XLVII. The doctrine of the author of *On the Calling of All Nations* is examined more accurately

But that God is present to all so that he may find in them works which he may choose and, having chosen, crown, neither do the preceding things permit us to doubt nor does the author¹ of the distinguished work On the Calling of All Nations suffer us to bring into controversy.

For he begins his work in precisely these words²:

Among the defenders of free choice and the preachers of the grace of God, a great and difficult question has long been debated. For it is asked whether God wills all men to be saved; and because this cannot be denied,

it is inquired why the will of the Almighty is not fulfilled. And when this is said to come about according to the will of men, grace seems³ to be excluded; and if grace is rendered to merits, it is evident that it is not a gift but a debt. Whence it is again asked why this gift, without which no one is saved, is not conferred upon all by him who wills all to be saved. And thus no end is found to contrary disputations, so long as that which is manifest is not distinguished from that which is hidden.

Among the things which are manifest he reckons that God wills all men to be saved, since this is a truth which cannot be denied. Whence, after a lengthy disputation⁴ concerning nature and grace, he thus⁵ proceeds:

All contentions having been removed and rejected which the contentiousness of intemperate disputations generates, it is manifest that there are three things to which adherence ought to be given in this question, concerning which we begin the second volume. One: that it must be professed that God wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Another: that it must not be doubted that each man arrives at that very knowledge of the truth and reception of salvation not by his own merits but by the aid and operation of divine grace. The third: that it must be confessed that the depth of the judgments of God cannot be penetrable to human understanding, and that it ought not to be inquired why he does not save all men who wills all men to be saved; because, if that which cannot be known is not sought, no cause of strife will remain between the first and second definitions, but both will be preached and both believed with a secure and tranquil faith. For God, with⁶ whom there is no iniquity and all of whose ways are mercy and truth, is the good Creator and the just Orderer of all men; condemning no one undeservedly, liberating no one deservedly; punishing our things when he punishes the guilty, bestowing his own when he makes men just; so that⁷ the mouth of those who speak iniquities may be stopped, and God may be justified

in his words and may prevail when he is judged. For neither is the complaint of the condemned just, nor the arrogance of the justified true, whether the former says that he did not merit punishment or the latter asserts that he merited grace.

Therefore, the article by which we profess that God wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth belongs to Christian faith and Christian preaching; and that it is beyond controversy either that no one arrives at that very knowledge of the truth and reception of salvation by his own merits but by the aid and operation of divine grace, or that not all are saved by him who wills all men to be saved, is in no way opposed to this article.

For it is one thing to know well what thou believest, and another to possess the way and rationale by which thou mayest mutually compose and bring into harmony the individual heads of doctrine which thou professest. The former is proper to the believer; the latter surpasses the force and faculty of human understanding, to which the depth of the judgments of God cannot be penetrable. Yet this darkness ought not to prevent that which is certain from being believed most firmly and God from being held to be the good Creator and just Orderer of all men: the good Creator because he wills all men to be saved; the just Orderer because he condemns no one undeservedly⁸, and no less punishes our things when he punishes the guilty than he bestows his own when he makes men just.