Cap. 3 Obj. 7: Father and Spirit save only the elect — must the Son's oblation be equally narrow?
Obj. 7. The Father's will, the Son's oblation, and the Holy Spirit's saving operation are equally wide, and regard the same persons. But the Father's will is to save the elect alone; and the Spirit, by infusing faith and giving perseverance, in fact saves the elect alone: therefore Christ's death or oblation is not to be extended except to the elect alone, and for that reason ought not to be considered as a remedy applicable to all and each unto salvation by God's ordination.
Sol. If the Major proposition is understood of the will of the predestinating God, which is always joined with infallibility of event, and of that special operation of the sanctifying Spirit which serves the execution of this decree, I say it is not absolutely true: for Christ's death or oblation somehow regards certain persons whom predestination does not embrace. Predestination is God's secret decree, by which he determined with himself from eternity to whom from the infinite merit of Christ's death he wills to give efficacious grace and eternal life infallibly; but Christ's oblation on the cross is a common benefit granted to the human race, by whose virtue anyone, provided he embraces it with true faith, can claim eternal life for himself according to God's will revealed in the Gospel. So Christ himself speaks in (John 3:14–15): As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Although therefore God's predestination and the efficacious calling that depends on it embrace no person not chosen, yet as Christ's oblation in the Gospel, so also Christ's oblation on the cross extends wider, and is as applicable to any human being as it is announcible, and will become salvific to anyone provided he believes — God's secret will meanwhile being left to him, according to which he has determined mercifully to cause some to believe, to permit others to their innate hardness, and in them not to cause that they believe. Finally I add also this: that there was in Christ himself a will according to which he willed his death to look to all and each, and also one according to which he willed the same to pertain to the elect alone. He willed it to look to all Adam's posterity to be saved, and in fact to save all, provided they embraced it with true faith; he willed it so to pertain to the elect alone that from its merit all things that look to obtaining salvation should be infallibly given them. And in this sense we confess that Christ's oblation is equally wide with God's predestination — of which more in its place.
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Obj. 7. Patris voluntas, Filii oblatio, Spiritus sancti salutaris operatio aeque late patent, easdemque personas respiciunt: At Patris voluntas est servare solos electos; et Spiritus, infundendo fidem ac donando perseverantiam, de facto servat solos electos: Ergo mors sive oblatio Christi non est extendenda nisi ad solos electos, atque idcirco non debet considerari ut remedium ex ordinatione Dei omnibus et singulis applicabile ad salutem. Sol. Si de voluntate Dei praedestinantis, quae semper cum infallibilitate eventus conjuncta est, et de speciali illa operatione Spiritus sanctificantis, quae huic decreto exsequendo inservit, intelligatur Major propositio, dico non esse absolute veram: Nam mors Christi sive oblatio, aliquo modo respicit quasdam personas, quas praedestinatio non complectitur. Praedestinatio est arcanum Dei decretum, quo apud se ab aeterno praestituit quibus ex infinito merito mortis Christi velit gratiam efficacem et vitam aeternam infallibiliter donare: at oblatio Christi in cruce est commune humano generi indultum beneficium, cujus virtute quilibet, modo id vera fide amplectatur, potest vitam aeternam juxta revelatam in Evangelio Dei voluntatem sibi vendicare. Sic loquitur ipse Christus Johann. iii. 14, 15. Sicut Moses extulit serpentem in deserto, ita extolli oportet Filium hominis ut quisquis credat in eum non pereat, sed habeat vitam aeternam. Quamvis igitur praedestinatio Dei et, quae ex illa dependet, efficax vocatio, neminem non-electum complectitur, tamen sicut oblatio Christi in Evangelio, ita et oblatio Christi in cruce, latius patet, et cuilibet homini tam applicabilis quam annunciabilis est, et fiet salutifera cuilibet modo credat; Deo interim relicta arcana sua voluntate, juxta quam statuit misericorditer in quibusdam efficere ut credant, alios innatae suae duritiei permittere, atque in illis haud efficere ut credant. Tandem et illud addo, fuisse in ipso Christo voluntatem juxta quam voluit mortem suam ad omnes et singulos spectare, fuisse etiam juxta quam ad solos electos voluit eandem pertinere. Voluit illam spectare ad omnes Adami posteros servandos, atque de facto omnes servare, modo eam vera fide amplecterentur: voluit illam ad solos electos ita pertinere ut ex merito ejus omnia quae ad consequendam salutem spectant infallibiliter iisdem donarentur. Atque hoc sensu fatemur oblationem Christi aeque late patere atque praedestinationem Dei: De qua plura suo loco.