Two Dissertations · §751 · John Davenant

Cap. X Arg. IX close: the decree to permit final hardness is reprobation itself — Rom. ix. 18; futile to refer non-preparing soft-heart grace to foreseen unbelief

But the very decree by which God settles with himself to permit someone to harden and close his last day in impenitence and unbelief is reprobation’s own decree. So it is futile here to refer to foreseen unbelief God’s will not to prepare for this or that singular person the grace that softens the heart and begets faith, repentance, and perseverance—for here one must flee to the Apostle (Rom. Ix. 18): God has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens.

Latin

At hoc ipsum decretum quo Deus statuit apud se velle permittere, ut quis obdurescat et extremum diem claudat in sua impoenitentia et infidelitate, est ipsissimum reprobationis decretum. Frustra igitur hac in re ad praevisam infidelitatem refertur voluntas Dei non praeparantis huic aut illi singulari personae gratiam illam quae cor emollit, quae fidem, resipiscentiam, et perseverantiam gignit, cum hic necessario confugiendum sit ad illud Apostoli, Deus cujus vult miseretur, et quem vult indurat, Rom. ix. 18.

Report a mistake in this passage

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.

Printed text used

Also checked PDF of the 1650 (Latin · print facsimile)
Also checked DjVu machine-read text of the 1650 (Latin)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

Report a mistake