With these things explained as was fitting, it will not be difficult to recount in a certain compendium the interior attributes and properties of the first and antecedent will. It is, namely, a true and sincere will, intimate to God, spontaneously blossoming from the divine goodness itself, full of benignity and desirous love, and therefore efficacious and profuse in doing good.
But with these there is joined another and most noble property, which pertains to knowing the amplitude of the first will and shows that there is no man who is excluded from its scope and whom it does not embrace and cherish in its bosom and lap. Concerning this amplitude and extension, restricted by no limits, Chrysostom is a witness, saying: θέλημα πρῶτον, τὸ μὴ ἀπολέσθαι ἡμαρτηκότας, “the first will is that those who have sinned should not perish.” Which ones? Or how many? All without limit who have sinned.
He is a witness when he interprets the apostolic phrase, κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ, “according to the good pleasure of his will,” as: σφόδρα ἐφίεται, σφόδρα ἐπιθυμεῖ τῆς σωτηρίας τῆς ἡμετέρας, “he earnestly wishes, he earnestly desires our salvation.” For the pronoun “our,” which he employs, is indefinite; it extends to all men, and there is none among them who is not signified.
Oecumenius observed this and, moreover, wrote according to the mind and opinion of Chrysostom1:
Ταῦτα δὲ πάντα ἐποίησεν εἰς ἡμᾶς, δι᾽ ἄλλο μὲν οὐδέν, πλὴν ὅτι ἠβουλήθη καὶ σφόδρα ἐπεθύμησε χάριτι σῶσαι τοὺς ἐπὶ γῆς, πρὸς τὸ ἐκ τούτου ἐπαινεῖσθαι καὶ δοξάζεσθαι τὴν ἁγίαν αὐτοῦ δόξαν τῆς χάριτος.
He performed all these things toward us for no other reason than that he willed and earnestly desired to save by grace those who are upon the earth, so that from this the holy glory of his grace might be praised and glorified.
Those, namely, who are expressed by the pronouns “us” and “our” are the same whom Oecumenius calls τοὺς ἐπὶ γῆς, “those who are upon the earth.” But who from the whole human race is not comprehended within the scope of this phrase? The first and principal will of God is therefore universal.
I know not whether this can be demonstrated more evidently by any other argument than by disclosing its origin. For whence does it flow and arise? From nowhere other than ἀπὸ ἀγαθότητος μόνης, “from goodness alone.” But God is of himself good, not to these or those, but to all and each; this we both understand by reason and are taught by the authority of the Scriptures, in which we read2: טוב יהוה לכל, χρηστὸς Κύριος τοῖς σύμπασι, “the Lord is good to all.” Concerning these words Chrysostom asks3, τί ἐστι τοῖς σύμπασι; “What does that expression ‘to all’ mean?” And he replies: καὶ τοῖς ἁμαρτωλοῖς καὶ τοῖς ἐν παρανομίαις ζῶσιν, οὐχὶ τῷ Ἄβελ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ Κάϊν· πάντα γὰρ ἀπὸ φιλανθρωπίας ἔργα, “both to sinners and to those living in iniquity, not only to Abel but also to Cain; for all his works proceed from the love by which he is borne toward men.” Therefore he did not hesitate in any way to affirm that, if election and salvation depended ἀπὸ ἀγάπης μόνης, “upon the charity of God alone,” ἐχρῆν ἅπαντας σωθῆναι, “it would be necessary that absolutely all be saved.”