Two Dissertations · §553 · John Davenant

Cap. VIII Arg. 10: God as spiritual sun — reprobation from foresight of putting an obstacle to grace

Tenth: God is as it were a Sun everywhere diffusing rays of spiritual grace. Therefore, as much as in him lies, he imparts spiritual grace to all, unless they put an obstacle to those diffused rays. That he leaves some void of grace and reprobates them happens because he foresaw them putting an obstacle to his grace. So reprobation is from that foresighted evil use of free will.

Latin

Deus est quasi Sol quidam radios gratiae spiritualis ubique diffundens: Ergo quantum in se est, gratiam spiritualem omnibus impertit, nisi diffusis gratiae suae radiis obicem ponant. Quod igitur quosdam gratiae expertes relinquit et reprobat, id inde evenit, quod praevidit hosce ut obicem ponentes gratiae suae. Reprobatio igitur est ex praeviso hoc malo usu liberi arbitrii.

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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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