XLIX. In praying for deliverance from all adversity we seek that which nature doth wish to itself; but by entreating for mercy towards all, we declare that affection wherewith Christian charity thirsteth after the good of the whole world, we discharge that duty which the Apostle himself doth impose on the Church of Christ as a commendable office, a sacrifice acceptable in God’s sight, a service according to his heart whose desire is “to have all men saved1,” a work most suitable with his purpose who gave himself to be the price of redemption for all, and a forcible mean to procure the conversion of all such as are not yet acquainted with the mysteries of that truth which must save their souls. Against it there is but the bare show of this one impediment, that all men’s salvation and many men’s eternal condemnation or death are things the one repugnant to the other, that both cannot be brought to pass; that we know there are vessels of wrath to whom God will never extend mercy, and therefore that wittingly we ask an impossible thing to be had2.
The truth is that as life and death, mercy and wrath are matters of mere understanding or knowledge, all men’s salvation and some men’s endless perdition are things so opposite that whosoever doth affirm the one must necessarily deny the other, God himself cannot effect both or determine that both shall be. There is in the knowledge both of God and man this certainty, that life and death have divided between them the whole body of mankind. What portion either of the two hath, God himself knoweth; for us he hath left no sufficient means to comprehend, and for that cause neither given any leave to search in particular who are infallibly the heirs of the kingdom of God, who castaways. Howbeit concerning the state of all men with whom we live (for only of them our prayers are meant) we may till the world’s end, for the present, always presume, that as far as in us there is power to discern what others are, and as far as any duty of ours dependeth upon the notice of their condition in respect of God, the safest axioms for charity to rest itself upon are these: “He which believeth already is;” and “he which believeth not as yet may be the child of God.” It becometh not us3 “during life altogether to condemn any man, seeing that” (for any thing we know) “there is hope of every man’s forgiveness, the possibility of whose repentance is not yet cut off by death.” And therefore Charity which “hopeth all things4,” prayeth also for all men.
Wherefore to let go personal knowledge touching vessels of wrath and mercy, what they are inwardly in the sight of God it skilleth not, for us there is cause sufficient in all men whereupon to ground our prayers unto God in their behalf. For whatsoever the mind of man apprehendeth as good, the will of charity and love is to have it enlarged in the very uttermost extent, that all may enjoy it to whom it can any way add perfection. Because therefore the farther a good thing doth reach the nobler and worthier we reckon it, our prayers for all men’s good no less than for our own the Apostle with very fit terms commendeth as being καλὸν, a work commendable for the largeness of the affection from whence it springeth, even as theirs, which have requested at God’s hands the salvation of many with the loss of their own souls5, drowning as it were and overwhelming themselves in the abundance of their love towards others, is proposed as being in regard of the rareness of such affections ὑπέρκαλον, more than excellent. But this extraordinary height of desire after other men’s salvation is no common mark. The other is a duty which belongeth unto all and prevaileth with God daily. For as it is in itself good, so God accepteth and taketh it in very good part at the hands of faithful men. Our prayers for all men do include both them that shall find mercy, and them also that shall find none. For them that shall, no man will doubt but our prayers are both accepted and granted. Touching them for whom we crave that mercy which is not to be obtained, let us not think that6 our Saviour did misinstruct his disciples, willing them to pray for the peace even of such as should be uncapable of so great a blessing; or that the prayers of the 7Prophet Jeremy offended God because the answer of God was a resolute denial of favour to them for whom supplication was made. And if any man doubt how God should accept such prayers in case they be opposite to his will, or not grant them if they be according unto that which himself willeth, our answer is that such suits God accepteth in that they are conformable unto his general inclination which is that all men might be saved, yet always he granteth them not, forasmuch as there is in God sometimes a more private occasioned will8 which determineth the contrary. So that the other being the rule of our actions and not this, our requests for things opposite to this will of God are not therefore the less gracious in his sight.
There is no doubt but we ought in all things to frame our wills to the will of God, and that otherwise in whatsoever we do we sin. For of ourselves being so apt to err, the only way which we have to straighten our paths is by following the rule of his will whose footsteps naturally are right. If the eye, the hand, or the foot do that which the will commandeth, though they serve as instruments to sin, yet is sin the commander’s fault and not theirs, because nature hath absolutely and without exception made them subjects to the will of man which is Lord over them. As the body is subject to the will of man, so man’s will to the will of God; for so it behoveth that the better should guide and command the worse. But because the subjection of the body to the will is by natural necessity, the subjection of the will unto God voluntary; we therefore stand in need of direction after what sort our wills and desires may be rightly conformed to his. Which is not done by willing always the selfsame thing that God intendeth. For it may chance that his purpose is sometime the speedy death of them whose long continuance in life if we should not wish we were unnatural.
When the object or matter therefore of our desires is (as in this case) a thing both good of itself and not forbidden of God; when the end for which we desire it is virtuous and apparently most holy; when the root from which our affection towards it proceedeth is charity, piety that which we do in declaring our desire by prayer; yea over and besides all this, sith we know that to pray for all men living is but to shew the same affection which towards every of them our Lord Jesus Christ hath borne, who knowing only as God who are his9 did as man taste death for the good of all men: surely to that will of God which ought to be and is the known rule of all our actions, we do not herein oppose ourselves, although his secret determination haply be against us, which if we did understand as we do not, yet to rest contented with that which God will have done is as much as he requireth at the hands of men. And concerning ourselves, what we earnestly crave in this case, the same, as all things else that are of like condition, we meekly submit unto his most gracious will and pleasure.
Finally, as we have cause sufficient why to think the practice of our church allowable in this behalf, so neither is ours the first which hath been of that mind. For to end with the words of Prosper10, “This law of supplication for all men,” (saith he,) “the devout zeal of all priests and of all faithful men doth hold with such full agreement, that there is not any part of all the world where Christian people do not use to pray in the same manner. The Church every where maketh prayers unto God not only for saints and such as already in Christ are regenerate, but for all infidels and enemies of the Cross of Jesus Christ, for all idolaters, for all that persecute Christ in his followers, for Jews to whose blindness the light of the Gospel doth not yet shine, for heretics and schismatics, who from the unity of faith and charity are estranged. And for such what doth the Church ask of God but this, that leaving their errors they may be converted unto him, that faith and charity may be given them, and that out of the darkness of ignorance they may come to the knowledge of his truth? which because they cannot themselves do in their own behalf as long as the sway of evil custom overbeareth them, and the chains of Satan detain them bound, neither are they able to break through those errors wherein they are so determinately settled, that they pay unto falsity the whole sum of whatsoever love is owing unto God’s truth; our Lord merciful and just requireth to have all men prayed for; that when we behold innumerable multitudes drawn up from the depth of so bottomless evils, we may not doubt but” (in part) “God hath done the thing we requested, nor despair but that being thankful for them towards whom already he hath shewed mercy, the rest which are not as yet enlightened, shall before they pass out of life be made partakers of the like grace. Or if the grace of him which saveth (for so we see it falleth out) overpass some, so that the prayer of the Church for them be not received, this we may leave to the hidden judgments of God’s righteousness, and acknowledge that in this secret there is a gulf, which while we live we shall never sound11.”
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Footnotes
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1 Tim. ii. 3. ↩
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[1 Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 739. “They pray that all men may be saved.” Whitgift, Answer, ibid. al. 253. “We do so indeed; and what can you allege why we should not do so? St. Paul saith, I exhort that supplications, &c. be made for all men. And adding the reason he saith, For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour: who will that all men shall be saved.”] ↩
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Sidon. Apol. (430-487.) lib. vi. Epist. [11. “Ad Eleutherium. Judæum præsens charta commendat; non quod mihi placeat error, perquem pereunt involuti, sed quia neminem ipsorum nos decet ex asse damnabilem pronunciare, dum vivit. In spe enim adhuc absolutionis est, cui suppetit posse converti.” Bibl. Patr. Colon. v. pars i. 1020. B.] ↩
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1 Cor. xiii. 7. ↩
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Rom. ix. 3, 8; x. 1. ↩
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Matt. x. 11, 12. ↩
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Jer. xv. 1. ↩
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[Chr. Letter, p. 17. “Have we not cause to fear that the wittie schoolmen have seduced you, and by their conceited distinctions made you forget, ‘That you are neither able nor worthie to open and looke into the booke of God’s law, by which he guideth the worlde?’ (see before, b. i. c. ii. 5.) And yet you will say, There is in God an occasioned will.”Hooker, MS. note. “The booke of that law I presume no farther to looke into, then all men may and ought thereof to take notise. I have [not] adventured to ransack the bosome of God, and to search out what is there to be read concerning every particular man, as some have done. Vis divinæ magnitudinis et nota nobis objecit et ignota. Tertul. Contra Gent. p. 634. (p. 18. B. Paris. 1641. ‘Hoc est quod Deum æstimari facit, dum æstimari non capit: ita eum vis magnitudinis et notum hominibus objecit et ignotum.’) Dionys. (De Div. Nomin. c. vii. § 3.) p. 367.” (μήποτε οὐ̑ν ἀληθὲς εἰπει̑ν, ὅτι Θεὸν γινώσκομεν, οὐκ ἐκ τη̑ς αὐτου̑ ϕύσεως· ἄγνωστον γὰρ του̑το, καὶ πάντα λόγον καὶ νου̑ν ὑπεραι̑ρον· ἀλλ’ ἐκ τη̑ς πάντων τω̑νὄντων διατάξεως· … διὸ καὶ ἐνπα̑σιν ὁ Θεὸς γινώσκεται, καὶ χωρὶς πάντων· καὶ διὰ γνώσεως ὁ Θεὸς γινώσκεται, καὶ διὰ ἀγνωσίας· καὶ ἔστιν αὐτου̑ καὶ νόησις καὶ λόγος καὶ ἐπιστήμη καὶ ἐπαϕὴ καὶ αἴσθησις καὶ δόξα καὶ ϕαντασία καὶ ὄνομα καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα· καὶ οὔτε νοει̑ται οὔτε λέγεται οὔτε ὀνομάζεται.) “and 433” (Ep. ad Caium, 111.) (λεγόμενον ἄρρητον μένει καὶ νοούμενον ἄγνωστον.) Ed. Paris. 1562.Again, Chr. Letter, ibid. “Where is that God you speake of in your first booke, ‘of whom and through whom and for whom are all things?’ ”Hooker, MS. note. “Even where He was in the highest heaven; from whence He beholdeth their untamed pride which speake of Him and His they neither care nor know what.” See Life of Hooker, p. 22, 23; and the references there.] ↩
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Hug. de Quat. Christi Volunt. [t. iii. 48 E.] “Propterea nihil contrarietatis erat, si Christus homo secundum affectum pietatis quam in humanitate sua assumpserat aliquid volebat, quod tamen secundum voluntatem divinam in qua cum Patre omnia disponebat futurum non esse præsciebat; quia et hoc ad veram humanitatem pertinebat, ut pietate moveretur; et hoc ad veram divinitatem, ut a sua dispositione non moveretur.” ↩
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Prosp. († 463.) de Vocat. Gen. lib. i. c. 12. inter opera Ambros. ↩
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[“Quam legem supplicationis ita omnium sacerdotum et omnium fidelium devotio concorditer tenet, ut nulla pars mundi sit, in qua hujusmodi orationes non celebrentur a populis Christianis. Supplicat ergo ubique Ecclesia Deo non solum pro sanctis et in Christo jam regeneratis, sed etiam pro omnibus infidelibus et inimicis crucis Christi, pro omnibus idolorum cultoribus, pro omnibus qui Christum in membris ipsius persequuntur, pro Judæis, quorum cæcitati lumen evangelii non refulget, pro hæreticis et schismaticis, qui ab unitate fidei et caritatis alieni sunt. Quid autem pro istis petit, nisi ut relictis erroribus suis, convertantur ad Deum, accipiant fidem, accipiant caritatem, et de ignorantiæ tenebris liberati, in agnitionem veniant veritatis? Quod quia ipsi præstare sibi nequeunt, malæ consuetudinis pondere oppressi et Diaboli vinculis alligati, neque deceptiones suas evincere valent, quibus tam pertinaciter inhæserunt, ut quantum amanda est veritas tantum diligant falsitatem; misericors et justus Dominus pro omnibus sibi vult hominibus supplicari: ut cum videmus de tam profundis malis innumeros erui, non ambigamus Deum præstitisse quod ut præstaret oratus est; et gratias agentes pro his qui salvi facti sunt, speremus etiam eos qui necdum illuminati sunt eodem divinæ gratiæ opere eximendos de potestate tenebrarum, et in regnum Dei, priusquam de hac vita exeant, transferendos. Quod si aliquos, sicut videmus accidere, salvantis gratia præteriret, et pro eis oratio Ecclesiæ recepta non fuerit; ad occulta divinæ justitiæ judicia referendum, et agnoscendum, secreti hujus profunditatem nobis in hac vita patere non posse.”] ↩