Ch. xlviii, 13. 212 Of the Prayer against all Adversity. BOOK V. for the most part their answerable effects. Adversity either apprehended by sense as a thing offensive and grievous to nature; or by reason conceived as a snare, an occasion of many men's falling from God, a sequel of God's indignation and wrath, a thing which Satan desireth and would be glad to behold; tribulation thus considered being present causeth sorrow, and being imminent breedeth fear. For moderation of which two affections growing from the very natural bitterness and gall of adversity, the Scripture much allegeth contrary fruits which affliction likewise hath whensoever it falleth on them that are tractable 46, the grace of God's Holy Spirit concurring therewith. But when the Apostle St. Paul teacheth 47, "That every one "which will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecu"tion," and "by many tribulations we must enter into the "kingdom of heaven 48," because in a forest of many wolves sheep cannot choose but feed in continual danger of life; or when St. James exhorteth to "account it a matter of exceeding joy when we fall into divers temptations 49," because “by "the trial of faith patience is brought forth;" was it suppose we their meaning to frustrate our Lord's admonition, "Pray "that ye enter not into temptation?" When himself pronounceth them blessed that should for his name's sake be subject to all kinds of ignominy and opprobrious malediction, was it his purpose that no man should ever pray with David, Lord, remove from me shame and contempt 50 ?” 66 "In those tribulations" (saith St. Augustine 51) "which "may hurt as well as profit, we must say with the Apostle, "What we should ask as we ought we know not, yet because they are tough, because they are grievous, because the "sense of our weakness flieth them, we pray according to the Prayer that all Men may be saved. 213 66 Ch. xlix. 1. general desire of the will of man that God would turn them BOOK V. "away from us, owing in the meanwhile this devotion to the "Lord our God, that if he remove them not, yet we do not "therefore imagine ourselves in his sight despised, but rather "with godly sufferance of evils expect greater good at his " merciful hands. For thus is virtue in weakness perfected." To the flesh (as the Apostle himself granteth) all affliction is naturally grievous 52. Therefore nature which causeth to fear teacheth to pray against all adversity. Prosperity in regard of our corrupt inclination to abuse the blessings of Almighty God, doth prove for the most part a thing dangerous to the souls of men. Very ease itself is death to the wicked, " and the prosperity of fools slayeth them 53;" their table is a snare, and their felicity their utter overthrow. Few men there are which long prosper and sin not. Howbeit even as these ill effects although they be very usual and common are no bar to the hearty prayers whereby most virtuous minds wish peace and prosperity always where they love, because they consider that this in itself is a thing naturally desired: so because all adversity is in itself against nature, what should hinder to pray against it, although the providence of God turn it often unto the great good of many men? Such prayers of the Church to be delivered from all adversity are no more repugnant to any reasonable disposition of men's minds towards death, much less to that blessed patience and meek contentment which saints by heavenly inspiration have to endure what cross or calamity soever it pleaseth God to lay upon them, than our Lord and Saviour's own prayer before his passion was repugnant unto his most gracious resolution to die for the sins of the whole world. all men may and of the that all men might be saved. XLIX. In praying for deliverance from all adversity we prayer that seek that which nature doth wish to itself; but by entreating find mercy, for mercy towards all, we declare that affection wherewith will of God, 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 saved 54," a work most suitable with his purpose who gave himself to be the price of 52 [Heb. xii. 11.] 53 Prov. i. 32. 54 I Tim. ii. 3. Ch. xlix. 2. 214 How Prayers for the Salvation of all Men, BOOK V. 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 had 55. [2.] 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 be the child of God." It becometh not us 56 66 "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 may 55 [1 Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 739. during 56 Sidon. Apol. lib. ví. Epist. [11. "Ad Eleutherium. Judæum præsens "charta commendat; non quod mi"hi placeat error, per quem 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.] 66 66 though not simply granted, may be acceptable. 215 Ch. xlix. 3. "death." And therefore Charity which "hopeth all things 57," BOOK V. prayeth also for all men. [3] 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 kaλòv, 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 souls 58, 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 vπéρкаλoν, 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 that 59 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 60 Prophet 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 57 1 Cor. xiii. 7. 58 Rom. ix. 3, 8; x. I. 59 Matt. x. II, 12. 60 Jer. xv. I. Ch. xlix. 4. 216 The will of God, revealed to guide our Actions, BOOK V. is that all men might be saved, yet always he granteth them not, forasmuch as there is in God sometimes a more private occasioned will 61 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. [4] 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. because the subjection of the body to the will is by natural necessity, the subjection of the will unto God voluntary; we 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 con"cerning every particular man, as "some have done. Vis divinæ mag"nitudinis 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 homi"nibus objecit et ignotum.') Dionys. “ p. 367.” (μήποτε οὖν ἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν, But ὅτι Θεὸν γινώσκομεν, οὐκ ἐκ τῆς αὐτοῦ 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.] |