Augustine:

Classic Secondary Sources:

1) William Bridge (1600–1670):

And whereas he was charged by the Pelagians with denying that Christ suffered for the Redemption of all men, he plainly gave his sense therein thus. As for the greatness and sufficiency of the price, the blood of Christ is the Redemption of the whole world; but they that die without Faith and Regeneration, are aliens from Redemption. All men (saith he) are rightly said to be redeemed in respect of one nature of all, and the one cause of all, which the Lord did truly take upon him, and yet all are not delivered from captivity. The propriety of Redemption without doubt belongs unto them out of whom the Prince of this world is cast, who are not vessels of Satan, but the members of Christ. And herein Prosper doth totidem verbis concur with him. This ergo was the sense of the Orthodox (for by Augustin’s judgment you may measure the rest) in those times.

William Bridge, “To the Reader” in, John Brinsley, Gospel-Marrow, the Great God Giving Himself for the Sons of Men (London: Printed by S. Griffin for Richard Tomlines, and are to be sold at the Sign of the Sun and Bible near Pye-Corner, 1659), vii–viii. [No pagination; pages numbered manually from the beginning] [Credit to Tony for the find.]

2) Richard Baxter (1615-1691):

“As for Augustine and some Protestants, they oft deny that Christ redeemeth any but the Faithful, because the word Redemption is ambiguous, and sometimes taken for the price or ransome paid, and often for the very liberation of the captive Sinner. And whenever Austin denieth common Redemption, he taketh Redemption in this last sense, for actual deliverance. But he asserteth it in the first sense, that Christ died for all. Yea, he thought his death is actually applied to the true Justification and Sanctification of some Reprobates that fall away and perish, though the Elect only are so redeemed as to be saved. Read yourself in Augustine, Prosper and Fulgentius, and you will see this with your own eyes.”

Richard Baxter, Catholick Theologie (London: Printed by Robert White, for Nevill Simmons at the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1675), 2:57-58. [Credit to Tony for the find.]

Primary Sources:

None of the elect can perish:

1) “None of the Elect and Predestinate can Perish.” Of such says the apostle, “We know that to those that love God He works together all things for good, to them who are called according to His purpose; because those whom He before foreknew, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” Of these no one perishes, because all are elected. Augustine, “Anti-Pelagian Writings,” in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, 5:477.

Sins of believers (sample):

1) 18. How is it, by the way, that you use the words temple, altar, sacrifice, for the purpose of commending your own practices? If such things can be spoken of as properly belonging to true religion, they must constitute the true worship of the true God. And if there is such a thing as true sacrifice to the true God, which is implied in the expression divine honors, there must be some one true sacrifice of which the rest are imitations. On the one hand, we have the spurious imitations in the case of false and lying gods, that is, of devils, who proudly demand divine honors from their deluded votaries, as is or was the case in the temples and idols of the Gentiles. On the other hand, we have the prophetic intimations of one most true sacrifice to be offered for the sins of all believers, as in the sacrifices enjoined by God on our fathers; along with which there was also the symbolical anointing typical of Christ, as the name Christ itself means anointed. The animal sacrifices, therefore, presumptuously claimed by devils, were an imitation of the true sacrifice which is due only to the one true God, and which Christ alone offered on His altar. Thus the apostle says: “The sacrifices which the Gentiles offer, they offer to devils, and not to God.” He does not find fault with sacrifices, but with offering to devils. The Hebrews, again, in their animal sacrifices, which they offered to God in many varied forms, suitably to the significance of the institution, typified the sacrifice offered by Christ. This sacrifice is also commemorated by Christians, in the sacred offering and participation of the body and blood of Christ. The Manichæans understand neither the sinfulness of the Gentile sacrifices, nor the importance of the Hebrew sacrifices, nor the use of the ordinance of the Christian sacrifice. Their own errors are the offering they present to the devil who has deceived them. And thus they depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and to doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy. Augustine, ‘The Writings Against the Manichæans and Against the Donatists,” in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, 4:26-261.

Lamb of God (sample):

1) They, then, who see their own mind, in whatever way that is possible, and in it that Trinity of which I have treated as I could in many ways, and yet do not believe or understand it to be an image of God, see indeed a glass, but do not so far see through the glass Him who is now to be seen through the glass, that they do not even know the glass itself which they see to be a glass, i.e. an image. And if they knew this, perhaps they would feel that He too whose glass this is, should by it be sought, and somehow provisionally be seen, an unfeigned faith purging their hearts, that He who is now seen through a glass may be able to be seen face to face. And if they despise this faith that purifies the heart, what do they accomplish by understanding the most subtle disputes concerning the nature of the human mind, unless that they be condemned also by the witness of their own understanding? And they would certainly not so fail in understanding, and hardly arrive at anything certain, were they not involved in penal darkness, and burdened with the corruptible body that presses down the soul. And for what demerit save that of sin is this evil inflicted on them? Wherefore, being warned by the magnitude of so great an evil, they ought to follow the Lamb that taketh away the sins of the world. Augustine, On the Holy :Trinity; Doctrinal Treatises; Moral Treatises,” in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, 3:223.

2) 37. But regard the troops of virgins, holy boys and girls: this kind hath been trained up in Thy Church: there for Thee it hath been budding from its mother’s breasts; for Thy Name it hath loosed its tongue to speak, Thy Name, as through the milk of its infancy, it hath had poured in and hath sucked, no one of this number can say, “I, who before was a blasphemer, and persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained mercy, in that I did in being ignorant, in unbelief.” Yea more, that, which Thou commands not, but only did set forth, for such as would, to seize, saying, “Whoso can receive, let him receive;” they have seized, they have vowed, and, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, not for that Thou threatens, but for that Thou exhorts, they have made themselves eunuchs. To these cry out, let these hear Thee, in that Thou art “meek and lowly of heart.” Let these, by how much they are great, by so much humble themselves in all things, that they may find grace before Thee. They are just: but they are not, are they, such as Thou, justifying the ungodly? They are chaste: but them in sins their mothers nurtured in their wombs. They are holy, but Thou art also Holy of Holies. They are virgins, but they are not also born of virgins. They are wholly chaste both in spirit and in flesh: but they are not the Word made flesh. And yet let them learn, not from those unto whom Thou forgives sins, but from Thee Thyself, The Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world, in that Thou art “meek and lowly of heart.” Augustine, On the Holy :Trinity; Doctrinal Treatises; Moral Treatises,” in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, 3:430.

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Chrysostom:

Sins of “the Many” as opposed to all:

Ver. 28. “So Christ was once offered.” By whom offered? evidently by Himself. Here he says that He is not Priest only, but Victim also, and what is sacrificed. On this account are [the words] “was offered.” “Was once offered” (he says) “to bear the sins of many.” Why “of many,” and not “of all”? Because not all believed. For He died indeed for all, that is His part: for that death was a counterbalance against the destruction of all men. But He did not bear the sins of all men, because they were not willing. And what is [the meaning of] “He bare the sins”? Just as in the Oblation we bear up our sins and say, “Whether we have sinned voluntarily or involuntarily, do Thou forgive,” that is, we make mention of them first, and then ask for their forgiveness. So also was it done here. Where has Christ done this? Hear Himself saying, “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself.” (John xvii.19.) Lo! He bore the sins. He took them from men, and bore them to the Father; not that He might determine anything against them [mankind], but that He might forgive them. “Unto them that look for Him shall He appear” (he says) “the second time without sin unto salvation.” What is “without sin”? it is as much as to say, He sinneth not. For neither did He die as owing the debt of death, nor yet because of sin. But how “shall He appear”? To punish, you say. He did not however say this, but what was cheering; “shall He appear unto them that look for Him, without sin unto salvation.” So that for the time to come they no longer need sacrifices to save themselves, but to do this by deeds. Chrysostom, “Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and the Epistles to the Hebrews,” in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 14:447-448.

Sins of the world:

1) 2. On this account I trust that there may be a good hope; for God will not disdain to look upon such earnestness and zeal, nor will He suffer his servant to return without success. I know that when he has barely seen our pious Emperor, and been seen by him, he will be able at once by his very countenance to allay his wrath. For not only the words of the saints, but their very countenances are full of grace. And he is a person too endowed with abundant wisdom; and being well skilled in the divine laws, he will say to him as Moses said to God, “Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin;—and if not, slay me together with them.” For such are the bowels of the saints, that they think death with their children sweeter than life without them. He will also make the special season his advocate and shelter himself behind the sacred festival of the Passover; and will remind the Emperor of the season when Christ remitted the sins of the whole world. He will exhort him to imitate his Lord. He will also remind him of that parable of the ten thousand talents, and the hundred pence. I know the boldness of our father, that he will not hesitate to alarm him from the parable, and to say, “Take heed lest thou also hear it said in that day, ‘O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desirest me; you ought also to forgive thy fellow-servants!’ Thou dost

to thyself a greater benefit than them, since by pardoning these few offences thou gainest an amnesty for greater.” To this address he will add that prayer, which those who initiated him into the sacred mystery taught him to offer up, and say, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Chrysostom, “On the Priesthood; Ascetic Treatises; Select Homilies and Letters; Homilies on the Statutes,” in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 9:355.

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Aretius:

1) Benedict Aretius has similar expressions on1 Tim. ii. “Christ,” says he, “died for all, yet notwithstanding all do not embrace the benefit of his death, because by their own wickedness, and the corruption of their nature, they despise the offered grace.

Source: John Davenant, Dissertation on the Death of Christ, 338.

2) Observe then that, to whom the fruit of Christ’s death belongs, then in what that deliverance consists. That deliverance belongs to all who were subject to bondage in this life. Now we were all [subject], therefore this deliverance belongs to all. The deliverance also is said to be general or pertaining to all because it pertains to the whole human race, although all do not know or acknowledge the benefit, nor accept it with a grateful mind. Thus it comes to pass that this deliverance is efficacious only in the faithful—Ad Heb ii.

Source: “The Atonement of Christ,” in  Biblical Notes and Queries, (Edinburgh: George Adam Young & Co., 1869), 278-279.

Notes:  Richard Muller in his recent 2008 Mid-America lectures, Varieties of Hypothetical Universalist, has identified Aretius as a non-Amyraldian hypothetical universalist.

It must be kept in mind that very few of Aretius’ works have been translated into English and so we must now rely on secondary sources.

Biographical material:

Benedictus Aretius (1505-1574); studied at Strasburg and Marburg; served as professor of logic at Marburg and, beginning in 1564, as Wolfgang Musculus’ successor as professor of theology in Bern. His major dogmatic work was Examin theologicum (1557) and SS. theolgiae problemata, seu loci comunes (1573). Richard Muller,  Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics 1:42 [first edition].

Some titles by Aretius, demonstrating his influence:

Sermones tres de coena Domini.

In d. Mosis Pentateuchum, hoc est, priscam dei legem, Benedicti Aretii theologi Bernesnis commentarii breues ac dilucidi

Commentarii in Evangelivm Matthaei

Commentarii in euangelium Domini Nostri Iesv Christi secundum Marcum

Commentarii in evangelium Domini Nostri Iesu Christi secundùm Lucam

Commentarii in qvatvor Evangelistas : a Benedicto Aretio Bernensi … conscripti.

Commentarii in sacram Actuum Apostolicorum historiam : facili & perspicua methodo conscripti

Commentarii in Epistolam D. Pauli ad Romanos : facili et perspicua methodo conscripti

Commentarii in epistola D. Pauli ad Galatas

Commentarii in secundam epistolam D. Pauli ad Corinthios

Commentarii in Epistolas D. Pauli ad Philippenses, Colossenses et in utramque ad Thessal.

Commentarii in epistolas Pauli ad Timoth., ad Titum et ad Philem. … cum indice rerum memorabilium.

Commentarij in euangelium … secundum Ioannem

Mayhew:

Christ sent to redeem the world:

1) Now, if the Case be really such as has been now expressed, I would fain know what Kindness (if any at all) is showed to those that fail of Salvation: Or will it be said. That in the Revelation of a Way of Salvation by Jesus Christ, there Is no real Favor shown to any but those who shall eventually be saved? May we then tell those to whom we preach the Gospel, that unless they obtain eternal Life, God has shown them no real Kindness, in all that which has been done, of which we have an Account in the Gospel? Can we think that the maintaining of this would be to the Honor of divine Grace? For my Part, I cannot think that all that seeming Love which God manifests to Mankind, in sending his Son to redeem a sinful World, and setting up a Treaty of Peace among all those to whom the Gospel is preached, is no Kindness to such as are not eventually saved. Such an Opinion as this seems not to agree with such Texts as these which follow, viz. John 3. 16. 1 John 2. 2. and Chap. 4. 19. so Luk. 2. 10,11. 2 Cor. 5, 18-20, and many other Places. Experience Mayhew, Grace Defended in a Most Plea For an Important Truth; Namely, That the offer of Salvation made to Sinners in the Gospel comprises in it an Offer of the Grace given in Regeneration (Boston: Printed by B. Green, and Company, for D. Henchman, in Cornhil, 1744), 141. [Some spelling modernized; underlining mine.]

Man’s redemption:

1) 3) It further fallows, on the Hypothesis here insisted on. That our first Parents, and all their Posterity, did, by Means of the Interposition of a Mediator to redeem and save them, immediately become Subjects of his mediatorial Kingdom. Mankind had, ’till then, been held fast under a Covenant of Works, to be dealt with according to the Tenor of that Covenant; but now the Son of God, (having been appointed a Mediator from Eternity) was promised to be a Savior, in Gen. 3. 15. and so the Decree was declared, as in Psal. 2. 7, and his Undertaking this glorious Work revealed; and began to have its proper Efficacy, he being the Lamb virtually slain from the Foundation of the World. Not that Mankind were hereby immediately discharged from the Guilt of Sin, and entitled to eternal Life; for they remained still subject to the Penalty threatened in the broken Covenant of Works ‘till something might be farther done for them, pursuant to the mentioned Undertaking of the Redeemer. But what I intend, is, that they immediately became rightful Subjects of that Kingdom which the Son of God had, as Mediator, committed to him. and which he was afterwards to deliver up to his Father, as in 1 Cor. 15. 24. It was by paying the Price of Man’s Redemption, that our Lord obtained such a Right to rule and govern all those, by his Laws and Ordinances, who are the Objects of his Purchase: And all the Laws given to Mankind since the Fall, are properly the Laws of the Mediator, by him given to them, the Price of whole Redemption he undertook to pay, and in due Time did so, according to his Covenant with his Father: And according to these Laws of his, he actually governs the World, blessing and rewarding the Obedient, and punishing the Disobedient, as is in the holy Scriptures abundantly declared. As for the Covenant of Works, that being once broken, Mankind stood in no other Relation to it than this, that they must undergo the Punishment threatened in it, unless in some Way consistent with the Tenor of it, they might obtain a Discharge there from. God never after the Fall of Adam, proposed the Covenant of Works to sinful Men, as a Way in which they might obtain eternal Life; though he has sometimes given them a Representation or the Nature and Tenor of that Covenant, that he might convince them how impassible it Is to obtain Happiness by Obedience to it, as in Gal 3. 10–12. Yet sincere Obedience to the moral Law is required in the new Covenant and is, according to the Nature and. Tenor of it, necessary to Man’s Happiness: Rev, 22.14.

4) It is obvious, on the Hypothesis. for which I plead, That all. Adam’s Off-spring are brought into the World in a salvable Condition. In such a Condition, I mean, as that, in a Way consistent with divine Justice, and the Tenor of the first Covenant, they may be eternally saved. Nor do I intend this in such a Sense only, as wherein the same may be verified concerning sinful Mankind, before (if I may so speak) a Ransom was found for them, because it was in the Power of God to find out and provide a Way for their salvation; which, if he could not have done, no Sinner could ever have been saved.

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