Section LII

From these things reduced to one sum we gather: I.

that it is rationally¹ and piously believed that God wills all men to be saved and has always willed it, and that the things which² are found in the body of the Scriptures concerning the salvation of all men cannot be rashly violated by any contrary argumentation.

II. That this divine will has always been present to men, since that³ which is most piously believed concerning the goodness of God, by which he wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, ought to be understood as nothing other than perpetual and eternal, according to those measures by which God knows how to heap special gifts upon general gifts. For⁴, as we have abundantly proved, such manifold and ineffable goodness always has provided and provides for the universality of men, so that neither does any of those who perish have an excuse available on the ground that the light of truth was denied to him, nor is anyone free to glory in his own justice.

III. That it is necessary to reckon as received from this benevolent will that God so disposed both orders, the natural and the supernatural, that there should not be lacking to men that which appeared necessary and opportune for avoiding damnation and acquiring felicity. “Heaven and earth,” the Anonymous author writes⁵,

and every creature which can be seen and understood, were disposed chiefly for this utility of the human race: that rational nature might be instructed in the worship and love of its Author. For although salvation is far from sinners, nevertheless nothing is empty of the presence and power of salvation itself.

And⁶ again:

Although, therefore, Scripture pronounces these and many similar things⁷ of the truth, nevertheless according to that same Scripture we believe and most piously confess that the care of divine providence was never lacking to the universality of men. Although it directed to piety by special institutions a people set apart for itself, it nevertheless withdrew the gifts of its goodness from no nation of men,

so that they were convicted of having received prophetic voices and legal precepts in the services and testimonies of the elements. Whence they were also made inexcusable, because they made the gifts of God into gods for themselves and venerated for worship the things which had been created for use.

Elsewhere, however, he says⁸:

The experiences of all ages have taught the just mercy of God and his merciful justice, which have never been lacking either for nourishing the bodies of men or for teaching and assisting their minds. For he has always rained upon the good and the evil; he has always made his sun rise upon the just and the unjust.

Whence⁹ we see that the aid of grace was not wholly withdrawn from any men; nor¹⁰ was that measure of general assistance, which from above has always been furnished to all men, denied even to the nations themselves. It is therefore manifest¹¹ that in diverse and innumerable ways God wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth; but those who come are directed by the aid of God, while those who do not come resist by their own pertinacity.