Two Dissertations · §551 · John Davenant

Cap. VIII Arg. 9: syllogism — no one ordained to eternal punishment without precognition of cause

To eternal punishment, he says, no one is ordained by a just Judge without precognition of the cause. But every reprobate is deputed to punishment by God the just Judge. Therefore only from foresighted evil use of free will lasting to the end — which is the same as saying with Jesuits and Arminians: only from foresighted unbelief and disobedience.

Latin

Ad poenam aeternam, inquit, nullus ordinatur a justo Judice sine praecognitione causae. Sed omnis reprobatus est ad poenam a Deo justo Judice deputatus: Ergo non nisi ex praeviso malo usu liberi arbitrii ad finem usque duraturo. Quod idem est ac si dixisset cum Jesuitis et Arminianis, non nisi ex praevisa infidelitate et inobedientia.

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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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