Two Dissertations · §540 · John Davenant

Cap. VIII Arg.: peccata reprobi sunt causa omnium effectorum — therefore also of reprobation

Argument: the sins of the reprobate are the cause of all the effects of reprobation itself; therefore also of divine reprobation as it regards those effects. As to the first effect — hardening or subtraction of peculiar grace — it plainly arises from demerits of antecedent sins (Rom. 1; 2 Thess. 2; Exod. 9). As to the last — eternal damnation — human demerits are plainly its cause from the very form of the sentence passed at the final judgment.

Latin

Peccata reprobi sunt causa omnium effectorum reprobationis ipsius: Ergo etiam reprobationis Divinae, ut respicit illos effectus. Quod enim attinet ad primum effectum, scilicet indurationem seu subtractionem peculiaris gratiae, patet illam ex peccatorum antecedentium demeritis oriri: Rom. i.; 2 Thess. ii.; Exod. ix. Quod attinet ad ultimum effectum, nempe aeternam damnationem, patet ejus causam esse demerita humana ex ipsa forma sententiae latae in judicio finali.

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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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