"God has willed to redeem men and to open
salvation to those who seek it. But men render themselves so unworthy of it that
it is right that God should refuse to some, because of their obduracy, what He
grants others from a compassion which is not due to them. If He had willed to
overcome the obstinacy of the most hardened, He could have done so by revealing
Himself so manifestly to them that they could not have doubted of the truth of
His essence; as it will appear at the last day, with such thunders and such a
convulsion of nature that the dead will rise again, and the blindest will see
Him.” It is not in this manner that He has willed to appear in His advent of
mercy, because, as so many make themselves unworthy of His mercy, He has willed
to leave them in the loss of the good which they do not
want.
