Two Dissertations · §643 · John Davenant

Cap. IX Arg. 10 Sol: Major's consequence invalid — not everything later done about the non-elect flows from absolute reprobation; Vasquez: some effects are of common providence

We answer that the Major's consequence is invalid. The adversaries err in this: having posited absolute reprobation, they take it as following that whatever is later done about these those not chosen or reprobate flows from that decree. Vasquez rightly notes the predestined nor in the reprobate is every effect of God's providence an effect of predestination or reprobation — some is an effect of common providence (

Latin

Consequentiam Majoris invalidam esse respondemus; atque in hoc falli adversarios affirmamus, quod posito absolutae reprobationis decreto quasi consequens assumunt, ex hoc decreto manare quicquid postea circa hosce non-electos sive reprobatos peragitur. At e contra recte observavit Vasques, Nec in praedestinato nec in reprobato omnem effectum providentiae Dei esse praedestinationis aut reprobationis, sed aliquem esse effectum communis providentiae, In 1. quaest. 23. artic. 4. cap. 4. disp. 93.

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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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