Two Dissertations · §624 · John Davenant

Cap. IX Arg. 7 Sol: why all reprobates become unbelieving — Augustine Ad Simpl.: nothing worse infused; only what would make better is not given; Prosper

But how is it that all the reprobate always turn out unbelieving and impenitent, if that unbelief and impenitence are not fruits or effects of antecedent reprobation? I answer with Augustine (Ad Simpl. 1.2): not that God by reprobating inflicts anything by which a man is made worse, but only that what would make him better is not bestowed. So it does not follow that those to whom God has not given penitence he has robbed of repentance, or that those he has not lifted he has dashed down — as Prosper well says (Ad Object. Vinc. Resp. 15). And elsewhere to the same effect (Ad cap. Gallor. Resp. 14): the unbelief of those who do not believe the Gospel is in no way generated from God's predestination; all the non-predestined perish by voluntary, not forced, unbelief (Sent. Super 14).

Latin

Sed qui fit quod omnes reprobati semper evadunt infideles et impoenitentes, si infidelitas haec et impoenitentia non sint fructus aut effecta antecedentis reprobationis? Respondeo ex Augustino, Ad Simpl. l. 1. qu. 2. Non quod a Deo reprobante irrogetur aliquid quo sit homo deterior, sed tantum quod quo sit melior non erogetur. Non est ergo consequens, ut Deus quibus poenitentiam non dederit, resipiscentiam abstulerit; et quos non levaverit, alliserit, etc. ut optime Prosper, Ad Object. Vinc. Resp. 15. Et in eandem sententiam alibi respondet, Ad cap. Gallor. resp. 14. Infidelitatem non credentium Evangelio nequaquam ex Dei praedestinatione generari; sed omnes non-praedestinatos perire infidelitate voluntaria, non coacta, Sentent. super 14.

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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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