All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall
not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall
live. (Ezekiel 18:23)
God desires nothing more earnestly than that those who were
perishing and rushing to destruction should return into the way of safety. And
for this reason not only is the Gospel spread abroad in the world, but God
wished to bear witness through all ages how inclined he is to pity.
For although the heathen were destitute of the law and the
prophets, yet they were always endued with some taste of this doctrine. Truly
enough they were suffocated by many errors: but we shall always find that they
were induced by a secret impulse to seek for pardon, because this sense was in
some way born with them, that God is to be appeased by all who seek him.
Besides, God bore witness to it more clearly in the law and the prophets.
In the Gospel we hear how familiarly he addresses us when he
promises us pardon. (Luke 1:78.) And this is the knowledge of salvation, to
embrace his mercy which he offers us in Christ.
It follows, then, that what the Prophet now says is very
true, that God wills not the death of a sinner, because he meets him of his own
accord, and is not only prepared to receive all who fly to his pity, but he
calls them towards him with a loud voice, when he sees how they are alienated
from all hope of safety. But the manner must be noticed in which God wishes all
to be saved, namely, when they turn themselves from their ways. God thus does
not so wish all men to be saved as to renounce the difference between good and
evil; but repentance, as we have said, must precede pardon. (Commentaries)
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