Two Dissertations · §99 · John Davenant

Cap. 6 Arg. 6: Aquinas—saving gifts rest on simple divine will; prevenience for some who block grace

Aquinas too will give no other reason why these particular persons receive the gifts of saving grace, and others do not, than the simple will of God (Contra Gentiles 3.161). "Though the sinner," he says, "puts an obstacle in grace's way, and so far as the order of things requires ought not to receive grace, yet sometimes, from the abundance of his goodness, God also goes before with his help even those who put that obstacle there, turning them from evil and converting them to good," and the rest. He adds at once: "He does not go before with his help all who block grace, but some in whom he wills his mercy to appear, so that in others the order of justice may be shown."

Latin

Denique ipse Aquinas non aliam rationem reddendam putat, cur hisce singularibus personis dentur gratiae salutiferae dona, aliis non dentur, praeter simplicem Dei voluntatem; Contr. Gent. lib. 3. cap. 161. Licet, inquit, ille qui peccat, impedimentum gratiae praestet, & in quantum ordo rerum exigit gratiam non deberet recipere, tamen interdum, ex abundantia bonitatis suae, etiam eos qui impedimentum gratiae praestant, auxilio suo praevenit, avertens eos a malo, & convertens ad bonum, &c. Mox addit, Non omnes qui gratiam impediunt auxilio suo praevenit, sed aliquos in quibus vult misericordiam suam apparere, ita quod in aliis justitiae ordo manifestetur.

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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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