Ambrose (c.340–397) on God Wanting All To Be Saved

God Calls Us to Penance. Ambrose: God wants all to be saved. Thus [the Wisdom of] Solomon says [in 1:13], “God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living.” He made the soul so that it would exist. He created human beings to be incorruptible, making them in his image.¹¹⁰ But they, straying from their natural duty, have become subject to death and are corrupted, because they were made from the earth.¹¹¹ But, through trials, God compels them to penance, so that the evil that had appeared—wickedness—would be burned up, consumed and eliminated through penance, and the place in the soul that was dominated by the unrighteousness that had arisen would be opened to receive virtue and grace. Certainly the soul has a precious nature that, since it is made in the likeness of God,¹¹² is capable of receiving every virtue. Expositions on the Psalms 1.48.¹¹³
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110 See Gen 1:26–27.
111 See 1 Cor 15:47.
112 See Gen 1:26–27.
113 PL 14:947.

Sever J. Voicu, ed., Apocrypha, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2010), 44.

Original Latin:

Deus salva vult esse. Unde et Salomon ait: Deus mortem non fecit, nec lætatur in perditione vivorum (Sup. 1, 13). Fecit animam ut sit: creavit hominem in incorruptionem, quem ad imaginem sui fecit: sed homines a naturæ munere deviantes, obnoxios fecere se morti, ut quasi terreni corrumpantur. Sed Deus per tribulationes ad pœnitentiam cogit, ut per pœnitentiam utatur et consumatur illud accidens malum improbitatis, et pereat; et locus ille animæ, qui erat accidentis impietatis possessio, pateat ad receptionem virtutis et gratiæ.

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