Two Dissertations · §353 · John Davenant

Cap. IV Arg. 1 Sol: Major — if universal, false; revealed qualities/acts ≠ formal decree

With that premised I turn to their reason. The Major they call self-evident is either manifestly false, or particular — and then from particulars the conclusion is inept. If universal — Any gospel-revealed will of God about men's salvation and ruin is the whole entire decree of predestination — it is manifestly false. God has revealed his will about the qualities all who will share eternal life must have, and about the acts all who will enter that life must exercise; yet those revealed statutes do not contain the formal decree of divine predestination. That lies in the secret intention or will to gift certain elect efficaciously and infallibly those qualities and acts that lead to eternal life, and eternal life itself.

Latin

Hisce praemissis accedo ad rationem propositam, ac dico Majorem, cujus illi veritatem manifestam esse clamant, aut manifeste falsam esse, aut particularem, atque tum ex omnibus particularibus inepta erit conclusio. Si Major universalis sit, hoc modo, Quaelibet Dei voluntas de salute et exitio hominum in Evangelio patefacta, est totum et integrum decretum praedestinationis, manifeste falsa est. Deus enim revelavit voluntatem suam quoad qualitates quibus praediti debent esse omnes qui futuri sunt aeternae vitae participes; revelavit voluntatem suam quoad actus, qui exerceri debent ab omnibus, qui ingredi volunt vitam aeternam; hisce tamen quasi statutis humano generi revelatis, non continetur formale decretum praedestinationis Divinae; sed in illa arcana intentione sive voluntate efficaciter et infallibiliter donandi electis quibusdam illas qualitates, eos actus, qui ducunt ad vitam aeternam, ipsamque vitam aeternam.

Report a mistake in this passage

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.

Printed text used

Also checked PDF of the 1650 (Latin · print facsimile)
Also checked DjVu machine-read text of the 1650 (Latin)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

Report a mistake