Two Dissertations · §712 · John Davenant

Cap. X Arg. III: even if Rom. ix is read only of temporal honor of Jacob over Esau, by theologians' consent Paul introduced it to represent eternal predestination/reprobation — not from contrary merits of works

I know some will not grant that those Apostolic words refer to Jacob and Esau's eternal predestination and reprobation — only to that purpose by which God of his own good pleasure established to honor Jacob and subject Esau to him, at least in both their posterities. Be it so. Still, from theologians' consent and from the Apostle's whole discourse, this is clear: Paul introduced that example at least to represent the mystery of eternal predestination and reprobation, and to prove by argument from figure to thing figured that neither election of men to everlasting salvation, nor reprobation, is from contrary merits of works — but that God, of the sole choice of his will, elects some to salvation and reprobates others.

Latin

Scio nonnullos minime concedere praedicta Apostoli verba ad aeternam praedestinationem et reprobationem Jacobi et Esavi esse referenda, sed solummodo ad illud propositum quo constituit Deus pro beneplacito suo honorare Jacobum, et subjicere illi Esavum, saltem in posteris utriusque. Sit ita: Tamen ex consensu Theologorum, et ex toto discursu Apostoli illud liquet, hoc exemplum fuisse introductum a Paulo saltem ad repraesentandum aeternae praedestinationis et reprobationis mysterium, atque demonstrandum argumento a figura ad rem figuratam, neque electionem hominum ad aeternam salutem, neque reprobationem esse ex contrariis operum meritis, sed Deum ex solo voluntatis suae arbitrio alios eligere ad salutem, alios autem reprobare.

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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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