Deo, dicere, etiam
statuisse antea, ut illos in sensum reprobum traderet et ageret in
perniciem?_" (Frank 4, 264.) The _Formula of Concord_, however, is
careful to explain: "Moreover, it is to be diligently considered that
when God punishes sin with sins, that is, when He afterwards punishes
with obduracy and blindness those who had been converted, because of
their subsequent security, impenitence, and wilful sins this should not
be interpreted to mean _that it never had been God's good pleasure_ that
such persons should come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved."
(1001, 83.)

Brenz had said: "To the one of the entire mass of the human race God
gives faith in Christ, whereby he is justified and saved, while He
leaves the other in his incredulity that he may perish. _Deus ex
universa generis humani massa alteri quidem donat fidem in Christum, qua
iustificetur et salvetur, alterum autem relinquit in sua incredulitate,
ut pereat_." (Frank 4, 256.) Again: It was God's will to elect Jacob and
to leave Esau in his sin. What is said of these two must be understood
of the election and rejection of all men in general. "_Potuisset Deus
optimo iure ambos abiicere;... sed sic proposuerat Deus, sic visum est
Deo, sic erat voluntas Dei, sic erat bene placitum Dei, ut Iacobum
eligeret, Esau autem in peccato suo relinqueret; quod de his duobus
dictum est, hoc intelligendum erit generaliter de omnium hominum
electione et abiectione_." (256.) Hesshusius: "In this respect God does
not will that all be saved, for He has not elected all. _Hoc respectu
Deus non vult, ut omnes salventur; non enim omnes elegit_."
(Schluesselburg 5, 320. 548.) Such statements, when torn from their
context, gave color to the inference that God's grace was not universal.
The _Formula of Concord_, therefore, carefully urges that God earnestly
endeavors to save all men, also those who are finally lost, and that man
alone is the cause of his damnation.

In his _Sententia de Declaratione Victorini_ of 1562 Nicholas Amsdorf
said: "God has but one mode of working in all creatures.... Therefore
God works in the same way in man who has a will and intellect as in all
other creatures, rocks and blocks included, _viz._, through His willing
and saying alone.... As rocks and blocks are in the power of God, so and
in the same manner man's will and intellect are in the will of God, so
that man can will and choose absolutely nothing else than what God wills
and says, be