[T]he adversaries imagine that they are declaring the mercy of God, because they make it common to all, but if we consider the matter more closely, we attribute much more to mercy than they do. We affirm that everything depends on it, something they deny, because they think it is in our power to receive God’s grace. If we say that mercy is not equally distributed to all, we cannot be reproved, since the Scriptures clearly teach this, but when they say that it lies in our own will to receive grace, even though they qualify it, yet it is surely proved to be of significance. What profit is it to have grace universally set forth to all unless someone by his own power will apply it to himself? Therefore, let them stop adorning their opinion with the name of God’s mercy.
Peter Martyr Vermigli | Predestination and Justification: Two Theological Loci (The Peter Martyr Library, Volume 8), 60–61
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