Two Dissertations · §562 · John Davenant

Cap. VIII Resp. Primo: we deny foresight as origin of negative reprobation, not of preparing punishment (Aquinas on Rom. 9)

First, always hold this: when we deny that reprobation took origin from foresight of human demerits, we mean reprobation as denied preparation of efficacious grace for certain persons — not as preparation of eternal punishment for those same persons. With Aquinas we gladly grant: foresight of merits cannot be any reason of predestination, because foresighted merits themselves fall under predestination; yet foresight of sins can be some reason of reprobation on the side of the punishment prepared for the reprobate, insofar as God proposes to punish the wicked for sins they have from themselves, not from God (Thomas, Commentary on Romans 9, lect. 2, near the end).

Latin

Primo, id semper tenendum est, Quando negamus reprobationem ex praescientia humanorum demeritorum originem habuisse, nos loqui de reprobatione quatenus significat denegatam praeparationem efficacis gratiae certis personis, non quatenus denotat praeparationem aeternae poenae iisdem personis. Nam cum Aquinate libenter concedimus: Utcunque praescientia meritorum non potest esse aliqua ratio praedestinationis, quia ipsa merita praescita cadunt sub praedestinatione, tamen praescientia peccatorum potest esse aliqua ratio reprobationis, ex parte poenae quae praeparatur reprobis, in quantum Deus proponit se puniturum malos propter peccata quae a seipsis habent, non a Deo. Haec Thomas Comment. in Rom. ix. lect. 2, prope finem.

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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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