Section CCXCIII

In order to express this will of procuring salvation, Paul uses the word σωθῆναι¹, saying: “who wills all—”

—men σωθῆναι.” But what force must be assigned to this word? Certainly σώζω generally has the same force² as “I render someone safe and unharmed, and rescue and liberate him from evil, calamity, and danger”; but the passive form is the same as to be preserved, to be rescued, to be liberated from evil and danger. Therefore σωθῆναι will be the same as to be preserved, or, as the Vulgate interpreter has it, to be saved. But this can be understood both of an action begun and of an action completed and perfect. It is therefore worthwhile to determine accurately which of these two acceptations must be preferred. But the character³ of the aorist tense, such as σωθῆναι is, cuts off the difficulty and shows that σωθῆναι must be understood of an action complete in all its parts, and cannot be more fittingly rendered than “to be safe.” For just as in Herodotus⁴, ὀπίσω ἐς οἶκον σωθῆναι is to have arrived home whole and safe, and in Euripides⁵, σωθῆναι κακῶν has the force of to have been preserved from evils, so Paul’s words, ὃς πάντας ἀνθρώπους θέλει σωθῆναι, yield this sense: “who wills all men to have been preserved, to be happy, and actually to possess that preservation whose power and faculty of attaining they have received.”

From this most true commentary, and one expressed most accurately according to the propriety of the words, these things flow of their own accord. It follows I. that God’s salvific will is borne toward the very salvation of all men, and that salvation obtained by all men is the object which the salvific will of itself intends. It follows II. that those are greatly deceived who hold not salvation itself but only the means fitted for obtaining salvation as the proper object of the salvific will. God indeed wills the means by which salvation is acquired; but principally he wills salvation, and for the sake of salvation he both disposes the means and most benignly imparts them. It follows III. that Paul therefore wrote, “who wills all men σωθῆναι, to be saved,” but by no means “who wills σώζειν, to save, all men,” lest suspicion occupy anyone’s—

—mind that God is not only the principal but also the full and adequate cause of salvation. God indeed is the principal origin of salvation, and of himself and by his merciful goodness he wills salvation and bestows the means by which salvation is acquired; but he does not grant salvation itself unless subordinate causes also contribute their work and apply their zeal. A perspicuous argument of this supernal ordination appears from the fact that God, who of himself wills all men to be saved, likewise wills that prayers be poured forth ὑπὲρ πάντων ἀνθρώπων, for all men, and that what is written be fulfilled⁶: “Pray for one another, that you may be saved.”