Two Dissertations · §656 · John Davenant

Cap. IX Arg. 11 Sol: baptism seals as Arminians allow — original-sin remission for every infant; actual-sin remission and regeneration for believers when adult

And we can say no less than the Arminians themselves. Baptism seals to every infant the remission of original sin, by which alone infant age is held. It also seals remission of actual sins prepared in Christ's blood for those who repent and believe when they come to adulthood and fall into actual sins. It seals, further, regeneration and renewal wrought from the incorruptible seed of word and Spirit in all believers, once they live to an age capable of the divine word.

Latin

Et dicere possumus non minus quam ipsi Arminiani, Baptismum obsignare cuivis infanti originalis peccati remissionem, quo solo tenetur aetas infantilis; obsignare etiam actualium peccatorum remissionem in Christi sanguine paratam resipiscentibus et credentibus, cum ad aetatem adultam pervenerint, et in actualia inciderint; obsignare etiam regenerationem et innovationem ex incorruptibili semine verbi Spiritusque efficiendam in omnibus credentibus, postquam ad aetatem verbi Divini capacem vixerint.

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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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