Cap. IV Arg. 3 Sol close: Minor true of medium — not eligere credentes; Rom. 9:15
Now the Minor: to will to save believers by the foolishness of preaching is God's good pleasure concerning human salvation. Who denies it? It is good pleasure about the means and organ without which no adult can be led to salvation. It does not express that eternal εὐδοκία by which some are elected to salvation and its means, others passed by. In a word: the Apostle said It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save believers — so he requires preaching and faith as means antecedent by God's good pleasure to effecting salvation. He did not say to elect believers. So he does not require faith or preaching as foreseen antecedent conditions of the eternal act of election. Nor do 1 Cor. 10 and Heb. 3 on unbelievers help: they do not prove eternal election or passing-by from foresight of future faith or unbelief, but that in executing his eternal decree God finally brings into his rest those whom efficacious vocation working according to purpose has made faithful, and excludes those who remain unbelieving by their own heart's corrupt perversity. Why he had mercy on these rather than those — do not ask, if you would not err. Suffice Rom. 9:15: I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.
Latin
Jam accedo ad Minorem, quae illis Apostoli verbis constat, Credentes velle salvare per stultitiam praedicationis est beneplacitum Dei de salute humana. Quis negat? Est enim beneplacitum Dei de medio et organo, absque quorum ope ad salutem nemo adulta aetate perduci potest. Sed non exprimit illud aeternum εὐδοκίας beneplacitum secundum quod quidam ad salutem et salutis media, praeteritis aliis, eliguntur. Uno verbo; dixit Apostolus, Placuit Deo per stultitiam praedicationis servare credentes. Requirit igitur praedicationem, et fidem, tanquam media ex Dei beneplacito ad ipsam salutem efficiendam antecedanea. Non dixit, Placuit Deo per stultitiam praedicationis eligere credentes. Non igitur requirit fidem, aut praedicationem, tanquam conditiones praevisas et antecedaneas ad aeternum actum electionis. Neque huc faciunt quae de incredulis ex 1 Cor. x. et ex Hebr. iii. allata fuerunt. Ea enim loca non probant Deum ab aeterno eligere, aut praeterire homines ex antecedanea praevisione fidei aut incredulitatis in iis futurae; sed Deum in exsecutione aeterni sui decreti, tandem introducere eos in requiem suam, quos vocatione efficaci, et secundum propositum operante, reddidit fideles; eos autem excludere, qui proprii cordis corrupta perversitate manent increduli. Cur autem horum potius quam illorum misertus fuerit, noli quaerere, si non vis errare. Sufficiat illud, Miserebor cujus misertus fuero, et commiserabor quem commiseratus fuero, Rom. ix. 15.