi, non potuit Deus gloriam illi decernere, saltem non in eo gradu quo tam glorioso martyrio danda fuit, nisi praeviso peccato quod occasionem praebebat ejus martyrio, et simul praevisa ejus patientia et fide quibus mediantibus ex illorum crudelitate eximiam martyrii gloriam sibi acquirebat. Si non omnibus ergo, at aliquibus saltem destinatur gloria ex praescientia meritorum.

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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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