Here, V., it will contribute not a little to a fuller explanation of the whole matter to know both whence Prosper deduced the universal amplitude of the death of Christ and what effects he ascribed to it. As regards the former, I see that the death of Christ was held1 by Prosper to be universal: a) on account of the true assumption of human nature and the one nature of all, since there is absolutely no one among all men whose nature was not assumed in Christ our Lord; b) on account of the one cause of all and the common perdition of all in the first man; and c) on account of the magnitude and power of the price. But which of these three causes is not altogether universal or does not embrace all? Each one embraces all and each, and there is not even one man who is not contained within their compass. From this, therefore, Prosper deduces the amplitude of the death of Christ, whence it clearly appears that there is no one who is excluded from its benefit.
But from what benefit? Plainly, a manifold one, just as the effects2 which Prosper ascribes to it are manifold. For, on his authority, the following must be credited to the death of Christ: a) the reformation of human nature, which Christ therefore assumed in himself, that he might exempt it from the necessity of condemnation; b) the institution of a universal means, so that all who should be participants in it might escape the bond of sin and death; c) the faculty furnished to all, so that only those should remain in darkness and incur the second death who are unwilling to be redeemed and repel the light; d) the price paid for the whole world, from which only those are alien who,
delighted with captivity, were unwilling to be redeemed, or after redemption returned to the same servitude; e) finally, the cup which has in itself, as regards the potency of the price and its power, the capacity to benefit all, but which, if it is not drunk, does not heal.
Therefore, the death of Christ is universal in no other manner than the salvific will of God is and is believed to be universal; and just as the latter, so the former is fruitful, pours itself forth into various and manifold effects, and does not permit any man justly to complain either of the necessity of perishing or of a withdrawn power of obtaining salvation. The human race owes to both that it belongs to the order of reformation, not of condemnation, and to a mass not condemned but reformed. It is indeed of itself and from original guilt a condemned mass; but by the merciful will of God and by redemption through Christ it came about that it became a reformed mass and, furnished with heavenly aids, aspired to reparation and to salvation, which is the crown of persevering reparation.