Two Dissertations · §646 · John Davenant

Cap. IX Arg. 10 Sol cont.: God's intention through means is judged from the nature of the means, not from the evil event he foresaw and would not hinder — same of Gospel gifts to reprobates

For — as we warned before — God's intention through means is always judged from the nature of those means, not from the evil event he foresaw and would not hinder. Judge Gospel preaching and the other gifts of divine grace granted to the reprobate the same way.

Latin

Nam (quod antea monuimus) intentio Dei per media semper aestimatur ex mediorum natura, et non ex eventu malo, quem Deus praevidet fore, et non vult impedire. Eodem igitur modo de Evangelica praedicatione, aliisque gratiae Divinae muneribus, quae reprobatis conceduntur, sentiendum est.

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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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