Bullinger:

We must not here carefully and curiously search and dispute, whether all men be drawn by God, or whether faith be given only to a few? And albeit thou see that all men believe not, & even those which daily hear the word of God to withstand it, yet thou must not despair nor say: these therefore do not believe (the which indeed is true) because they are not of the number of the sheep of Christ, and therefore peradventure I am not elected also, nor shall be endued with faith by God, what shall it then profit me to hear sermons? But rather we must comfort ourselves with the most sweet promises of God’s hand. For the Lord says, “I will not the death of a sinner, but that he be turned and live” [Ezek. 18.]. And Peter says, “that God is patient toward us, and would not  have that any man should perish, but that all should repent” [ 2 Pet. 3.]. And Paul says, the Scripture says, “everyone that believes in him, shall not be ashamed. For there is no distinction, either of Jew or Greek.  For there is one Lord of all, rich unto all that call upon him” [Rom. 10.]. Therefore let every man be of good hope, that God in time, will give faith unto him also.

Henry Bullinger, Common Places of Christian Religion, (Imprinted at London by Tho. East, and H. Middleton, for George Byshop, 1572), 144-145.

Preliminary comment: Calvin on Lamentations 3:33 is very interesting. At the end of his comment, he says this verse really and properly applies only to the faithful. Yet even with that, he speaks to the theology and application of this verse, in principle, to all men in general.

Calvin:

This is another confirmation of the same truth, that God takes no delight in the evils or miseries of men. It is indeed a strong mode of speaking which the Prophet adopts, but very suitable. God, we know, puts on, as it were, our form or manner, for he cannot be comprehended in his inconceivable glory by human minds. Hence it is that he transfers to himself what properly can only apply to men. God surely never acts unwillingly nor feignedly: how then is that suitable which Jeremiah declares, that God does not afflict from his heart? But God, as already said, does here assume the character of man; for though he afflicts us with sorrow as he pleases, yet true it is that he delights not in the miseries of men; for if a father desires to benefit his own children, and deals kindly with them, what ought we to think of our heavenly Father? “Ye,” says Christ, “who are evil, know how to do good to your children,” (Matthew 7:11;) what then are we to expect from the very fountain of goodness? As, then, parents are not willingly angry with their children, nor handle them roughly, there is no doubt but that God never punishes men except when he is constrained. There is, as I have said, an impropriety in the expression, but it is enough to know, that God derives no pleasure from the miseries of men, as profane men say, who utter such blasphemies as these, that we are like balls with which God plays, and that we are exposed to many evils, because God wishes to have as it were, a pleasant and delectable spectacle in looking on the innumerable afflictions, and at length on the death of men. That such thoughts, then, might not tempt us to unbelief, the Prophet here puts a check on us, and declares that God does not afflict from his heart, that is, willingly, as though he delighted in the evils of men, as a judge, who, when he ascends his throne and condemns the guilty to death, does not do this from his heart, because he wishes all to be innocent, and thus to have a reason for acquitting them; but. yet he willingly condemns the guilty, because this is his duty. So also God, when he adopts severity towards men, he indeed does so willingly, because he is the judge of the world; but he does not do so from the heart, because he wishes all to be innocent for far away from him is all fierceness and cruelty; and as he regards men with paternal love, so also he would have them to be saved, were they not as it were by force to drive him to rigor. And this feeling he also expresses in Isaiah, “Ah! I will take consolation from mine adversaries.” (Isaiah 1:24.) He calls them adversaries who so often provoked him by their obstinacy; yet he was led unwillingly to punish their sins, and hence he employed a particle expressive of grief, and exclaimed Ah! as a father who wishes his son to be innocent, and yet is compelled to be severe with him. But however true this doctrine may be, taken generally, there is yet no doubt but that the Prophet here addresses only the faithful; and doubtless this privilege peculiarly belongs to God’s children, as it has been shown before. Calvin, Lamentations 3:33.

[Note: I am posting these as separate posts from Calvin. Eventually I will combine all of these sorts of statements into one file. Also, c.f., Calvin’s similar expressions regarding God’s general and fatherly love with his explication of Ezekiel 18:1-4, under ‘God’s love to mankind and men” entry #2.]

James Saurin on God’s Will for the Salvation of Sinners¹

1) St. Peter, as we said before, St. Peter meant to refute the odious objections of some profane persons of his own time, who pretended to make the doctrine of a universal judgment doubtful, and who said, in order to obscure its truth, or enervate its evidence, “Where is the promise of his coming, for since the fathers fell asleep all things remain as they were?” 2 Pet. iii. 4. I am aware that this comment is disputed, and some have thought that the destruction of Jerusalem was the subject of this whole chapter, and not the end of the world; but, however averse we are to the decisive tone, we will venture to demonstrate that the apostle had far greater objects in view than the fatal catastrophes of the Jewish nation. This I think clearly appears,

1. By the nature of the objection which libertines made. “Where is the promise of his coming, for since the fathers fell asleep all things remain as they were?” These libertines did not mean that from the beginning of the world the commonwealth of Israel had suffer ed no considerable alteration; they did not mean from that false principle, to draw this false consequence, that Jerusalem would al ways remain as it then was. How could they be such novices in the history of their nation, as not to know the sad vicissitudes, the banishments and the plunderings, which the Jews had undergone? They meant, that though some particular changes had happened in some parts of the world, the generality of creatures had always remained in the same state; thence they pretended to conclude that they would always remain so.

This appears further by the manner in which the apostle answers them in the verses preceding the text. He alleges against them the example of the deluge, “This,” says he, “they are willingly ignorant of, that the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished,” ver. 5, 6. To this he adds, “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the things that are therein, shall be burnt up,” ver. 10. On which we reason thus: The world that was formerly destroyed with water, is the same which shall be destroyed by fire; but the world that was destroyed with water, was not the Jewish nation only: St. Peter then predicts a destruction more general than that of the Jews.

3. This appears further by this consideration. The people to whom St. Peter wrote, did not live in Judea, but were dispersed through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. These people could have but little to do with the destruction of Jerusalem. Whether Jesus Christ terminated the duration of that city suddenly or slowly, was a question that regarded them indirectly only; but the day of which St. Peter speaks, interests all Christians, and St. Peter exhorts all Christians to prepare for it, as being personally concerned in it.

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God desires to save men:

1) For which cause Paul also willing to confirm the old law, forbids us to “bear the yoke with unbelievers.” Also it behooves us to mark the goodness of God, which suffered the word of the Gospel, whereby life and salvation is offered unto man, to be preached unto those that were polluted with such filthy lust. He is therefore truly that God which desires to have men saved, and wills not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should repent and live. Hereunto belong many examples of the Gospel, wherein we read that Christ of a certain singular favor and familiarity, offered salvation unto Publicans and Harlots. Radulpe Gualthere, An Hundred, threescore and fifteen Sermons, uppon the Acts of the Apostles, trans., by Iohn Bridges, (London: no publ, 1572), 828.

2) The first thing we have to note, is how Christ commanded Paul now friendly to arise and to stand up on his feet, whom erewhile he had horribly thrown down as his enemy, and persecuted. But this thing happened not, (as we have other-wheres heard) before his heart was pulled down, and that he humbly inquired what the will of God was, and acknowledged him to be his Lord. Which thing yet he would never have done, but that he felt in his mind and affections working of the Spirit of Christ. This truly is a notable example of God’s goodness, which even then evidently declares itself, when he seemed to be angry. For he will not be chiding with us, but forasmuch as he desires to have men saved, he observes this scope and end in his judgements, that he will have men rather instructed to salvation, than destroyed. Neither will he draw forth his whips and scourges, until he see he cannot prevail by his words. Neither yet does he beat us for any other end, than to have us convert unto him, and to trust to be saved: whereof we have both testimonies and examples everywhere in the Scriptures, wherewith we may confirm our wavering faith in all troubles and adversities. Radulpe Gualthere, An Hundred, threescore and fifteen Sermons, uppon the Acts of the Apostles, trans., by Iohn Bridges, (London: no publ, 1572), 858-859.

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