Two Dissertations · §595 · John Davenant

Cap. IX Arg. 3 Sol: Matt. 11:25; 13:11; Rom. 9:18 — antecedent good pleasure where the word was preached; efficacious grace prepared for some only

Here belong the Savior's words, Matt. 11:25: I give you glory, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and uncovered them to infants. Yes, Father, for so it pleased you. And Matt. 13:11: To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; to them it is not given. And that saying of the Apostle, often pressed against every foe of special grace: He has mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardens (Rom. 9:18). All these texts concern those to whom God's word was preached — and yet in all of them God's antecedent good pleasure is hinted: efficacious grace prepared for some, not prepared for others.

Latin

Huc spectant illa Servatoris verba, Matth. xi. 25. Gloriam tibi tribuo Pater Domine caeli ac terrae, quod absconderis haec a sapientibus et intelligentibus, et ea detexeris infantibus. Etiam, Pater, quia ita placuit tibi. Et illa, Matth. xiii. 11. Vobis datum est nosse mysteria regni caelorum; illis non est datum. Denique et illud Apostoli, saepe inculcatum ac inculcandum omnibus specialis gratiae adversariis, Cujus vult miseretur, quem autem vult indurat, Rom. ix. 18. Omnia haec loca illos respiciunt quibus Dei verbum fuit praedicatum; et tamen in hisce omnibus innuatur antecedaneum Dei beneplacitum, secundum quod efficax gratia quibusdam praeparata fuit, aliis non fuit praeparata.

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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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