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St. Augustine
Enchiridion
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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,"
221 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."
222 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"
223 and especially
"for kings and all those of exalted station,"
224 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"
225-
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."
226 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."
227 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,"
228 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.





221 1 Tim. 2:4.



222 John 1:9.



223 1 Tim. 2:1.



224 1 Tim. 2:2.



225 1 Tim. 2:3.



226 1 Tim. 2:4.



227 Luke 11:42.



228 Ps. 135:6.





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