Two Dissertations · §524 · John Davenant

Cap. VIII Arg. 3: hardening (Rom. 9) said to presuppose sins as motive of reprobation

Third: the Apostle styles reprobation thus — He has mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardens. But the will to harden presupposes the reprobate's sins in which he is hardened. Therefore the sins with which the reprobate leave this life are the moving or meritorious cause of their reprobation.

Latin

Apostolus vocat reprobationem: Miserebitur cujus vult, et quem vult indurat. Haec autem voluntas indurandi peccata reprobi, in quibus is induratur, praesupponit: Ergo peccata reproborum, cum quibus e vita hac decedunt, sunt causa motiva seu meritoria reprobationis eorundem.

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