Two Dissertations · §529 · John Davenant

Cap. VIII Arg. 5: Jewish unbelief (Rom. 9:32; 11:19-20) said to be cause of reprobation

Fifth: from the same Apostle they try to prove remaining in unbelief is the cause of reprobation, since he casts the Jews' reprobation back on their unbelief as cause (Rom. 9:31-32): Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not arrive at it — Why? Because not of faith. Confirmed by Rom. 11:19-20: The branches were broken off that I might be grafted in — Well: because of unbelief they were broken off; but you stand by faith. Sum: the Jews were reprobated for final perseverance in unbelief; therefore that perseverance is the cause of divine reprobation.

Latin

Ex eodem Apostolo conantur demonstrare, permansionem in infidelitate esse reprobationis causam; quoniam reprobationem Judaeorum rejicit in infidelitatem eorundem tanquam causam: Rom. ix. 31, 32. Israel, inquit, sectando legem justitiae, in legem justitiae non pervenit. Quare? Quia non ex fide. Ubi indicatur solutio quaestionis de causa reprobationis Judaeorum. Quod ipsum confirmatur ex illis verbis, Rom. xi. 19, 20. Dices, Fracti sunt rami, ut ego inserar. Bene: propter incredulitatem fracti sunt: Tu autem fide stas, etc. Summa argumenti haec est: Judaei reprobati fuerunt propter perseverantiam finalem in infidelitate sua: Ergo perseverantia haec in infidelitate est causa reprobationis Divinae.

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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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