Two Dissertations · §619 · John Davenant

Cap. IX Arg. 6 Sol cont.: Corvinus's rule 'to him who does all he can by received grace, further grace is always given' does not shake absolute reprobation — no mortal ever does all he can

Third: the rule To him who uses grace well (that is, as Corvinus expounds, p. 157, to him who does whatever he can by the grace conferred on him) further grace shall always be given does not shake the absolute decree of reprobation. Who among mortals has ever done, or will ever do, whatever he can by the grace given him? The angels did not; the first parents did not; none of the elect, after receiving regenerating grace, do so — still less any of the non-regenerate, armed only with exciting grace, which Corvinus distinguishes from the living spark of nature.

Latin

Tertio, Regula illa, Bene utenti gratia (hoc est, ut exponit Corvinus, pag. 157, facienti quodcunque per gratiam sibi collatam potest facere) dabitur semper gratia ulterior, absolutum decretum reprobationis non labefactat. Quaero enim, Quis mortalium unquam fecit aut facturus est quodcunque per gratiam sibi collatam potest facere? Non fecerunt Angeli; non fecerunt primi parentes; nemo denique electorum post gratiam regenerationis acceptam hoc facit; nedum ut facere id putemus ullum ex non-renatis gratia solummodo excitante instructum, quam a lumine naturae vix distinguit Corvinus.

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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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