Preaching And Salvation

Sed quomodo invocabunt in quem non crediderunt? De gentibus hic dicere videtur Doctor gentium: repellens eos qui putabant genti tantum Judaeorum, non etiam gentibus Evangelium praedicandum. Quod volens ostendere, non ad Judaeos tantum, sed et ad gentes pertinere, proposuit quod de propheta praemissum: Omnis quicunque invocaverit nomen Domini, salvus erit. Quomodo, inquit, invocabunt in quem non crediderunt? Aut quomodo credent ei quem non audierunt? Quomodo vero praedicabunt, nisi mittantur? Sed missi sunt et praedicabunt, sicut scriptum est: Quam speciosi pedes evangelizantium bona. Neque enim quia Deus dat incrementum, ideo non est plantandum atque rigandum; hoc autem tramite reditur ad gratiam. Nisi enim gratia provideat, praedicatores vero faciant credentes, non erunt qui salvi fiant invocantes, Ideo speciosi pedes evangelizantium pacem, evangelizantium bona; pacem qua percepta remissione peccatorum Deo reconciliamur; bona, quae filiis gratiae promittuntur vel speciosi pedes, speciosa nobis vestigia relinquentes, de cultu animi, de amore Dei, de contemput saeculo. Sed missi sunt evangelizantes, pacui vero inventi sunt obedientes. Unde sub verbis prophetae vox sequitur conquerentium dicens: Domine, quis credidit auditui nostro? Quae enim audivimus a te, annuntiavimus eis; sed pauci sunt qui obediant nobis. In hoc procedit omnis verborum horum prolixitas, quia prosequitur Apostolus tristitiam suam magnam et dolorem continuum cordis sui de gentis suae obcaecatione, quam dissimulare non potest, agens pro illis, in quantum veritas et justitia Dei conatibus ejus invenitur non obsistere; cui et ipse resistere non potest, resistente sibi obduratione pertinacis malitiae. Unde et Deo conjunctus condemnat quidem caecam in illis multitudinem obsurdatorum, sed in remedium doloris, sanctam ex eis electionis amplectitur raritatem. Guillelmus S Theodorici Abbas, Expositio In Epistolam Ad Romanos, Liber X Source: Migne PG 180.656a-d

But how shall they call on Him in whom they do not believe? 1 The teacher of the nations speaks here about the Gentiles, refuting those who think that the Gospel should be preached to the Jews alone and not to others. Which wishing to show that it is a matter not only of the Jews but the Gentiles, he sets down what the Prophet foretold: 'All who shall call on the name of the Lord will be saved.' 2 'How,' he says, 'will they call on Him who they do not believe? Or how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? How shall they preach unless they are sent?' But they have been sent and they have preached, so it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet preaching good news.' 3 For it is not that because God gives growth, there must not be planting, nor watering, for this is the way of grace. But unless He provides grace, though preachers make believers, they shall not be those who are saved calling on Him. Therefore beautiful are the feet preaching peace, and preaching good things, that peace which is commanded for the forgiveness of sinners that we be reconciled to God; good things, which are promised to the sons of grace, who with beautiful feet leave a fair path for us concerning the cultivation of the soul and the love of God and contempt for the world. But they have been sent preaching and yet few are found obedient. Whence with the words of the Prophet follows speaking complaint: 'O Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?' 4 For what we have heard from you we have declared to them, but few are obedient to us. He forestalls any prolixity of their words concerning this, because the Apostle follows it up with his own grave grief and sorrow which is always in his heart concerning the blindness of his own people, which he is not able to conceal, striving for them inasmuch as his efforts are not found to impede the truth and justice of God, Him whom he does not resist, for obdurate resistance is in persistance in evil. Whence even joined to God He condemns the blindness in that multitude of obstinate ones, but as a remedy for sorrow he embraces the rarity of the holy chosen from them. William of St Thierry, Commentary on Romans, Book 10 1 Rom 10.14 2 Joel 2.32 3 Isaiah 52.7 4 Rom 10.16, Isaiah 53.1