Two Dissertations · §62 · John Davenant

Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Obj. 3: Adam’s binding act does not force Christ’s dying act to restore all

Adam's sin, they argue, did not have greater force to bind every human being under the guilt of eternal death than Christ's death and merit have to expiate all, reconcile them to God, and call them back into grace and salvation. Yet Adam's very act of sinning did bind everyone with guilt and subject them to divine wrath. Therefore Christ's very act of dying ought to free everyone from death, reconcile them to God, and restore them to the state of grace and salvation.

Latin

Non fuit major vis in peccato Adami ad constringendos omnes homines reatu aeternae mortis, quam in morte ac merito Christi ad omnes expiandos, Deo reconciliandos, & in statum gratiae ac salutis revocandos: Sed ipse actus Adami peccantis constrinxit omnes homines reatu, atque irae Divinae subjecit: Ergo ipse actus Christi morientis debet omnes a morte liberare, Deo reconciliare, atque in statum gratiae & salutis reponere.

Report a mistake in this passage

About this text

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.

Printed text used

Also checked PDF of the 1650 (Latin · print facsimile)
Also checked DjVu machine-read text of the 1650 (Latin)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

Report a mistake