Two Dissertations · §561 · John Davenant

Cap. VIII Arg.: God is rich in mercy — therefore he reprobates only from foresight of demerits

Argument: God is rich in mercy. But if he reprobated some from his mere will and not for foresighted sin, nothing of mercy would appear in that act. Therefore he reprobates from foresight of demerits — or from foresighted evil use of free will lasting to the end.

Latin

Deus est dives in misericordia: Sed si aliquos reprobaret ex mera sua voluntate, et non propter praevisum peccatum, in tali actu nihil misericordiae appareret: Ergo reprobat ex praevisione demeritorum, sive ex praeviso malo usu liberi arbitrii ad finem usque duraturo.

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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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