On Prayer 6.4

If, then, what is in the power of each is known to him, and for this reason it is reasonable that what each deserves, having been foreseen by him, is ordained by providence for everyone, it is also reasonable that he has comprehended beforehand what a particular person will pray for, with what disposition, with what faith, and what he wishes to happen to him. And this having been comprehended beforehand, something like this will accordingly be set in his ordering: “This man, who will pray with understanding, I will hear because of the very prayer he will pray; but this one I will not hear, either because he will be unworthy of being heard, or because he will pray for things which it is neither profitable for the one praying to receive nor fitting for me to grant; and in this prayer, let us say, of such a person I will not hear him, but in that one I will.” (And if anyone is troubled because God, who has foreknown the future, cannot be mistaken, as though things were necessitated, we must say to him that this very thing is known to God with certainty: that this particular man does not firmly and steadfastly will the better things, or that he will so will the worse that he will be incapable of change toward what is beneficial.) “And again: for this man who will pray I will do these things, for this is fitting for me, since he will pray blamelessly and will not be careless about prayer; and to this one, who will pray to a certain degree, I will give ‘far more abundantly than’ he asks or thinks, for it befits me to outdo him in benefits and to supply more than he has been able to ask. And to this person, who will be of such a kind, I will send this ministering angel, to begin working with him for his salvation from this time and to be with him until this time; and to that one, let us say, this other angel more honorable than the first, for him who will be better than the first. And from this one, who after giving himself to excellent teachings will grow slack and run back to more material things, I will withdraw this better fellow worker; and when he has withdrawn, some worse power, as he deserves, finding occasion to set upon his carelessness, will stand over him and incite him to these particular sins, since he has made himself ready to sin.”