Two Dissertations · §417 · John Davenant

Cap. V Obj. 4 Sol close: they deduce from foresight denied secundum quid, not simply excluded

So they try to deceive us with such arguments: absurdities that follow only if foresight of faith is excluded or simply denied, they deduce from foresight denied secundum quid — that is, denied as an antecedent condition of predestination itself.

Latin

Fallere igitur nos conantur hujusmodi argumentationibus, dum illa absurda quae recte deducantur ab exclusa aut simpliciter negata praevisione fidei, illi deducunt a negata praevisione fidei secundum quid, hoc est, ut antecedanea conditione ad ipsam praedestinationem.

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