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Introduction
Taking, then, for granted that prayer is necessary for the
attainment of eternal life, as we have proved in Part I, chap.
1, we should consequently, also, take for granted that every one
has sufficient aid from God to enable him actually to pray,
without need of any further special grace; and that by prayer he
may obtain all other graces necessary to enable him to persevere
in keeping the Commandments, and so gain eternal life; so that
no one who is lost can ever excuse himself by saying that it was
through want of the aid necessary for his salvation.
For as God, in the natural order, has ordained that man should be
born naked, and in want of several things necessary for life,
but then has given him hands and intelligence to clothe himself
and provide for his other needs; so, in the supernatural order,
man is born unable to obtain salvation by his own strength; but
God in His goodness grants to every one the grace of prayer, by
which he is able to obtain all other graces which he needs in
order to keep the Commandments and to be saved.
But before I explain this point, I must prove two preliminary
propositions. First, that God wills all men to be saved; and
therefore that Jesus Christ has died for all. Secondly, that
God, on His part, gives to all men the graces necessary for
salvation; whereby every one may be saved if he corresponds to
them.
Ch 1. God wishes all men to be saved and
therefore Christ died to save all men
1. God wishes all men to be saved
God loves all things that he has created: "For Thou lovest all
things that are, and hatest none of the things that Thou hast
made." [Wisd. 11: 25] Now love cannot be idle: "All love has a
force of its own, and cannot be idle," says St. Augustine. Hence
love necessarily implies benevolence, so that the person who
loves cannot help doing good to the person beloved whenever
there is an opportunity: "Love persuades a man to do those
things which he believes to be good for him whom he loves," says
Aristotle. If, then, God loves all men, He must in consequence
will that all should obtain eternal salvation, which is the one
and sovereign good of man, seeing that it is the one end for
which he was created: "You have your fruit unto sanctification;
but your end eternal life." [Rom. 6: 22]
This doctrine, that God wishes all men to be saved, and that
Jesus Christ died for the salvation of all, is now a certain
doctrine taught by the Catholic Church, as theologians in common
teach, namely, Petavius, Gonet, Gotti, and others, besides
Tourneley, who adds, that it is a doctrine all but of faith.
1. Decision of the
Church
With reason, therefore, were the predestinarians condemned, who,
among their errors, taught that God does not will all men to be
saved; as Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, testifies of them in
his first letter, where he says, "The ancient predestinarians
asserted that God does not will all men to be saved, but only
those who are saved." These persons were condemned, first in the
Council of Arles, A.D. 475, which pronounced "anathema to him
that said that Christ did not die for all men, and that He does
not will all to be saved." [Anath. 6]
They were next condemned in the Council of Lyons, A.D. 490, where
Lucidus was forced to retract and confess, "I condemn the man
who says that Christ did not suffer death for the salvation of
all men." So also in the ninth century, Gotheschalcus, who
renewed the same error, was condemned by the Council of Quercy,
A.D. 853, in the third article of which it was decided "God
wills all men, without exception, to be saved, although all men
be not saved;" and in the fourth article: "There is no man for
whom Christ did not suffer, although all men be not redeemed by
the mystery of His Passion." [Art. 3, 4]
The same error was finally condemned in the 12th and 13th
Propositions of Quesnel. In the former it was said: "When God
wills to save a soul, the will of God is undoubtedly effectual;"
in the latter: "All whom God wills to save through Christ are
infallibly saved." These propositions were justly condemned,
precisely because they meant that God does not will all men to
be saved; since from the proposition that those whom God wills
to be saved are infallibly saved, it logically follows that God
does not will even all the faithful to be saved, let alone all
men.
This was also clearly expressed by the Council of Trent, in
which it was said that Jesus Christ died, "that all might
receive the adoption of sons," and in chapter 3: "but though He
died for all, yet all do not receive the benefits of His death."
[Sess. 6, c. 2-3] The Council then takes for granted that the
Redeemer died not only for the elect, but also for those who,
through their own fault, do not receive the benefit of
Redemption.
Nor is it of any use to affirm that the Council only meant to say
that Jesus Christ has given to the world a ransom sufficient to
save all men; for in this sense we might say that He died also
for the devils. Moreover, the Council of Trent intended here to
reprove the errors of those innovators, who, not denying that
the blood of Christ was sufficient to save all, yet asserted
that in fact it was not shed and given for all; that is the
error which the Council intended to condemn when it said that
our Saviour died for all.
Further, in chapter 6 it says that sinners are put in a fit
state to receive justification by hope in God through the merits
of Jesus Christ: "They are raised to hope, trusting that God
will be merciful to them through Christ." [Sess. 6, c. 6] Now,
if Jesus Christ had not applied to all the merits of His
Passion, then, since no one [without a special revelation] could
be certain of being among the number of those to whom the
Redeemer had willed to apply the fruit of His merits, no sinner
could entertain such hope, not having the certain and secure;
foundation which is necessary for hope; namely, that God wills
all men to be saved, and will pardon all sinners prepared for it
by the merits of Jesus Christ. And this, besides being the error
formerly condemned in Baius, who said that Christ had only died
for the elect, is also condemned in the fifth proposition of
Jansenius: "it is Semi-Pelagianism to say that Christ died or
shed His Blood for all men." And Innocent X, in his Constitution
of A.D. 1653, expressly declared that to say Christ died for the
salvation of the elect only is an impious and heretical
proposition.
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