Two Dissertations · §385 · John Davenant

Cap. IV Arg. 7 Sol: double praeordinatio — intention and execution both declare mercy and justice

Sol. In God's mind regarding the elect, conceive a double ordering: one of intention, one of execution — both serve to declare divine mercy and justice. Example: before the world's foundations God decreed to love Jacob and Peter and have mercy on them in special grace and eternal life; to pass by Esau and Judas for that infallible attainment of life and grace, and appoint those hardened in their sins to just condemnation — an abyss of mercy and justice no human wit can pierce. And that the same God has opened in his word that he decreed to save all believers and damn all unbelievers, and that on judgment day he in fact damns Esau and Judas and saves Jacob and Peter — that too is a singular specimen of divine mercy and justice.

Latin

Sol. In mente Divina concipere oportet quoad Electos praeordinationem duplicem: unam, quae ordinem intentionis continet; alteram, quae ordinem exsecutionis: Utraque autem inservit declarandae misericordiae et justitiae Divinae. Exempli causa; Quod Deus ante jacta mundi fundamenta decreverit Jacobum et Petrum diligere, ac eorundem in donatione gratiae specialis ac vitae aeternae misereri; Esavum autem et Judam in hac designatione ad infallibilem vitae gratiaeque consecutionem praeterire, atque in peccatis suis obfirmatos justae condemnationi deputare: in hisce, inquam, decretis continetur abyssus quaedam misericordiae et justitiae, cujus penetrandae nulla acies humani ingenii sufficit. Jam vero quod idem Deus in verbo suo patefecerit, se decrevisse omnes credentes salvare, omnes incredulos damnare, quodque (in die judicii) cum ad exsecutionem ventum fuerit, de facto Esavum et Judam damnet, Jacobum et Petrum servet: exprimit etiam misericordiae justitiaeque Divinae egregium ac singulare specimen.

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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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