CCLXV. Corollary LXI

COROLLARY LXI.

So great is the evidence of the Scriptures and of Tradition concerning this matter that even the Calvinists themselves seem to be stirred and moved by it. They therefore devised a distinction which I judge it worthwhile to bring to light and to set forth in their very own words. Thus the Batavian Calvinists in the Specimen of Amsterdam¹ say: “Although the passion of Christ was in itself sufficient for redeeming all men, nevertheless he did not, according to the counsel, mandate, and commission of his Father, die for all men.” Nor do the delegates of the classis of Walcheren speak otherwise: “Our men teach that the death of Christ is indeed sufficient, since, on account of the dignity of the person, it is of infinite price for abolishing all the sins of all men; nevertheless, he was delivered to death only for the elect.” Hence Beza, in his theological theses²: “We confess this oblation to be of so great a value that it could have made satisfaction for infinite worlds, much more for the individual men of one world, if God had willed to have mercy upon all of them and had sent his Son for all. Nevertheless, whether you consider the counsel of God, or the effect of the passion, or both, he in no way died for the impious.”

I omit the other things pertaining to the same subject which Piscator³, Triglantius⁴, and Kimedoncius⁵ teach, and which Jansenius, excerpting from their books, teaches, who employs the same distinction⁶ and repeats it; and I ask instead in what category it ought to be placed. But I judge that there is no need of many words for anyone to see that it is preposterous, and that it was devised with this intention: not that the decrees of Scripture and Tradition might be explained, but that a most shameful error might be covered as though by some mask.

Indeed, what is posited by this distinction, and what is denied? It is posited that the blood of Christ, as being the blood of the θεανθρώπου, God-man, was of itself and ὄντως, really, sufficient for redeeming even innumerable worlds. But it is denied: 1) that God the Father gave the Son with the will that he should suffer for all; and 2) that God the Son underwent death for all. The Calvinists and Jansenists deny these things as often as with one voice they proclaim⁷: that Christ did not pour forth his blood for the impious; that it is impious and blasphemous to affirm that anyone for whom Christ made satisfaction could be damned; that, according to the purpose of the Father, Christ was born, prayed, died, and suffered for the elect alone; that it is wonderfully absurd that Christ should have redeemed all and each on his part and reconciled them to God, yet that many of them, as regards the outcome, should be damned; that the blood and death of Christ necessarily profit those for whom he poured forth that blood and died; and that for those whom they in no way profit, he neither poured forth his blood nor died.

Come now, turn your mind to the tradition which we have exhibited and whose ratified and fixed δόγματα, dogmas, we have explained. Do these things seem to you to agree with Calvinist and Jansenist stratagems? Indeed, they differ from one another so greatly that they attack one another diametrically—

—For although it is common to the orthodox Fathers and to the Calvinists and Jansenists that the Lord’s blood, considered in itself and ὄντως, really, is of infinite price and infinite power, nevertheless what the latter deny, the former unanimously attest and confirm⁸. For they maintain: 1) that there was no other cause for sending the Only-begotten into this world than the merciful will of God the Father, a will beneficent toward all men; and 2) that the Only-begotten came into the world and underwent the cross and death in order that he might fulfill the paternal will and, as the new Adam, might most fully repair the ruin brought about by the transgression of the former Adam. Cyril of Alexandria writes excellently⁹:

ἐπὶ γὰρ πᾶσαν τὴν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἡ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν εὐεργεσία χωρεῖ· ὅτι καθάπερ τῷ προπάτορι Ἀδάμ, καὶ τῆς ἀρᾶς ἐκοινωνήσαμεν, καὶ γεγόναμεν ἅπαντες ὑπὸ τὸν θάνατον ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνος, οὕτω τοῦ σωτῆρος Χριστοῦ καὶ τὴν νίκην οἰκειούμεθα, καὶ τῆς δόξης συμμεθέξομεν, καὶ τῆς βασιλείας συναπολαύσομεν· καὶ τούτων μάρτυς ὁ μακάριος Παῦλος, τῶν τε παλαιῶν καὶ τῶν νέων ἀναμιμνήσκων, καὶ δεικνὺς τῶν προτέρων λύσιν γεγενημένην, τὴν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν δικαιοσύνην.

“For the benefit of our Savior extends to the whole nature of men; so that, just as we shared in the curse of our progenitor Adam, and all came, as he did, under the dominion of death, so we make the victory of Christ the Savior our own, share in the glory, and rejoice together in the kingdom. And the witness of these things is blessed Paul, when he calls to mind at once the old and the new, and shows that the dissolution of the former things was accomplished through the justice of our Savior.”

But after adducing suitable testimonies of the Apostle concerning this matter¹⁰, he prefixes this lemma to the following chapter¹¹: ὅτι κοινὴ τῶν ἀνθρώπων εὐεργεσία ἡ τοῦ σωτῆρος οἰκονομία, that the incarnation of the Savior was a common benefit toward men.