Cap. 7 close: sufficient for all, efficacious for elect — Amen
Let this be the sum and close of the whole controversy On the Death of Christ. The Mediator between God and humankind, Jesus Christ, in sealing that evangelical covenant by which eternal life is due to every believer, made no partition or sorting of people by which we could say anyone was shut out from the benefit of his death if he believed. In that sense — with Scripture, the Fathers, and solid reasons agreeing — we hold that Christ suffered and died on the cross for all human beings, for the whole human race. We add this too: the same Mediator, when he decreed to lay down his life for sin, also had this singular intention — that by the virtue of his merits he would efficaciously and surely vivify and bring to life certain ones singularly given him by the Father. In that sense we defend that Christ laid down his life for the elect alone, or to acquire his Church — that is, he died for them alone with this singular, fixed purpose of efficaciously regenerating and saving them through the merit of his death. So Christ's merit stands equally toward all as to sufficiency, yet not as to efficacy — and that not only from the effect, which lands in one and not another, but from the will by which Christ himself merited and offered his merits in different ways for different people. The first root of that diversity was Divine election and will, to which Christ's human will conformed. From this Suarez rightly draws that this merit of Christ is the cause of spiritual regeneration itself, gives it efficacy, influences its effect, and is at once the cause that this person is regenerated for whom he specially offered his merit (In 3, q. 19, disp. 41, §2, p. 635). Let Robert of Salisbury, of rare learning and pious memory, speak for our side (in Thomson's Diatribe, p. 94): though we do not deny that Christ died for all, yet we specially and properly believe he died for the Church, and that redemption's benefit does not belong to all by equal right. On that benefit's peculiarity — not on human will — hangs the efficacy of every means, so that they are and are useful only for those whom Christ redeemed in himself as elect under a peculiar regard; nor do they take effect because we will, but because in the elect and redeemed, according to the purpose of his grace, God works the willing for which he chose them. He who by his death most sufficiently merited eternal life for all — to be given to all under the evangelical covenant if they believed — also, by a peculiar application of his merits, most efficaciously merited for some that they should believe and receive eternal life as God's free gift through and for our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the elect's peculiar lot. May the Father of mercies make us all partakers of it; to him, with the Son and the Holy Spirit, be honor, praise, and glory now and forever. Amen.
Latin
Sit itaque haec totius hujus controversiae De Morte Christi summa & conclusio; Mediatorem Dei ac hominum, Jesum Christum, in foedere illo Evangelico sanciendo, ex cujus tenore omni credenti debetur vita aeterna, nullam partitionem hominum vel discretionem instituisse, ut quenquam dicere possimus a mortis suae beneficio exclusum, si crederet: Atque hoc sensu, suffragantibus Scripturis, Patribus, ac solidis rationibus, tuemur, Christum pro omnibus hominibus, sive pro toto humano genere, in cruce passum ac mortuum fuisse. Quinetiam addimus & hoc, Eundem Mediatorem, cum animam suam pro peccato decrevisset ponere, habuisse insuper hanc singularem intentionem, quod virtute meritorum suorum efficaciter & infallibiliter quosdam sibi a Patre singulariter datos esset vivificaturus & ad vitam perducturus: Atque hoc sensu defendimus, Christum pro solis Electis, vel pro Ecclesia sua acquirenda, animam suam posuisse, id est, pro illis solis mortuum fuisse cum hoc singulari & certo proposito per meritum mortis suae eos efficaciter regenerandi & salvandi. Quamvis ergo meritum Christi aequaliter se habeat ad omnes quoad sufficientiam, non tamen quoad efficaciam: quod intelligendum est non tantum ex parte effectus, qui in uno fit & non in alio, sed etiam ex parte voluntatis, qua ipse Christus meruit, & diverso modo obtulit sua merita pro diversis. Prima autem radix hujus diversitatis fuit electio & voluntas Divina, cui se voluntas humana Christi conformavit. Atque hinc recte deducit Suarez, Meritum hoc Christi esse causam ipsius spiritualis regenerationis, & dare illi efficaciam, & influere in effectum ejus, & simul causam esse ut hic homo regeneretur, propter quem specialiter suum obtulit meritum, In 3. qu. 19. disp. 41. S. 2. pag. 635. Pro nostris loquatur vir eximiae eruditionis & piae memoriae Robertus Sarisburiensis; sic igitur ille, in Thomson. Diatrib. pag. 94. Nos etsi Christum pro omnibus mortuum non negamus, specialiter tamen & proprie credimus mortuum esse pro Ecclesia, neque ad omnes homines beneficium redemtionis pari jure pertinere. Atque ab hujus beneficii proprietate, non ab humana aliquatenus voluntate pendet efficacia mediorum omnium, ut illis tantum sint, & ex usu sint, quos Christus in se electos peculiari quodam intuitu redemit: neque ex eo effectum sortiantur, quia nos volumus, sed ex eo quod in electis & redemtis secundum propositum gratiae suae operatur Deus hoc velle ad quod elegit. Qui igitur morte sua omnibus sufficientissime promeruit vitam aeternam, donandam utique omnibus ex pacto Evangelico, si crederent; is aliquibus ex peculiari meritorum suorum applicatione promeruit efficacissime ut crederent, ut vitam aeternam ex gratuito Dei dono per & propter Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum acciperent. Atque haec est sors electorum peculiaris: Cujus nos omnes participes faciat Pater misericordiarum, cui cum Filio & Spiritu Sancto sit honor, laus & gloria nunc & in secula sempiterna. Amen.