Two Dissertations · §715 · John Davenant

Cap. X Arg. III close: 'not being a sheep' is antecedent to not believing — Augustine: not of my sheep because predestined to everlasting ruin, not bought for eternal life by his blood

In these words, not being a sheep is treated as antecedent to not believing. And what else is not being a sheep than not being predestined — or being rejected from the predestined's grace? So Augustine explains (Tract. 48. on John's Gospel): How then did he say to them, "YOU ARE NOT OF MY SHEEP"? Because he saw them predestined to everlasting ruin, not purchased for eternal life by the price of his blood.

Latin

Non esse ovem hisce in verbis consideratur ut antecedaneum ad non credere: At quid aliud est Non esse ovem quam non esse praedestinatum, vel esse a gratia praedestinatorum rejectum, ut explicat Augustinus, Tract. 48. in Evang. Joan. hisce verbis, Quomodo ergo istis dixit, NON ESTIS EX OVIBUS MEIS? Quia videbat eos ad sempiternum interitum praedestinatos, non ad vitam aeternam sui sanguinis pretio comparatos.

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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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