Two Dissertations · §590 · John Davenant

Cap. IX Arg. 3 open: God wills the saving grace of the Gospel offered promiscuously to all — Mat. 28:19; Mk 16:15; Col. 1:28

God wills that the saving grace of the Gospel be offered to all men alike — a will he has opened in many Scriptures: Matt. 28:19, Go therefore and teach all nations; and Mark 16:15, Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. So also the Apostle, Col. 1:28: We announce Christ, warning every man and teaching every man, that we may present every man perfect in Christ. This regard of God for all men's salvation seems to argue that he reprobated no one except after regard to contempt of grace — or, what comes to the same, except from foresight of final unbelief and impenitence.

Latin

Deus vult ut salutaris gratia Evangelii omnibus hominibus promiscue offeratur: quam suam voluntatem multis Scripturae locis patefecit, Matth. xxviii. 19, Euntes ergo docete omnes gentes, etc. Et Marc. xvi. 15. Euntes in mundum universum praedicate Evangelium omni creaturae. Hinc etiam Apostolus Coloss. i. 28. Nos annunciamus Christum, corripientes omnem hominem, et docentes omnem hominem, ut exhibeamus omnem hominem perfectum in Christo. Hic affectus Dei erga omnium hominum salutem, videtur arguere neminem ab eo fuisse reprobatum, nisi post considerationem gratiae contemtae, vel (quod eodem redit) nisi ex praevisione finalis infidelitatis et impoenitentiae.

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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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