Two Dissertations · §711 · John Davenant

Cap. X Arg. III: election and rejection of Jacob and Esau depicted not after life's course but before birth, when they had done neither good nor evil (Rom. ix. 11–13) — so neither elected nor rejected from Arminian foresight

But that election and reprobation should first look on men as dead, or at least as at their last extremity, is unheard-of — and plainly contrary to Scripture and reason. Scripture depicts Jacob and Esau's election and rejection not as considered after both had run this life's course, but when they were not yet born and had done nothing yet of good or evil (Rom. Ix. 11–13). Of those of whom one is elected without considering any good he antecedently rendered, and the other rejected without considering any actual sin he antecedently committed, it is plain neither was ante-elected or rejected from this Arminian foresight.

Latin

At electionem et reprobationem prius spectare homines qua mortuos, vel saltem qua in extremis positos, inauditum est, et sacris Scripturis ac rationi plane contrarium. Scripturae electionem et rejectionem Jacobi et Esavi nobis depingunt, non considerandam post decursum hujus vitae spatium ab utroque; sed cum nondum nascerentur, et nihil adhuc boni aut mali fecissent, Rom. ix. 11, 12, 13. Quorum vero unus eligitur absque consideratione ullius boni, ab eo antecedenter praestiti, alter rejicitur absque consideratione peccati alicujus actualis antecedenter ab eo perpetrati, illorum neutrum ex hac praevisione Arminiana anteelectum fuisse aut rejectum, liquido constat.

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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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