And indeed, considering the riches of divine goodness, Ambrose among other things1 writes:
Receive another thing: “How good,” he says2, “is the God of Israel to the upright of heart!” Is God, then, not good to all? He indeed is good to all, because he is the Savior of all, especially of the faithful. And therefore the Lord Jesus came that he might save what had perished; for he came that he might take away the sin of the world and cure our wounds. But because not all desire medicine, but many flee it lest the force of the ulcer be pierced by medicines, therefore he cures the willing; he does not constrain the unwilling. Those, therefore, who desire medicine receive health; but those who reject the physician and do not seek him cannot perceive the goodness of the physician which they do not experience. But he who is treated is also healed, and therefore the physician is good to those whom he has healed. God, therefore, is good to those whose sins he has forgiven. But he who has an incurable sin in the ulcer of his mind—how can he judge good the physician whom he flees? Beautifully, therefore, the Apostle, as we premised, explained3 both that God is good to all, who wills all men to be saved, and that the prerogative of divine goodness is preserved especially for the faithful, whom both the will and grace of God assist.
This prerogative, nevertheless, does not prevent the prophet4 from having spoken most truly: “The earth is full of thy mercy, O Lord; teach me thy justifications.” For, according to Ambrose’s interpretation5:
The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord, because remission of sins has been given to all. The sun is commanded to rise over all. And this sun indeed rises daily over all. But that mystical sun of justice has risen for all, came for all, suffered for all, and rose again for all; but he suffered for this reason, that he might take away the sin of the world. But if anyone—
—does not believe in Christ, he defrauds himself of the general benefit; just as if someone with closed windows excludes the rays of the sun, the sun did not for that reason fail to rise for all because he defrauded himself of its warmth. But that which belongs to the sun preserves its prerogative; that which belongs to the imprudent man excludes from himself the grace of the common light. Rain is over all, and this is attributed to divine mercy, because it rains upon the just and the unjust.
But lest those infected with the Calvinian or Jansenian plague dare to twist these things away from their legitimate signification and reduce what is said of the universal and active offering both of the price and of grace to a universal and from itself infinite value, two things especially prevent them. The one is contained in the force of the words themselves and in the sequence and course of the whole discourse; the other consists in those things which Ambrose immediately6 adds, saying:
Perhaps you may say: for what reason was it not said, “Heaven is full of the mercy of the Lord”? Because there are also spiritual wickednesses in heavenly places. But they do not pertain7 to the common right of the indulgence of God and the remission of sins, for whom eternal fire is reserved. And those things which belong to heavenly powers or ministries, although sustained by the help of the Lord, nevertheless do not need his mercy to so great an extent as those things which are lower and earthly; for they are not clothed with the covering of flesh, in which there is the enticement of frequent error.
Do you hear the spiritual wickednesses rejected and excluded from the remission of sins, and the common right of indulgence which is bestowed upon all men denied to them? Do you hear the immense distinction by which, as regards reparation, the spiritual wickednesses are separated from men? Yet these things would be fallacious and altogether preposterous if, with the value of the offering considered from itself, no account were taken of the fruits which flow from it.