CHAPTER XXVII


                    LIMITS OF GOD'S PLAN FOR HUMAN SALVATION


     103. Accordingly, when we hear and read in sacred Scripture that God
     "willeth that all men should be saved,"220  although we know well
     enough that not all men are saved, we are not on that account to
     underrate the fully omnipotent will of God. Rather, we must understand
     the Scripture, "Who will have all men to be saved," as meaning that no
     man is saved unless God willeth his salvation: not that there is no
     man whose salvation he doth not will, but that no one is saved unless
     He willeth it. Moreover, his will should be sought in prayer, because
     if he willeth, then what he willeth must necessarily be. And, indeed,
     it was of prayer to God that the apostle was speaking when he made
     that statement. Thus, we are also to understand what is written in the
     Gospel about Him "who enlighteneth every man."221  This means that
     there is no man who is enlightened except by God.


     In any case, the word concerning God, "who will have all men to be
     saved," does not mean that there is no one whose salvation he doth not
     will--he who was unwilling to work miracles among those who, he said,
     would have repented if he had wrought them--but by "all men" we are to
     understand the whole of mankind, in every single group into which it
     can be divided: kings and subjects; nobility and plebeians; the high
     and the low; the learned and unlearned; the healthy and the sick; the
     bright, the dull, and the stupid; the rich, the poor, and the middle
     class; males, females, infants, children, the adolescent, young adults
     and middle-aged and very old; of every tongue and fashion, of all the
     arts, of all professions, with the countless variety of wills and
     minds and all the other things that differentiate people. For from
     which of these groups doth not God will that some men from every
     nation should be saved through his only begotten Son our Lord?
     Therefore, he doth save them since the Omnipotent cannot will in vain,
     whatsoever he willeth.


     Now, the apostle had enjoined that prayers should be offered "for all
     men"222  and especially "for kings and all those of exalted
     station,"223  whose worldly pomp and pride could be supposed to be a
     sufficient cause for them to despise the humility of the Christian
     faith. Then, continuing his argument, "for this is good and acceptable
     in the sight of God our Saviour"224 -- that is, to pray even for such
     as these [kings]--the apostle, to remove any warrant for despair,
     added, "Who willeth that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of
     the truth."225  Truly, then, God hath judged it good that through the
     prayers of the lowly he would deign to grant salvation to the exalted-
     -a paradox we have already seen exemplified. Our Lord also useth the
     same manner of speech in the Gospel, where he saith to the Pharisees,
     "You tithe mint and rue and every herb."226  Obviously, the Pharisees
     did not tithe what belonged to others, nor all the herbs of all the
     people of other lands. Therefore, just as we should interpret "every
     herb" to mean "every kind of herb," so also we can interpret "all men"
     to mean "all kinds of men." We could interpret it in any other
     fashion, as long as we are not compelled to believe that the
     Omnipotent hath willed anything to be done which was not done. "He
     hath done all things in heaven and earth, whatsoever he willed,"227 
     as Truth sings of him, and surely he hath not willed to do anything
     that he hath not done. There must be no equivocation on this point.


     --------------------
     220 I Tim. 2:4.
     221 John 1:9.
     222 I Tim. 2:1.
     223 I Tim. 2:2.
     224 I Tim. 2:3.
     225 I Tim. 2:4.
     226 Luke 11:42.
     227 Ps. 135:6.