Two Dissertations · §652 · John Davenant

Cap. IX Arg. 11 (Corvinus): absolute predestination/reprobation makes baptism of many infants, by God's first intention, useless and sealing nothing — without the infants' fault

Those who set predestination and reprobation as hanging absolutely on God's freest will — not on foreseen faith and unbelief of the predestined and reprobate — make baptism administered to many infants useless by God's first intention, and sealing nothing, and that without fault in the infants who receive it. For if we set many infants of the faithful as precisely reprobated, it is most certain that baptism seals nothing for them.

Latin

Qui ponunt praedestinationem et reprobationem ex liberrima Dei voluntate absolute pendentem, et non ex praevisa fide et infidelitate praedestinatorum et reprobatorum, illi faciunt Baptismum circa multos infantes administratum, ex prima Dei intentione statui inutilem, et nihil obsignare, idque citra culpam infantium quibus administratur. Nam si ponamus multos infantes fidelium praecise reprobatos, nihil ipsis per Baptismum obsignari certissimum est.

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