Two Dissertations · §669 · John Davenant

Cap. IX Arg. 13 Sol: Arminius's reprobation makes ministers as sluggish — eternal foresight still fixes an immovable decree before the foundation of the world

Further: Arminius's view of reprobation makes ministers as sluggish as ours. However he sets predestination from foreseen faith and reprobation from foresight of unbelief, he still confesses that divine foresight eternal — and with it intervening, he acknowledges an eternal, fixed, immovable decree of election or reprobation for each person, set before the world's foundations were laid. So a minister cannot hope by diligence to lead to everlasting life someone thus reprobated from eternity, unless he also believes he can make divine foresight err and revoke God's eternal decree. Whether reprobation is set from mere liberty of divine will before all extrinsic causes, or from foresight of unbelief after consideration, it is the same: no hearer but is from eternity predestined to this side or that, from which he will never be transferred to the other.

Latin

Porro sententia Arminii de reprobatione tam segnes reddit ministros quam nostra. Nam utcunque ille ponat praedestinationem ex praevisa fide, et reprobationem ex praevisione infidelitatis, tamen hanc praevisionem Divinam aeternam fatetur, eademque interveniente, aeternum, fixum, et immobile decretum, sive electionis sive reprobationis, quoad singulos homines ante jacta mundi fundamenta constitutum agnoscit. Minister igitur sperare non potest se aliquem ab aeterno sic reprobatum posse sua diligentia ad vitam aeternam perducere, nisi simul credat posse se efficere ut Divina praescientia fallatur, atque aeternum Dei decretum revocetur. Sive ergo reprobatio ponatur ex mera Divinae voluntatis libertate, omnes causas extrinsecas antegrediente, sive ex praescientia infidelitatis considerationem subsequente, perinde est: Nam nemo erit ex auditoribus, quin sit in hanc vel illam partem ab aeterno praedestinatus, ex qua in contrariam partem nunquam transferetur.

Report a mistake in this passage

About this text

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.

Printed text used

Also checked PDF of the 1650 (Latin · print facsimile)
Also checked DjVu machine-read text of the 1650 (Latin)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

Report a mistake