Two Dissertations · §641 · John Davenant

Cap. IX Arg. 9 Sol close: Scripture sounding as if God created some unto contumely is to be read permissively — vessels of contumely by not adding special grace

And last: wherever Scripture seems to speak as though God had fashioned some for disgrace and ruin, I judge those places to be taken permissively. Day by day he brings into being those whom, under the decree of non-election or of reprobation, he suffers to turn into vessels of contumely — withholding the special grace that would have made them vessels of honor.

Latin

Denique, si quae loca Scripturae in hunc sensum sonare videantur, quasi Deus creasset aliquos in contumeliam et perditionem, sunt, meo quidem judicio, interpretanda permissive. Creat enim indies, quos secundum decretum non-electionis seu reprobationis permittit fieri vasa contumeliae, non apponendo illam specialem gratiam quae faceret eos vasa honoris.

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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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