Two Dissertations · §699 · John Davenant

Cap. X: controversy-aim — show the eternal distinction of elect and non-elect in God's mind and will had no origin or motive from antecedent foresight of good acts in Peter/Paul or opposite acts in Cain/Judas

So in disputing this reprobation decree we shall do one thing: show that the eternal distinction of elect and those not chosen in God's mind and will had no origin, occasion, or motive of foresight of good acts in the elect — penitence, faith, and perseverance in Peter and Paul — or from antecedent foresight of the opposites in the those not chosen — impenitence, unbelief, and final contumacy in Cain, Judas, 's mere will first divided between sons infallibly ordained to share grace and glory, and those rejected or passed over as to that order.

Latin

De hoc igitur reprobationis decreto disputaturi, id unum agemus, ut ostendatur, Aeternam illam distinctionem electorum et non-electorum in mente et voluntate Divina non habuisse originem, occasionem, aut motivum qualecunque ex antecedanea praevisione bonorum actuum in personis electis, puta poenitentiae, fidei et perseverantiae in Petro et Paulo, et ex antecedanea praevisione oppositorum in non-electis, scilicet impoenitentiae, infidelitatis et contumaciae finalis in Caino, Juda, reliquisque; sed meram Dei voluntatem primo divisisse inter filios ad participationem gratiae et gloriae infallibiliter ordinatos, et inter rejecticios sive quoad talem ordinem praeteritos.

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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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