Two Dissertations · §549 · John Davenant

Cap. VIII Resp.: propensity to mercy need not give special grace to most; praeterition is not desertion

But God is more inclined from himself to mercy and beneficence than to deserting and destroying men. We grant it. Yet the most merciful is not wont to impart excellent peculiar benefits to all or even to most. It is enough to show that propensity that he has mercy on all as to many effects of his mercy — even if, as to this special effect of preparing special grace and infallibly ordaining to eternal life, he has mercy neither on all nor on most. Further: to pass by or reprobate is not the same as to desert and destroy. Yes, all the reprobate or those not chosen are at length deserted and destroyed — but that they were passed osen chosen as to special grace proceeds from God's mere will; that afterward they were deserted and destroyed took its origin from their intervening demerit. So far we have answered the arguments Gregory of Valencia uses on Aquinas I, q. 23, on Reprobation.

Latin

Sed Deus propensior est ex se ad miserendum et benefaciendum hominibus, quam ad eos deserendos et perdendos. Concedimus. At qui est propensissimus ad miserendum et benefaciendum, non solet eximia et peculiaria beneficia aut omnibus aut pluribus impertiri. Sufficit ad hanc propensionem Dei in misericordiam ostendendam, quod omnium misereatur quoad multa misericordiae suae effecta, quamvis quoad hoc speciale effectum, gratiam specialem praeparandi et ad vitam aeternam infallibiliter ordinandi, nec omnium nec plurium misereatur. Dein praeterire vel reprobare non est idem quod deserere et perdere. Deseruntur quidem et perduntur tandem omnes reprobati sive non-electi: sed quod praeteriti fuerint aut non-electi ad gratiam specialem, ex mera Dei voluntate prodit; quod autem postmodum deserti et perditi, ex interveniente illorum demerito originem sumpsit. Hactenus iis argumentis satisfecimus quibus utitur Gregorius de Valentia, in 1. Aquinat. qu. 23. de Reprobatione.

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