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| In What Sense Does the Apostle Say that ’God Will Have All Men to Be Saved,’ When, as a Matter of Fact, All are Not Saved?
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Chapter 97.—In What Sense
Does the Apostle Say that “God Will Have All Men to Be Saved,”
When, as a Matter of Fact, All are Not Saved?
Hence we must inquire in what sense
is said of God what the apostle has mostly truly said: “Who will
have all men to be saved.”1277
For, as a matter of fact, not all,
nor even a majority, are saved: so that it would seem that what God
wills is not done, man’s will interfering with, and hindering the
will of God. When we ask the reason why all men are not saved, the
ordinary answer is: “Because men themselves are not willing.”
This, indeed cannot be said of infants, for it is not in their
power either to will or not to will. But if we could attribute to
their will the childish movements they make at baptism, when they
make all the resistance they can, we should say that even they are
not willing to be saved. Our Lord says plainly, however, in the
Gospel, when upbraiding the impious city: “How often would I have
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”1278
as if the will of God had been
overcome by the will of men, and when the weakest stood in the way
with their want of will, the will of the strongest could not be
carried out. And where is that omnipotence which hath done all that
it pleased on earth and in heaven, if God willed to gather together
the children of Jerusalem, and did not accomplish it? or rather,
Jerusalem was not willing that her children should be gathered
together? But even though she was unwilling, He gathered together
as many of her children as He wished: for He does not will some
things and do them, and will others and do them not; but “He hath
done all that He pleased in heaven and in earth.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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