Cap. 4 Mem. 3 tip: ‘Died for’ is not ‘infallibly predestined to save’ — Scripture
It remains that, by reason of this universal pact stabilized through Christ’s death with the whole human race, we show that in a true and sound sense we can affirm that Christ suffered, or died, for all human beings: which we will set out in few words.
But this I warn beforehand: for verifying this formula of speaking it is not absolutely necessary, neither from the sense of the Scriptures, nor from the sense of the Fathers, nor from the very force of the words, that we maintain that all those for whom Christ is affirmed to have been crucified and to have died are to be led through to eternal life by the infallible order of predestination by the benefit of Christ’s death; although concerning certain ones to be saved we gladly acknowledge that there was such an intention of Christ dying, and in its place we will confirm it with clear testimonies of the Scriptures and arguments.
First, then, from the usage of the Scriptures these two are not always equivalent: Christ died for these human beings, and, God predestined these human beings to be saved infallibly through Christ’s death: because the Scriptures often pronounce universally that Christ died for all; but they never affirm universally that God predestined all to be saved by the benefit of Christ’s death. To what end, I ask, would the Spirit of God in proclaiming Christ’s death so often use general terms extending it to all, and in celebrating Divine predestination always use restrictive terms limiting it to few, if Christ’s death and God’s predestination as to human beings had an equal and plainly the same ambit? Second, because in the sacred Scriptures Christ is said in the same sense to have reconciled human beings, to have given himself as the price of redemption for human beings, in which sense he is said to have died for human beings; yet he is said to have reconciled and redeemed the world inasmuch as the world has in his death a universal cause constituted and stabilized, which any mortal, apprehending it by faith, can be actually reconciled to God and freed from the guilt of sins: Therefore also he is rightly conceived dead for all, inasmuch as all in his death have eternal life exposed to them and obtainable by faith. Just as, then, when God is said to have reconciled the world in Christ, or Christ to have given himself as the price of redemption for all, God is not therefore said to have predestined all in Christ, so neither from this, that he is affirmed crucified and dead for all. Further, the sacred Scriptures clearly extend Christ’s death, as a benefit applicable by Divine ordination, even to those who by their unbelief applied it least to themselves. They therefore extend it outside the number of the elect, of whom there is no one to whom that lytron is not infallibly applied unto salvation. Here belong those places of the Scriptures in which unbelievers are pronounced to be condemned because they have not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God, sent into the world that the world might be saved through him (John 3:17–18); because they will not come to Christ that they may have life (John 5:40); because they thrust away the saving word of God and judge themselves unworthy of eternal life (Acts 13:46); finally, because through unbelief, the promise of entering into God’s rest being left, they were frustrated by their own fault (Hebrews 4). All these prove that, from the sense of the Scriptures, Christ’s death and merits were ordained also for the use of those who scorned and thrust them away: but that they were not ordained to such according to the infallible order of predestination is plain from the event: Therefore for verifying that Christ is said according to the Scriptures to have died for these or those human beings, it is not necessarily required that he be understood dead for them with an absolute purpose of saving the same.
Latin
Reliquum est, ut ratione hujus pacti universalis per mortem Christi cum toto humano genere stabiliti ostendamus, vero et sano sensu nos affirmare posse Christum passum fuisse, aut mortuum fuisse, pro omnibus hominibus: quod paucis expediemus. Illud autem praemoneo, ad verificandam hanc loquendi formulam neque ex sensu Scripturarum, neque ex sensu Patrum, neque ex ipsa vi verborum esse absolute necessarium ut tueamur, illos omnes per infallibilem ordinem praedestinationis ad vitam aeternam beneficio mortis Christi esse perducendos pro quibus Christus fuisse crucifixus et mortuus affirmantur; quanquam de quibusdam servandis fuisse talem Christi morientis intentionem lubenter agnoscimus, et suo loco Scripturarum testimoniis et argumentis perspicuis confirmabimus. Primo igitur, ex usu Scripturarum non semper aequipollent haec duo, Christus pro hisce hominibus mortuus est, et, Deus hosce homines per Christi mortem infallibiliter servandos praedestinavit: quia Scripturae saepe universim pronunciant, Christum pro omnibus mortuum; at nunquam universim affirmant, Deum praedestinasse omnes salvandos beneficio mortis Christi. Quorsum, quaeso, Spiritus Dei in morte Christi depredanda saepenumero uteretur terminis generalibus ad omnes illam extendentibus, in praedestinatione Divina celebranda semper uteretur terminis restrictivis ad paucos illam limitantibus, si mors Christi et praedestinatio Dei quoad homines aequalem ac eundem plane ambitum haberent? Secundo, Quia in sacris Scripturis eodem sensu dicitur Christus reconciliasse homines, dedisse semetipsum redemtionis pretium pro hominibus, quo mortuus fuisse pro hominibus; At dicitur reconciliasse et redemisse mundum, quatenus mundus habet in morte ejus constitutam et stabilitam universalem causam, qua per fidem apprehensa quivis mortalium potest actualiter Deo reconciliari et a reatu peccatorum liberari: Ergo etiam et recte mortuus pro omnibus concipitur, quatenus omnes in morte ejus habent vitam aeternam sibi expositam et per fidem parabilem. Sicut igitur cum dicitur Deus mundum in Christo reconciliasse, aut Christus dedisse se redemtionis pretium pro omnibus, non idcirco dicitur Deum omnes in Christo praedestinasse, ita nec ex eo quod pro omnibus crucifixus et mortuus affirmatur. Deinde sacrae Scripturae ad eos clare extendunt mortem Christi, tanquam beneficium applicabile ex Divina ordinatione, qui sua infidelitate illud sibi minime applicarunt. Extendunt ergo extra numerum electorum, ex quibus nemo est cui ad salutem non infallibiliter applicatur illud lytron. Huc faciunt illa loca Scripturarum in quibus increduli condemnandi pronunciantur, quia non crediderunt in nomen unigeniti Filii Dei, in mundum missi, ut servetur mundus per eum, Joh. iii. 17, 18; quia nolunt venire ad Christum, ut vitam habeant, Joh. v. 40; quia repellunt salutarem Dei sermonem, et seipsos vita aeterna indignos decernunt, Actor. xiii. 46; denique, quia propter incredulitatem derelicta promissione introeundi in requiem Dei, sua culpa fuerunt frustrati, Heb. iv. Haec omnia evincunt, ex sensu Scripturarum Christi mortem ac merita fuisse etiam ordinata in illorum usum qui eadem spreverunt et repulerunt: non autem fuisse talibus ordinata secundum infallibilem praedestinationis ordinem, ex eventu liquet: Ergo ad verificandum, quod Christus pro hisce aut illis hominibus mortuus dicatur secundum Scripturas, non requiritur necessario ut mortuus pro eis intelligatur cum absoluto proposito eosdem salvandi.