Two Dissertations · §387 · John Davenant

Cap. IV Arg. 7 Sol: Minor — Ego salvabo credentes shows equal mercy/justice; discrimination from acts

Now the Minor: that the decree to save believers and condemn unbelievers is the praeordination by which God declares mercy toward some and justice toward others. We grant that on that decree mercy and justice are seen and declared in the event — but mercy puts itself forth far higher in the predestination decree, and justice in the decree of passing by. I will save believers, I will condemn unbelievers, taken in itself, shows and makes mercy equally to all, justice equally to all. It promises Jacob and Peter nothing it does not under the same conditions promise Esau and Judas; it denies Esau or Judas nothing it does not under the same conditions deny Jacob and Peter. That Jacob and Peter share mercy and eternal life while Esau and Judas do not comes not from diverse decrees about the persons, but from the persons' diversity in their operations.

Latin

Accedo ad Minorem, in qua affirmatur, decretum salvandi credentes, et condemnandi incredulos, esse illam praeordinationem secundum quam Deus erga alios declarat misericordiam suam, erga alios justitiam suam. Fatemur juxta hoc decretum spectari et declarari in eventu misericordiam Dei erga alios, et erga alios justitiam: verum longe altiori modo exserit se misericordia in praedestinationis decreto, et justitia in decreto praeteritionis. Decretum hoc, Ego salvabo credentes, Ego condemnabo incredulos, in se consideratum omnibus ex aequo ostendit et facit misericordiam, omnibus ex aequo ostendit et facit justitiam: Nihil promittit aut exhibet Jacobo et Petro, quod non sub iisdem conditionibus promittit et exhibet Esavo et Judae; nihil negat Esavo aut Judae quod non sub iisdem conditionibus negat Jacobo et Petro. Nam quod Jacobus et Petrus participes fiant misericordiae et vitae aeternae, Esavus et Judas non fiant, id discriminis non fluxit ex decretorum diversitate quoad ipsas personas, sed ex personarum diversitate in suis operationibus.

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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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