DAVIES
,
JOHN PHILIP
(
1786
-
1832
),
Baptist minister, commentator, and divine
;
b.
9 March 1786
, son of
David
Davies
, a
clergyman
at
Bangor Teifi
and
Henllan, Cards.
He joined the
Baptists
at
Tre-fach
and later became a member at
Llandysul
, where his father's brother,
Daniel
Davies
, was
minister
. He began to preach in
1804
and was persuaded by
Titus
Lewis
to go on a missionary tour to
North Wales
where, in
1810
, he settled at
Holywell
as
minister
to the
Flintshire
baptists. He was transferred to
Liverpool
in
1811
and to
London
in
1813
. There he came into close contact with
Andrew
Fuller
(see
D.N.B.
),
secretary
of the
Baptist Missionary Society
. In
1815
he returned to
Wales
to take charge of the churches at
Ferryside
and
Kidwelly
. In
1817
he moved to
Tredegar
, where he remained until his death,
23 Aug. 1832
.
He was the apostle in
Wales
of
Andrew
Fuller
's moderate
Calvinism
and rejected the
High Calvinism
which was very prevalent at that time. He took the view that the Atonement was linked not with
Christ
's suffering but with His person.
High Calvinism
taught that the burden of
Christ
's suffering was proportionate to the sins of the elect for whom alone He died.
J. P.
Davies
, on the other hand, maintained that the Atonement of Christ was, by virtue of the infinite nature of His person, sufficient to embrace all mankind; and as he refused to accept the thesis that man was innately precluded from accepting the gospel of his own accord, he argued that those who heard it preached ought to accept it. He, too, believed in Particular Redemption, but he regarded this ‘particularity’ as denoting the effectual working of the Atonement upon the elect alone, and not as limiting the power of the Atonement itself. Over the pseudonym
Mab Dewi Ddu
he took a prominent part in the Fullerian controversy in
Seren Gomer
,
1822-3
. He published several articles and sermons in
Seren Gomer
(
1818
,
1822-3
,
1824
,
1825
), together with a translation of a book by
A
.
Fuller
on revelation. After his death
D. Rhys
Stephen
published his theological writings with a short memoir.
J. P.
Davies
was one of the most fluent preachers of the day. As a divine, his influence on the theology of his countrymen was profound.
Bibliography:
-
D. Rhys Stephen
,
Traethodau ar amrywiol o bynciau
athrawiaethol y grefydd Gristionogol ynghyd â nodiadau ar
ddyscyblaeth eglwysig
, Carmarthen, 1834
(including a short memoir);
-
Trafodion Cymdeithas Hanes Bedyddwyr
Cymru
,
1927
,
1936
;
-
Hanes y Bedyddwyr yn Nghymru
,
1893–1907
, iv, 49;
-
Hanes y Bedyddwyr yn Neheubarth Cymru
,
1839
, 417;
-
Eminent Welshmen
, 1908
;
-
Geirlyfr Bywgraffiadol o Enwogion
Cymru
, 1870
;
-
Geiriadur Bywgraffyddol o Enwogion
Cymru
, i, 105;
-
Notable Welshmen (1700–1900)
,
1908
, 176;
-
T. Morgan
,
Enwogion Cymreig
(1700–1900), Vol. 1,
1907
, i, 93;
-
T. Edwards
,
Hanes y Bedyddwyr yn Salem, Glanyfferi, o'u
dechreuad hyd 1890
, Aberdâr, 1891
;
-
Joseph Davies
,
Bedyddwyr Cymreig Glannau'r Mersi, sef,
Hanes dechreuad a thwf Eglwysi Bedyddwyr Llynlleifiad,
etc
, Liverpool, 1927
, 20;
-
Y Greal sef Cylchgrawn Misol at wasanaeth y
Bedyddwyr
,
1870
.
Author:
Rev. Principal Tom Ellis Jones, M.A., B.D., (1900-75), Bangor
