Two Dissertations · §642 · John Davenant

Cap. IX Arg. 10: if election and reprobation hang on mere liberty of will, Gospel preaching to the reprobate becomes from God's precise intention a ministry of condemnation

If we set election and reprobation as hanging on mere liberty of divine will — not on the differing acts of elect and reprobate themselves (these penitence, those impenitence; these persevering faith, those final unbelief) — then Gospel preaching toward the reprobate, from God's nearest precise intention, will be a ministry of condemnation, and will not be set before them from God's first intention to work their salvation, but as a medium subordinated to damnation in executing the reprobation decree. That fights the Gospel ministry head-on, since from God's first intention it is a ministry of life.

Latin

Si ponamus electionem et reprobationem ex mera libertate Divinae voluntatis pendentem, et non ex discriminatis actibus ipsorum electorum et reprobatorum (puta horum poenitentia, illorum impoenitentia, horum fide perseverante, illorum finali infidelitate): tum Evangelii praedicatio quoad reprobatos ex proxima et precisa Dei intentione erit ministerium condemnationis, et non proponetur ipsis ex prima Dei intentione ad salutem ipsorum operandam, sed ut medium exsequendo decreto reprobationis damnationi subordinatum. At hoc directe cum ministerio Evangelii pugnat, utpote quod ex prima Dei intentione est ministerium vitae.

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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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