Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume V/On Rebuke and Grace/Chapter 47

Chapter 47.—Another Interpretation of the Apostolic Passage, “Who Will Have All Men to Be Saved.”

That, therefore, in our ignorance of who shall be saved, God commands us to will that all to whom we preach this peace may be saved, and Himself works this in us by diffusing that love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us,—may also thus be understood, that God wills all men to be saved, because He makes us to will this; just as “He sent the Spirit of His Son, crying, Abba, Father;” that is, making us to cry, Abba, Father. Because, concerning that same Spirit, He says in another place, “We have received the Spirit of adoption, in whom we cry, Abba, Father!” We therefore cry, but He is said to cry who makes us to cry. If, then, Scripture rightly said that the Spirit was crying by whom we are made to cry, it rightly also says that God wills, when by Him we are made to will. And thus, because by rebuke we ought to do nothing save to avoid departure from that peace which is towards God, or to induce return to it of him who had departed, let us do in hope what we do. If he whom we rebuke is a son of peace, our peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to us again.