Two Dissertations · §407 · John Davenant

Cap. V Obj. 2 Sol: more required as instruments for external work than as motives for intention

Sol. Sound philosophy teaches that more is needed as prior tools to accomplish an external action than as prior reasons for intending or deciding on that action in the operator's mind and will. Argue parallel: the actual building of a house is no more bound than the will to build it; but building is bound to the prior fitting of timbers and stones; therefore the will is bound to all those as antecedents and is born from foresight of them. An inept conclusion indeed.

Latin

Sol. Docet enim sana Philosophia, plura requiri tanquam instrumenta praecedanea ad productionem alicujus operis in actu externo, quam requiruntur tanquam antecedanea motiva ad intentionem sive destinationem ejusdem in mente et voluntate operantis. Fac enim me velle ita argumentari: Actualis domus alicujus aedificatio non magis est adstricta, quam ejusdem aedificandae volitio: Sed ipsa aedificatio adstricta est ad praecedaneam coaptationem lignorum et lapidum: Ergo ipsa volitio adstricta est ad haec omnia tanquam antecedanea, et ex illorum praevisione nascitur. Inepta sane conclusio.

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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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