Cap. 7 Arg. 4 Ultimo: Gen. 3:15 seed promise—Satan crushed under the elect (Rupert / Marlorat)
4. Lastly, we can confirm our view from those places in which God absolutely promised Christ, as he died, that by the merit of this death the Church would infallibly be set free from death and given eternal life. Genesis 3:15: “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” What else is that than that by the power and merit of Christ’s death Satan will be trampled down, and that all those of whom God in Christ specially willed to have mercy will be freed from his power? Who then can doubt that Christ referred his death—Satan’s vanquisher—with special regard to those who were to be freed through him by a special benefit? And that those to be infallibly freed were the elect is confessed by all sound theologians. Rupert (On the Victory of the Word of God, book 2, chapter 18) expressly calls the elect the serpent’s conquerors, because the efficacy of Christ’s death and resurrection crushing the Devil is destined and procured to be applied efficaciously to them alone from special mercy. So Marlorat on this place: the Devil and the wicked generation fight against God’s elect, but the elect at last prove stronger because of their Head, Christ, who by his death abolished him who had the empire of death. Christ’s death was therefore specially intended and destined to crush Satan under the elect’s feet and to save them efficaciously—and that from God’s own most firm promise.
Latin
4. Ultimo, confirmare possumus sententiam nostram iis locis in quibus Christo morienti absolute Deus promisit Ecclesiam merito hujus mortis infallibiliter a morte liberandam; & vita aeterna donandam. Gen. iii. 15. Semen mulieris conteret caput serpentis. Quod quid aliud est, quam virtute & merito mortis Christi conculcatum iri Satanam, & liberandos ex ejus potestate illos omnes quorum Deus in Christo voluit specialiter misereri? Jam quis dubitet Christum mortem suam Satanae debellatricem speciali intuitu ad eos retulisse qui speciali beneficio per eum fuerunt liberandi? Hos autem infallibiliter liberandos fuisse electos, apud omnes sanos Theologos in confesso est. Rupertus, lib. 2, De victoria verbi Dei, cap. 18, Electos nominatim appellat Serpentis victores. Quia nimirum efficacia mortis & resurrectionis Christi Diabolum conterentis, iis solis ex speciali misericordia efficaciter applicanda destinatur & procuratur. Unde Marloratus in hunc locum, Diabolus & generatio malorum contra electos Dei pugnant, sed electi tandem fortiores evadant propter Caput ipsorum, nempe Christum, qui per mortem suam abolevit eum qui mortis habebat imperium. Mors igitur Christi specialiter intenta & destinata fuit ad conterendum Satanam sub pedibus electorum, eosdemque efficaciter salvandos, idque ex firmissima promissione ipsius Dei.