Cap. 2 Ratio 4: All who hear the Gospel owe gratitude to Christ as Redeemer
If all mortals, as soon as the doctrine of the Gospel concerning Christ the Redeemer sustaining death for the sins of human beings becomes known to them, are bound to render gratitude and obedience to Christ himself, then it is certain that this work of the Redeemer offering himself as a sacrifice to God is to be considered as a benefit applicable promiscuously to all. For there is no cause why we should say that those are bound to gratitude, or to any acts of obedience whatever, by reason of the death of Christ, who are in every way most shut out from that benefit. Yet the Apostle testifies that any human beings whatever can be stirred to obedience by this very argument. For to any human beings whatever it can truly be said, after this mystery of Christ’s death has been made known to them, what is found in (1 Corinthians 6:20): You were bought with a price; glorify God in your body and in your spirit. Likewise also (2 Corinthians 5:15): He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.
Unless the death of Christ is understood as a remedy applicable to all, that foundation on which evangelical ministers build exhortations of this kind will always be uncertain and often false. Always uncertain, because it cannot be clear to human beings who the elect are. Often false, whenever it is applied to the non-elect, who on this title of redemption are not bound to live to Christ unless it be presupposed that that sacrifice offered by Christ for the redemption of the world is applicable to them. Indeed Christ himself could not by right of his death claim for himself a certain supreme lordship over each and every person, unless his death, according to God’s ordination, were a merit applicable to all unto salvation. Since therefore Christ died and lived again for this, that he might be Lord both of the living and of the dead (Romans 14:9), we ought, at least as to the right and power of saving application, to extend his death to all — although the Spirit of Christ (who breathes where he wills) gives to human beings the faculty and will to apply, and even the very fruit of the death applied, by a decree of special mercy.
Latin
Si omnes mortales, statim atque illis innotescit doctrina Evangelii de Christo redemtore mortem ob peccata hominum sustinente, teneantur ad gratitudinem et obsequium praestandum ipsi Christo, tum certum est hoc opus Redemtoris seipsum in hostiam Deo offerentis considerandum ut beneficium omnibus promiscue applicabile: Nulla enim causa est cur dicamus illos teneri ad gratitudinem, aut ad quaevis obsequia praestanda, ratione mortis Christi, qui ab illo beneficio sunt omnibus modis exclusissimi: At Apostolus testatur quosvis homines hoc ipso argumento excitari posse ad obedientiam. Nam quibusvis hominibus vere dici potest post patefactum illis hoc mysterium mortis Christi quod habetur 1 Cor. vi. 20. Empti estis pretio: glorificate Deum in corpore vestro et spiritu vestro. Item et illud 2 Cor. v. 15. Pro omnibus mortuus est, ut qui vivant posthac non sibi vivant, sed ei qui ipsis mortuus est, et resurrexit. Nisi Christi mors remedium universis applicabile intelligatur, semper erit incertum et saepe falsum illud fundamentum cui ministri Evangelici hujusmodi hortationes superstruunt. Semper incertum; quia hominibus constare non potest quinam sunt electi. Saepe falsum; quoties nimirum adhibetur non-electis, qui ex hoc titulo redemtionis non tenentur vivere Christo, nisi praesupponatur hostiam illam a Christo oblatam pro redemtione mundi esse illis applicabilem. Imo ipse Christus jure mortis suae non posset in omnes et singulos sibi vendicare supremam quandam dominationem, nisi mors ejus juxta ordinationem Dei esset meritum omnibus applicabile ad salutem. Cum igitur ad hoc Christus mortuus fuerit et revixerit, ut et vivis et mortuis dominetur, Rom. xiv. 9. debemus, saltem quoad jus et potestatem salutiferae applicationis, ejus mortem ad omnes extendere: quamvis Spiritus Christi (qui spirat ubi vult) det hominibus facultatem et voluntatem applicandi, atque ipsum adeo fructum mortis applicatae, ex specialis misericordiae decreto.
About this text
New English, free to read. Open any section below.
English follows locked 1650 Cambridge Latin of De morte Christi Cap. 1-6 opening (origin + Thesis 1 + Cap. 2 Rat. 1-ultima + Cap. 3 Satisfit through Obj. 17 + Cap. 4 Thesis 2 tip through Mem. 1 close + Cap. 4 Mem. 2 through Mem. 3 tip + Cap. 4 Mem. 3 possible-faith through Thesis 2 close + Cap. 5 Thesis 3 tip through Mem. 2 Scripture close + Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Rat. 1-4 + Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Fathers tip + Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Huberiana objections tip through Obj. 3 Solut close + Cap. 5 Mem. 2 elect-from-eternity objections tip through Obj. 3 Solut close + Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Scripture elect objections tip through Cap. 5 thesis close + Cap. 6 opening tip through Arg. 1 close before Arg. 2), reconstructed from the Internet Archive PDF (pdftotext + tesseract) of the Roger Daniel folio with DjVu OCR check. The 1683 reprint was not used as copy-text. No modern English was copied.
Catalogue & scope
Partial through De praedestinatione Cap. 1 subject tip. Cap. 1 mid-Thesis+ remain.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De morte Christi Cap. 1-5 densify through Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Fathers tip (Daniel 1650) (Latin)
- Print Facsimile Internet Archive PDF of the 1650 Cambridge folio (Latin)
- Checked print Internet Archive DjVu OCR of the 1650 Cambridge folio (Latin)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.