XXXII. A comparison of the formulas which the Greeks and Latins employed; a most similar, indeed the same, doctrine, although in different formulas, handed down by both

And behold to what the division which we have undertaken to expound and illustrate amounts; behold what truths of the highest moment and altogether the gravest weight are contained in it. The rationale is indeed manifold, and the formulas by which Greek and Latin writers express and depict each will are diverse; but the thing which all have before their eyes, which they teach, and which they confirm is one and the same.

The formulas are diverse, since that will of God which Chrysostom, Damascene, Oecumenius, and Theophylact call θέλημα πρῶτον, προηγούμενον, εὐδοκίαν, ἐπιθυμίαν, θέλημα σφοδρόν, πεῖσμα, θέλημα χωρὶς αἰτίας, θέλημα ἀπὸ ἀγάπης μόνης, θέλημα ἀγαθότητος, θέλημα ὅπερ Θεὸς ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ θέλει, θέλημα ἐκ Θεοῦ ὄν, θέλημα καθαρὸν καὶ πρωτότυπον, the first, principal, and preceding will; good pleasure; desire; the intense will; the firm determination of mind; the will without an extrinsic cause; the will proceeding from charity alone; the will of benignity; the will which comes forth and bursts forth spontaneously from God; the pure and archetypal will; each Anselm, of Canterbury and of Laon, and Rupert and Bernard call that very same will the approving will, the will of mercy, the will of love, the will implanted in God and proper to him and flowing spontaneously from his heart.

The formulas are diverse, since the will which among the Greeks is θέλημα δεύτερον, θέλημα ἑπόμενον, θέλημα κατὰ συγκατάβασιν, θέλημα μετ᾽ αἰτίας, θέλημα ἐξ ἡμετέρας αἰτίας, θέλημα κατὰ παραχώρησιν, θέλημα κατὰ συμβεβηκός, θέλημα κατ᾽ ἀνάγκην, the second will, the consequent will, the will from condescension, the will not without a cause, indeed the will which derives its cause from us, the will of permission, the will which accrues to God and is as it were forced from him by necessity, is called and is among the Latins the efficient will, the permitting will, the will of judgment and justice, the will which follows in the second place, the will which takes its cause and origin from us.

Yet under this diversity of expressions and formulas there is one head of doctrine which is handed down, one complex truth which is taught. The parts and, I would almost say, the elements of this complex truth are held to be these: I. there is in God a universal salvific will which excepts no one and comprehends absolutely all men within its scope; II. this will, entirely gratuitous and proceeding from the fountain of divine mercy and benignity, is not sterile and unfruitful but efficacious and active, and by it God so solicitously assists men with internal and external aids that nothing is lacking to them which may appear necessary or opportune for attaining salvation; III. the benevolence of this salvific will is so great that if the attainment of salvation depended upon it alone, without doubt all men would be saved; but IV. not all are therefore saved, and many perish, because it is indeed the first and principal cause, but not likewise the sole and adequate cause; for V. to the very attainment of salvation it is required in addition that men not fail themselves, that they not fail the divine benefits¹ by which they are anticipated, and that they not neglect the condition divinely established, by which it has been provided that among men possessed of their own right and masters of themselves only those enjoy the end of the eudaemonic order who have not despised the prescription of the moral order; but if any VI. have despised it, God decrees punishments against them by his second and consequent will and punishes them with the decreed penalties; whence VII. divine providence toward men is administered by a twofold order and almost a twofold hand,

administered by the order and hand of mercy and charity, and administered by the order and hand of severity and justice. Yet it is not administered in the same manner, but first by the order of mercy and charity, which precedes, and then by the order of severity and justice, which follows and regards only those who, voluntarily straying from the prior order², despise the riches τῆς χρηστότητος αὐτοῦ, καὶ τῆς ἀνοχῆς, καὶ τῆς μακροθυμίας, “of his goodness and patience and long-suffering,” and according to³ their hardness and hardened mind treasure up for themselves ὀργὴν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ὀργῆς, καὶ ἀποκαλύψεως καὶ δικαιοκρισίας τοῦ Θεοῦ, “wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation and just judgment of God,” and render themselves⁴ σκεύη ὀργῆς, κατηρτισμένα εἰς ἀπώλειαν, “vessels of wrath fitted for destruction.”