Two Dissertations · §758 · John Davenant

Cap. X Arg. X Major: God knows infinite modes to turn any heart; to deny this denies omnipotence — Prov. xxi. 1; Augustine De corr. et grat. 14

First I take this: God knows infinite ways to bend any man’s heart to repent, believe, and persevere freely. Who denies it denies God’s omnipotence and his absolute lordship over human wills—against Solomon (Prov. Xxi. 1): The king’s heart is in the Lord’s hand; he turns it wherever he wills. Augustine subscribes (De correptione et gratia 14): Of men’s very wills he does what he wills, when he wills, holding most omnipotent power to incline human hearts wherever he wills.

Latin

Illud imprimis sumo; Deum nosse infinitos modos quibus cor cujuscunque hominis flectere possit ad libere poenitendum, credendum, et perseverandum. Qui hoc negat, negat Dei omnipotentiam, negat Dei supra voluntates humanas absolutum dominium, contra illud Solomonis, Cor regis in manu Domini; quocunque voluerit inclinavit illud, Prov. xxi. 1. Cui subscribit Augustinus, De corrept. et gratia, cap. 14. De ipsis hominum voluntatibus facit quod vult, et quando vult, habens humanorum cordium quo vult inclinandorum omnipotentissimam potestatem.

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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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