Section CXLI

If all these things are weighed in mind and soul, it will be evident: I. that Paulinus proves that divine will which is customarily called first and antecedent. For he mentions it as many times, and proves it as many times, as he repeats this formula: that God, as far as lies in him, wills every man to be saved. It will then be evident, II. that he ascribes a twofold principal and more notable endowment to this first and antecedent will: namely, universal amplitude and an intrinsic efficacy, from which spontaneously flow the means and helps by which the damages inflicted upon the human race are repaired and the ability to obtain beatitude is supplied.

And certainly III. Paulinus ascribes universal amplitude to it, whether a) when he teaches that God, as far as lies in him, embraces the salvation of all men; or b) when he testifies that the whole world is its object; or c) when he discloses its origin and teaches that it is no other than that love by which God is believed to be the Father of all and by which he loves his work in every man. Then IV. he equally ascribes to it a manifold efficacy, by which it came about that the Only-begotten descended to us and assumed our infirmities, that we might ascend to him and be reformed to original glory. But therefore, V. according to Paulinus, neither do all ascend to God nor are all reformed to original glory, because a) although God is lavish toward us from his own resources, we nevertheless are envious and avaricious toward ourselves concerning those things which he himself made ours; and because b) we rebel against the law established by him, by which he willed that through free cooperation we should make him the debtor to us of his own gifts.

Those things which Jerome confirms once and again differ in no way from these. For, weighing the divine words in Ezekiel¹, “Is my will the death of the impious, says the Lord God, and not that he be converted from his ways and live?” he writes²:

Therefore the will of the Lord is that all be saved³ and come to the knowledge of the truth. But wherever the sentence of God appears severe and fierce, it condemns not men but sins.

But concerning this benevolent will of God he hands down things most similar when, after setting forth both meanings of the words in Hosea⁴, both the literal⁵ and that according to ἀναγωγή, he proceeds⁶:

According to the tropological sense, this is brought forth: that God wills both heretics to be saved, and ecclesiastical sinners, and all to be called by their own name.

For if, he says elsewhere⁷:

He spared the nations, which were unwilling to believe his law, and was unwilling to impute their iniquities to those who are left over and remain from the people, nor did he bring his wrath upon them as a testimony of their just punishment; what will he do concerning his own flock, which is fed in the midst of Carmel and in Bashan and Gilead? For, willing mercy, he turns back and will have mercy upon us; and he himself will bear our grave sins and the iniquities which sit upon⁸ the talent of lead, and will sink them in the sea and will not cause them to appear. He will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham: so that in Christ he may render his truth to the supplanting people, young and always placed in struggle, and may bestow mercy upon the multitude of nations (for Abraham is called the father of many nations), just as he swore to those who became fathers of our faith according to the ancient days: that from the whole multitude of men he should save some in truth, others in mercy.

For no one is deprived of the faculty of attaining salvation except him who deprives himself of it.

Jerome splendidly declares this in his commentary upon these words of Paul⁹, “In whom we also have been called by lot, predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,” writing¹⁰:

The word “inheritance” and “lot,” through which we came into the portion of Christ, shows that we have migrated from one power to another, and that, according to what is written in Deuteronomy¹¹, “When the Most High divided the nations, when he scattered the sons of Adam,” we were transferred from the dominion of the angels to the portion of the Lord. And they indeed held what belonged to another, either entrusted to them or usurped by them. But this one¹² received his own and, ascending on high, led captivity captive; that is, those who had formerly been taken captive unto perdition he himself took captive unto life, that he might lead them back on high.

And captivity is, in a manner, captured when those who had formerly been captured are liberated through a second captivity. It must be considered that here also προορισμός and πρόθεσις, that is, predestination and purpose, are placed together, according to which God works all things according to the counsel of his will. Not that all things which happen in the world are accomplished by the will and counsel of God—for otherwise even evils could be imputed to God—but that all things which he does he does by counsel and will, namely, because they are full both of reason and of the power of the doer. We men will to do many things by counsel, but the effect by no means follows the will. But no one can resist him so as to prevent him from doing all things which he has willed. Yet he wills those things whatsoever are full of reason and counsel: he wills all to be saved¹³ and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But because no one is saved without his own will (for we are possessed of free choice), he wills us to will the good, so that, when we shall have willed, he too may will to fulfill his own counsel in us.