Cap. 7 Thesis: death destined to the elect alone—vs Grevinchovius foresight application
Thesis. Christ’s death, from the special Intention of God the Father who from eternity ordained and accepted that sacrifice, and of Christ who offered the same to God the Father in the fullness of time, was destined for certain human beings (whom Scripture calls the Elect) and for them alone, to be applied efficaciously and infallibly for the obtaining of eternal life. We oppose this thesis to the Arminians’ error, which Grevinchovius tries to establish in his Dissertation On the Death of Christ, p. 7 ff., where he teaches that God, in delivering his Son, intended the obtaining of reconciliation to be common to all and each, but absolutely willed the application of that obtained reconciliation for no mortal. “I acknowledge,” he says, “in God indeed a constant and perpetual affection of applying the obtained good to all and each: I deny that the application itself is destined by God’s sure counsel and will to any human being except as a believer, and as a believer.” So this new little master thinks God wills eternal life in Christ equally for all, and does not by an absolute and antecedent will destine and prepare for some efficacious grace by which Christ is infallibly applied to them; but by his eternal foreknowledge looks ahead who will believe and who will remain in their unbelief, and only then destines to believers as believers the efficacious application of Jesus Christ’s death and merits. But we hold that in predestination to faith itself the application of Christ’s death is infallibly destined to certain persons; and we say this faith is prepared not for believers as believers, but for unbelievers, that by it they may become believers. So application not destined but done is understood in those considered as believers; but destined application is understood in those for whom the gift of faith is destined, through which that application will be made. And these are the elect, and the elect alone, whose special prerogative is that by the absolute will of God the Father and of Christ the Mediator they are decreed and procured to be saved infallibly through Christ’s death. With these preliminaries we come to the arguments, and first take up the plain testimonies of the Scriptures.
Latin
Thes. Mors Christi, ex speciali Intentione Dei Patris illud sacrificium ab aeterno ordinantis & acceptantis, Christique illud idem in plenitudine temporis Deo Patri offerentis, destinata fuit certis quibusdam hominibus (quos Electos Scriptura appellat) iisdemque solis, ut efficaciter & infallibiliter applicanda ad aeternae vitae consecutionem. Hanc thesin opponimus Arminiorum errori, quem Grevinchovius stabilire conatur, Dissert. De morte Christi, pag. 7. &c. ubi docet Deum tradentem Filium suum, intendisse impetrationem reconciliationis omnibus & singulis communem, applicationem vero ejusdem impetratae nemini mortalium absolute voluisse. Agnosco, inquit, in Deo quidem affectum constantem ac perpetuum, bonum impetratum omnibus & singulis applicandi: Nego applicationem ipsam ulli hominum nisi fideli; & qua fideli, certo Dei consilio ac voluntate destinatam. Opinatur igitur novus iste magistellus Deum ex aequo velle omnibus vitam aeternam in Christo, neque absoluta & antecedanea voluntate destinare & praeparare aliquibus gratiam efficacem, qua Christus illis infallibiliter applicetur; sed per aeternam suam praescientiam speculari quinam sunt credituri, quinam in sua infidelitate permansuri, & tum demum destinare Fidelibus, qua Fidelibus, efficacem applicationem mortis ac meritorum Jesu Christi. At nos in ipsa praedestinatione ad fidem, applicationem mortis Christi quibusdam certis personis infallibiliter destinatam putamus; atque dicimus hanc fidem non Fidelibus, qua Fidelibus, sed infidelibus praeparatam, ut per eam evadant fideles. Applicatio igitur non destinata sed facta intelligitur in hominibus qui considerantur ut fideles: destinata autem applicatio intelligitur in illis quibus fides donanda destinatur, per quam fiet haec applicatio. Hi autem sunt electi, ac soli electi, quorum specialis praerogativa est, quod ex absoluta voluntate Dei Patris ac Christi Mediatoris, per Christi mortem infallibiliter salvandi decernantur ac procurentur. Hisce praelibatis ad argumenta veniamus, ac Scripturarum disertis testimoniis primo in loco agamus.