Two Dissertations · §738 · John Davenant

Cap. X Arg. VII: against Christ-death as a cast lot — Isa. liii. 10 promises Christ a church if he lays down his soul as a sacrifice

But whatever they hold is wholly alien to theology and contrary to Scripture: that Christ’s death was like a lot cast, so that—his soul once laid down—whether anyone would be saved by that death hung wholly on the contingency of human free will. Isaiah speaks far otherwise (Isa. Li. 10): If he shall lay down his soul as a sacrifice for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed. So God promises Christ a church if he lays down his soul as a sacrifice for sin.

Latin

At quicquid isti tenent, est prorsus alienum a Theologia, et Scripturis contrarium, mortem Christi fuisse quasi aleam jactam, ita ut posita anima sua, an quisquam per mortem ejus salvus fieret, ex contingentia liberi hominum arbitrii prorsus penderet. Longe aliter Isaias, Isa. liii. 10. Si posuerit animam suam hostiam pro peccato, semen longaevum videbit. Deus igitur promittit Christo Ecclesiam, si animam posuerit hostiam pro peccato.

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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.

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