 CHAPTER V. PART I The arguments usually alleged in support of free will refuted. Objections reduced to three principal heads. One, four absurdities advanced by the opponents of the Orthodox doctrine concerning the slavery of the will, stated and refuted, sections one through five. Two, the passages of scripture which they pervert in favour of their error, reduced to five heads and explained, sections six through fifteen. Three, five other passages quoted in defence of free will expounded, sections sixteen through nineteen. Sections one, absurd fictions of opponents first refuted, and then certain passages of scripture explained. Answer by a negative confirmation of the answer. Two, another absurdity of Aristotle and Pelagius. Answer by a distinction. Answer fortified by passages from Augustine, and supported by the authority of an apostle. Three, third absurdity borrowed from the words of Chrysostom. Answer by a negative. Four, fourth absurdity urged of old by the Pelagians. Answer from the works of Augustine, illustrated by the testimony of our Saviour. Another answer which explains the use of exhortations. Five, a third answer which contains a fuller explanation of the second. Objection to the previous answers. Objection refuted. Summary of the previous answers. Six, first class of arguments which the Neopelagians draw from scripture in defence of free will. One, the law demands perfect obedience, and therefore God either mocks us or requires things which are not in our power. Answer by distinguishing precepts into three sorts. The first of these considered in this and the following section. Seven, this general argument from the law of no avail to the patrons of free will. Promises conjoined with precepts proved that our salvation is to be found in the grace of God. Objection that the law was given to the persons living at the time. Answer confirmed by passages from Augustine. Eight, a special consideration of the three classes of precepts of no avail to the defenders of free will. One, precepts enjoining us to turn to God. Two, precepts which simply speak of the observance of the law. Three, precepts which enjoin us to persevere in the grace of God. Nine, objection. Answer. Confirmation of the answer from Jeremiah. Another objection refuted. Ten, a second class of arguments in defense of free will, drawn from the promises of God. Viz, that the promises which God makes to those who seek Him are vain if it is not in our power to do or not do the thing required. Answer which explains the use of promises and removes the supposed inconsistency. Eleven, third class of arguments drawn from the divine upbradings, that it is in vain to upraid us for evils which it is not in our power to avoid. Answer. Sinners are condemned by their own consciences, and therefore the divine upbradings are just. Moreover there is a twofold use in these upbradings. Various passages of scripture explained by means of the foregoing answers. Twelve, objection founded on the words of Moses. Refutation by the words of an apostle. Confirmation by argument. Thirteen, fourth class of arguments by the defenders of free will. God waits to see whether or not sinners will repent. Therefore they can repent. Answer by a dilemma. Passaging Hosea explained. Fourteen, fifth class of arguments in defense of free will. Good and bad works described as our own, therefore we are capable of both. Answer by an exposition, which shows that this argument is unavailing. Objection drawn from analogy. Answer, the nature and mode of divine agency in the elect. Fifteen, conclusion of the answer to the last class of arguments. Sixteen, third and last division of the chapter concerning certain passages of scripture. One a passage from Genesis. It's true meaning explained. Seventeen, two passage from the epistle to the Romans. Explanation. Refutation of an objection. Another refutation. A third refutation from Augustine. Three, a passage from First Corinthians. Answer to it. Eighteen, four a passage from Ecclesiastes. Explanation. Another explanation. Nineteen, five a passage from Luke. Explanation. Allegorical arguments weak. Another explanation. A third explanation. A fort from Augustine. Conclusion and summary of the whole discussion concerning free will. One. Enough would seem to have been said on the subject of man's will, whether or not some who endeavour to urge him to is ruined by a false opinion of liberty, and at the same time, in order to support their own opinion, assail ours. First they gather together some absurd inferences, by which they endeavour to bring odium upon our doctrine, as if it were abhorrent to common sense, and then they oppose it with certain passages of scripture. Both devices we shall dispose of in their order. If sin, say, day is necessary, it sees us to be sin. If it is voluntary, it may be avoided. Which two were the weapons with which Pallagius assailed Augustine? But we are unwilling to crush them by the weight of his name, until we have satisfactorily disposed of the objections themselves. I deny therefore that sin ought to be the less imputed because it is necessary, and on the other hand I deny the inference, that sin may be avoided because it is voluntary. If any one will dispute with God, and endeavour to evade his judgment, by pretending that he could not have done otherwise, the answer already given is sufficient, that it is owing not the creation, but the corruption of nature, that man has become the slave of sin, and can will nothing but evil. For whence that importance of which the wicked so readily availed themselves as an excuse, but just because Adam voluntarily subjected himself to the tyranny of the devil, hence the corruption by which we are held bound as with chains, originated in the first man's revolt from his maker. If all men are justly held guilty of this revolt, let them not think themselves excused by a necessity in which they see the clearest cause of their condemnation. But this I have fully explained above, and in the case of the devil himself, have given an example of one who sins not less voluntarily that he sins necessarily. I have also shown, in the case of the elect angels, that though their will cannot decline from good, it does not therefore cease to be will. This Bernard truly explains, when he says, that we are the more miserable in this, that the necessity is voluntary, and yet this necessity so binds us who are subject to it, that we are the slaves of sin as we have already observed. The second step in the reasoning is vicious, because it leaps from voluntary to free, whereas we have proved above that a thing may be done voluntarily, though not subject to free choice. Two, they add, that unless virtue and vice proceed from free choice, it is absurd either to punish man or reward him. Although this argument is taken from Aristotle, I admit that it is also used by Chrysostom and Jerome. Jerome, however, does not disguise that it was familiar to the Pallagians. He even quotes their words. If Grace acts in us, Grace, and not we who do the work, will be crowned. With regard to punishment, I answer, that it is properly inflicted on those by whom the guilt is contracted. What matters is whether you sin with a free or an enslaved judgment, so long as you sin voluntarily, especially when man is proved to be a sinner because he is under the bondage of sin. In regard to the rewards of righteousness, is there any great absurdity in acknowledging that they depend on the kindness of God, rather than our own merits? How often do we meet in Augustine with this expression, God crowns not our merits but his own gifts, and the name of reward is given not to what is due to our merits, but to the recompense of Grace previously bestowed? Some seem to think there is acuteness in the remark, that there is no place at all for the mind if good works do not spring from free will as their proper source. But in thinking this so very unreasonable they are widely mistaken. Augustine does not hesitate uniformly to describe as necessary the very thing which they counted impious to acknowledge. Thus he asks, what is human merit? He who came to bestow not due recompense, but free Grace, although himself free from sin, and a giver of freedom, found all men sinners. Again, if you were to receive your due you must be punished. What then is done? God has not rendered you due punishment, but bestows upon you unmerited Grace. If you wish to be an alien from Grace, boast your merits. Again, you are nothing in yourself, sin is yours, merit God's. Punishment is your due, and when a reward shall come God shall crown his own gifts, not your merits. To the same effect he elsewhere says, that Grace is not of merit, but merit of Grace. And shortly after he concludes, that God by his gifts anticipates all our merit, that he may thereby manifest his own merit, and give what is absolutely free because he sees nothing in us that can be a ground of salvation. But why extend a list of quotations, when similar sentiments are ever and a non-recurring in his works? The abetters of this error would see a still better refutation of it if they would attend to the source from which the apostle derives the glory of the saints. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Romans 8, 30. On what ground, then, the apostle being judge, Second Timothy 4, 8, are believers crowned? Because by the mercy of God, not their own exertions, they are predestinated, called, and justified. Away, then, with the vain fear, that unless free will stand, there will no longer be any merit. It is most foolish to take alarm, and recoil from that which scripture inculcates. If thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? First Corinthians 4, 7. You see how everything is denied to free will, for the very purpose of leaving no room for merit. And yet, as the beneficence and liberality of God are manifold and inexhaustible, the grace which he bestows upon us, inasmuch as he makes it our own, he recompenses as if the virtuous acts were our own. 3. But is is added, the terms which seem to be borrowed from Cossostom, that if our will possesses not the power of choosing good or evil, all who are partakers of the same nature must be a like good or a like bad. A sentiment akin to this occurs in the work de Vocassione Hentium, usually attributed to Ambrose, in which it is argued that no one would ever decline from fate, did not the grace of God leave us in a mutable state. It is strange that such men should have so blundered. How did it fail to occur to Cossostom that it is divine election which distinguishes among men? We have not the least hesitation to admit what Paul strenuously maintains, that all, without exception, are depraved and given over to wickedness. But at the same time we add that through the mercy of God all do not continue in wickedness. Therefore, while we all labour naturally under the same disease, those only recover health to whom the Lord is pleased to put forth his healing hand. The others whom, in just judgment, he passes over, pine and rot away till they are consumed. And this is the only reason why some persevere to the end, and others, after beginning their course, fall away. Perseverance is the gift of God, which he does not lavish promiscuously on all, but imparts to whom he pleases. If it is asked how the difference arises, why some steadily persevere, and others prove deficient instead fastness, we can give no other reason than that the Lord, by his mighty power, strengthens and sustains the former, so that they perish not, while he does not furnish the same assistance to the latter, but leaves them to be monuments of instability. Four, still it is insisted that exhortations are vain, warning superfluous, and rebuke subsurd, if the sinner possesses not the power to obey. When similar objections were urged against Augustine, he was obliged to write his book, The Correpsione et Grazia, where he has fully disposed of them. The substance of his answer to his opponents is this. O man, learn from the precept what you ought to do. Learn from correction, that it is your own fault you have not the power, and learn in prayer, whence it is that you may receive the power. Very similar is the argument of his book Des Spiritus et Litterat, in which he shows that God does not measure the precepts of his law by human strength, but, after ordering what is right, freely bestows on his elect the power of fulfilling it. The subject indeed does not require a long discussion. For we are not singular in our doctrine, but have Christ and all his apostles with us. Let our opponents then consider how they are to come off victorious in a contest which they wage with such antagonists. Christ declares, Without me you can do nothing. John XXV. Does he the less censure and chastise those who, without him, did wickedly? Does he the less exhort every man to be intent on good works? How severely does Paul invade against the Corinthians for want of charity? First Corinthians three-three, and yet at the same time he prays that charity may be given them by the Lord. In the epistle to the Romans he declares that it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runeth, but of God that showed mercy. Romans 9.16. Still he seizes not to warn, exhort, and rebuke them. Why then do they not expostulate with God for making sport with men, by demanding of them things which he alone can give, and chastising them for false commissitude through want of his grace? Why do they not admonish Paul to spare those who have it not in their power to will or to run, unless the mercy of God, which has forsaken them, proceed? As if the doctrine were not founded on the strongest reason, reason which no serious inquirer can fail to perceive. The extent to which doctrine, and exhortation, and rebuke, are in themselves able to change the mind is indicated by Paul when he says, Neither is he that planted anything, neither is he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. First Corinthians three-seven. In like manner we see that Moses delivers the precepts of the law under a heavy sanction, and that the prophets strongly urge and threaten transgressors, though they at the same time confess that men are wise only when an understanding heart has given them, that it is the proper work of God to circumcise the heart, and to change it from stone into flesh, to write his law on their inward parts, in short, to renew souls so as to give efficacy to doctrine. Five. What purpose, then, is served by exhortations? It is this. As the wicked, with obstinate heart, despise them, they will be a testimony against them when they stand at the judgment seat of God. Nay, they even now strike and lash their consciences. For however they may petulantly deride, they cannot disapprove them. For what, you will ask, can a miserable mortal do, when softness of heart, which is necessary to obedience, is denied him? I ask in reply, why have recourse to evasion, since hardness of heart cannot be imputed to any but the sinner himself? The ungodly, though they would gladly evade the divine admonitions, are forced whether they will or not to feel their power. But their chief use is to be seen in the case of believers, in whom the Lord, while he always acts by his spirit, he omits not the instrumentality of his word, but employs it, and not without effect. Let this, then, be a standing truth, that the whole strength of the godly consists in the grace of God, according to the words of the Prophet, I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes. Ezekiel 11, 19 and 20. But it will be asked, why are they now admonished of their duty, and not rather left to the guidance of the spirit? Why are they urged with exhortations, when they cannot hasten any faster than the spirit impels them? And why are they chastised, if at any time they go astray, seeing that this is caused by the necessary infirmity of the flesh? Oh, man, who art doubt of replies against God, if in order to prepare us for the grace which enables us to obey exhortation, God sees me to employ exhortation, what is there in such an arrangement for you to carp and scoff at? Had exhortations and reprimands no other prophet with the godly than to convince them of sin, they could not be deemed altogether useless. Now when, by the spirit of God acting within, they have the effect of inflaming their desire of good, of arousing them from lethargy, of destroying the pleasure and honeyed sweetness of sin, making it hateful and lonesome, who will presume to cavilla them as superfluous? Would any one wish a clearer reply? Let him take the following. God works in his elect in two ways, inwardly by his spirit, outwardly by his word. By his spirit illuminating their minds, and training their hearts to the practice of righteousness he makes them new creatures, while by his word he stimulates them to long and seek for this renovation. In both he exerts the might of his hand in proportion to the measure in which he dispenses them. The word, when addressed to the reprobate, though not effectual for their amendment, has another use. It urges their conscience now, and will render them more inexcusable on the day of judgment. Those are Saviour, while declaring that none can come to him with those whom the Father draws, and that the elect come after they have heard and learned of the Father, John 6, 44 and 45, does not lay aside the office of teacher, but carefully invites those who must be taught inwardly by the spirit before they can make any profit. The reprobate again are admonished by Paul that the doctrine is not in vain, because while it is in them a saver of debt unto debt, is is still a sweet saver unto God. 2 Corinthians 2, 16, 6 The enemies of this doctrine are at great pains in collecting passages of Scripture. As if unable to accomplish anything by their weight, they were to overwhelm us by their number. But as in battle, when it comes to close quarters, an unwarlike multitude, how great so ever the pomp and show they make give way after a few blows and take the flight, so we shall have little difficulty here in disposing of our opponents and their host. All the passages which they pervert in opposing us are very similar in their import, and hence when they are arranged under their proper heads, one answer will suffice for several. It is not necessary to give a separate consideration to each. Precepts seem to be regarded as their stronghold. These they think so accommodated to our abilities as to make it follow as a matter of course that whatever they enjoin we are able to perform. Accordingly they run over all the precepts and by them fix the measure of our power, for, say they, when God enjoins meekness, submission, love, chastity, piety, and holiness, and when he forbids anger, pride, theft, uncleanness, idolatry, and alike, he either mocks us or only requires things which are in our power. All the precepts which they thus heaped together may be divided into three classes. Some enjoin a first conversion unto God, others speak simply of the observance of the law, and others inculcate prayer severance in the grace which has been received. We shall first treat a precepts in general and then proceed to consider each separate class, that the abilities of man are equal to the precepts of the divine law has long been a common idea and has some show of plausibility. It is founded, however, on the grossest ignorance of the law. Those who deem it a kind of sacrilege to say that the observance of the law is impossible insist as their strongest argument that, if it is so, the law has been given in vain, for they speak just as if Paul had never said anything about the law. But what pray is meant by saying that the law was added because of transgressions? By the law is the knowledge of sin. I had not known sin, but by the law. The law entered so that the offence might abound. Galatians 3, 19, Romans 3, 20, 7, 7, 5, 20. Is it meant that the law was to be limited to our strength, lest it should be given in vain? Is it not rather meant that it was placed far above us, in order to convince us of our utter feebleness? Paul indeed declares that charity is the end and fulfilling of the law. 1 Timothy 1, 5. But when he prays that the minds of the Thessalonians may be filled with us, he clearly enough acknowledges that the law sounds in our ears without profit, if God does not implant it thoroughly in our hearts. 1 Thessalonians 3, 12, 7. I admit indeed that if the scripture taught nothing else on the subject than that the law is a rule of life by which we ought to regulate our pursuits, I should at once assent to their opinion. But since it carefully and clearly explains that the use of the law is manifold, the proper course is to learn from that explanation what the power of the law is in man. In regard to the present question, while it explains what our duty is, it teaches that the power of obeying it is derived from the goodness of God, and is accordingly orges us to pray that this power may be given us. If there were merely a command and no promise, it would be necessary to try whether our strength were sufficient to fulfill the command. But since promises are annexed, which proclaim not only that aid, but that our whole power is derived from divine grace, they at the same time abundantly testify that we are not only unequal to the observance of the law, but mere fools in regard to it. Therefore let us hear no more of a proportion between our ability and the divine precepts, as if the Lord had accommodated the standard of justice which he was to give in the law to our feeble capacities. We should rather gather from the promises how ill-provided we are, having in everything so much need of grace. But, say they, who will believe that the Lord designed his law for blocks and stones? There is no wish to make any one believe this. The ungodly are neither blocks nor stones, when, taught by the law that their lusts are offensive to God, they are proved guilty by their own confession. Nor are the godly blocks or stones, when admonished of their powerlessness, they take refuge in grace. To this effect are the pithy sayings of Augustine. God orders what we cannot do, that we may know what we ought to ask of him. There is a great utility in precepts. If all that is given to free will is to do great or honour to divine grace. Fate acquires what the law requires. Nay, the law requires, in order that fate may acquire what is thus required. Nay, more. God demands of us fate itself, and finds not what he thus demands, until, by giving, he makes it possible to find it. Again he says, let God give what he orders, and order what he wills. Eight. This would be more clearly seen by again attending to the three classes of precepts, to which we above referred. Both in the law and in the prophets, God repeatedly calls upon us to turn to him. But on the other hand, a prophet exclaims, turn thou me, and I shall be turned, for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented. He orders us to circumcise the foreskins of our hearts, but Moses declares that that circumcision is made by his own hand. In many passages he demands a new heart, but in others he declares that he gives it. As Augustine says, what God promises, we ourselves do not true choice our nature, but he himself does by grace. The same observation is made when enumerating the rules of Deconius, he states the third in effect to be, that we distinguish carefully between the law and the promises, or between the commands and the grace. Let them now go and gather from precepts what man's power of obedience is, when they would destroy the divine grace by which the precepts themselves are accomplished. The precepts of the second class are simply those which enjoin us to worship God, to obey and adhere to his will, to do his pleasure and follow his teaching. But enumerable passages testify that every degree of purity, piety, holiness, and justices which we possess, is his gift. Of the third class of precepts is the exhortation of Paul and Barnabas to the proselytes, as recorded by Luke, they, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God, Acts 1343. But the source from which this power of continuance must be sought is elsewhere explained by Paul, when he says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, Ephesians 610. In another passage he says, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Ephesians 430. But as the thing here enjoined could not be performed by man, he prays in behalf of the Thessalonians that God would count them, worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of fate with power. 2nd Thessalonians 111. In the same way, in the second epistle to the Corinthians, when reading of Ames, he repeatedly commends their good and pious inclination. A little farther on, however, he exclaims, Thanks be to God which put the same earnest care into the heart of Thaisus for you, for indeed he accepted the exhortation. 2nd Corinthians 8, 16 and 17. If Thaisus could not even perform the office of being a mount to exhort others, except in so far as God suggested, how could the others have been voluntary agents in acting if the Lord Jesus had not directed their hearts? 9. Some who would be thought more acute endeavour to evade all these passages by the quibble that there is nothing to hinder us from contributing our part, while God at the same time supplies our deficiencies. They, moreover, adduce passages from the prophets in which the work of our conversion seems to be shared between God and ourselves, turn ye unto me, say, at the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you, say, at the Lord of hosts, Zechariah 1.3. The kind of assistance which God gives us has been shown above, and need not now be repeated. One thing only, I ask, to be conceded to me, that it is his vain to think we have a power of fulfilling the law, merely because we are enjoined to obey it. Since, in order to are fulfilling the divine precepts, the grace of the law-giver is both necessary and has been promised to us, this much at least is clear that more is demanded of us than we are able to pay. Nor can any cavill evade the declaration in Jeremiah that the covenant which God made with his ancient people was broken, because it was only of the letter, that to make it effectual it was necessary for the Spirit to interpose and train the heart to obedience. Jeremiah 31.32 The opinion we now combat is not aided by the words, turn unto me, and I will turn unto you. The turning there spoken of is not that by which God renews the heart unto repentance, but that in which, by bestowing prosperity, he manifests his kindness and favor, just in the same way as he sometimes expresses his displeasure by sending adversity. The people complaining under the many calamities which befell them that they were forsaken by God, he answers that his kindness would not fail them if they would return to a right course, and to himself the standard of righteousness. The passage therefore is rested from its proper meaning when it is made to countenance the idea that the work of conversion is divided between God and man. We have only glanced briefly at this subject, as the proper place for it will occur when we come to treat of the law. 10. The second class of objections is akin to the former. They allege the promises in which the Lord makes a paction with our will. Such are the following. Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live, Amos 5.14. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land, but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it, I say of one, 19 and 20. If thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then thou shalt not remove Jeremiah 4.1. It shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and do all the commandments which I commande this day, that the Lord thy God will set the on high above all nations of the earth, Deuteronomy 28.1. There are other similar passages, Levisicus 26.3, etc. They think that the blessings contained in these promises are offered to our will absurdly and in mockery, if it is not in our power to secure or reject them. It is indeed an easy matter to indulge in declamatory complaint on this subject, to say that we are cruelly mocked by the Lord, when he declares that his kindness depends on our wills, if we are not masters of our wills, that it would be a strange liberality on the part of God to set his blessings before us, while we have no power of enjoying them. A strange certainty of promises which to prevent our ever being fulfilled are made to depend on an impossibility. Of promises of this description, which have a condition next to them, we shall elsewhere speak and make it plain that there is nothing absurd in the impossible fulfillment of them. In regard to the matter in hand, I deny that God cruelly mocks us when he invites us to merit blessings which he knows we are altogether unable to merit. The promises being offered alike to believers and to the ungodly have their use in regard to both, as God by his precepts stings the consciences of the ungodly, so as to prevent them from enjoying their sins while they have no remembrance of his judgments, so in his promises he in a manner takes them to witness how unworthy they are of his kindness. Who can deny that it is most just and most becoming in God to do good to those who worship him, and to punish with due severity those who despise his majesty? God therefore proceeds in due order when, though the wicked are bound by the fetters of sin, he lays down the law in his promises that he will do them good only if they depart from their wickedness. This would be right, though his only object were to let them understand that they are deservedly excluded from the favor due to his true worshipers. On the other hand, as he desires by all means to stir up believers to supplicate his grace, it surely should not seem strange that he attempts to accomplish by promises the same thing which, as we have shown, he to their great benefit accomplishes by means of precepts. Being taught by precepts what the will of God is, we are reminded of our readiness in being so completely at variance with that will, and at the same time are stimulated to invoke the aid of the Spirit to guide us into the right path. But as our indolence is not sufficiently aroused by precepts, promises are added that they may attract us by their sweetness and produce a feeling of love for the precept. The greater our desire of righteousness, the greater will be our earnestness to obtain the grace of God, and thus it is that in the protestations, if we be willing, if thou shall hearken, the Lord neither attributes to us a full power of willing and hearkening, nor yet mocks us for our impotence. End of Section 9. Section 10 of Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, by John Calvin, translated by Henry Beverage. The third class of Objections is not unlike the other two, for they produce passages in which God upgrades his people for their ingratitude, intimating that it was not his fault that they did not obtain all kinds of favor from his indulgence. Of such passages, the following are examples. The Amalekites and the Canaanites are before you, and ye shall fall by the sword, because ye are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you. Numbers, Chapter 14, Verse 43. Because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not, and I called you, but ye answered not, therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, where ye need trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. Jeremiah, Chapter 7, Verses 13 and 14. They obeyed not thy voice, neither walked in thy law. They have done nothing of all that thou commanded them to do. Therefore thou hast cost all this evil to come upon them. Jeremiah, Chapter 32, Verse 23. How they ask, can such upbrading be directed against those who have it in their power immediately to reply? Prosperity was dear to us. We feared adversity, that we did not in order to obtain the one and avoid the other, obey the Lord, and listen to his voice, is owing to its not being free for us to do so, in consequence of our subjection to the dominion of sin. In vain, therefore, are we upbraided with evils, which it was not in our power to escape. But to say nothing of the pretext of necessity, which is but a feeble and flimsy defense of their conduct, can they, I ask, deny their guilt? If they are held convicted of any fault, the Lord is not unjust in upbrading them for having, by their own perverseness, deprived themselves of the advantages of his kindness. Let them say, then, whether they can deny that their own will is the depraved cause of their rebellion. If they find within themselves a fountain of wickedness, why do they stand the claiming about extraneous causes, with a view of making it appear that they are not the authors of their own destruction? If it be true that it is not for another's faults that sinners are both deprived of the divine favor and visited with punishment, there is good reason why they should hear these rebukes from the mouth of God. If they obstinately persist in their vices, let them learn in their calamities to accuse and attest their own wickedness, instead of charging God with cruelty and injustice. If they have not manifested docility, let them, under a feeling of disgust at the sins which they see to be the cause of their misery and ruin, return to the right path, and, with serious contrition, confess the very thing of which the Lord, by his rebuke, reminds them. Of what use those upbraidings of the prophets above coated are to believers appears from the solemn prayer of Daniel, as given in his ninth chapter? Of their use in regard to the ungodly, we see an example in the Jews, to whom Jeremiah was ordered to explain the cause of their miseries, though the event could not be otherwise than the Lord had foretold. Therefore thou shalt speak these words unto them, but they will not hear canaan to thee, thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee. Jeremiah chapter 7 verse 27 Of what use then was it to talk to the death? It was that even against their will, they might understand that what they heard was true, and that it was impious and blasphemy to transfer the blame of their wickedness to God when it resided in themselves. These few explanations will make it very easy for the reader to disentangle himself from the immense heap of passages containing both precepts and reprimands, which the enemies of divine Greece are in the habit of piling up, that they may their own erect their statue of free will. The psalmist upbrades the Jews as a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that said not their heart aright. Psalm 78 verse 8 And in another passage, he exhorts the men of his time, hard and not your heart. Psalm 95 verse 8 This implies that the whole blame of the rebellion lies in human depravity. But it is foolish thence to infer that the heart, the preparation of which is from the Lord, may be equally bent in either direction. The psalmist says, I have inclined my heart to perform thy statutes always. Psalms chapter 119 verse 112, meaning that with willing and cheerful readiness of mind, he had devoted himself to God. He does not boast, however, that he was the author of that disposition, for in the same psalm he acknowledges it to be the gift of God. We must therefore attend to the admonition of Paul when he thus addresses believers. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians chapter 2 verse 12 and 13 He ascribes to them a part in acting that they may not indulge in carnal sloth, but by enjoining fear and trembling, he humbles them so as to keep them in remembrance, that the very thing which they are ordered to do is the proper work of God, distinctly intimating that believers act, if I may so speak, passively inasmuch as the power is given them from heaven, and cannot in any way be arrogated to themselves. Accordingly, when Peter exhorts us to add to faith virtue, 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 5, he does not concede to us the possession of a second place as if we could do anything separately. He only arouses the sluggishness of our flesh by which faith itself is frequently stifled. To the same effect are the words of Paul. He says, quench not the spirit 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 19, because the spirit of sloth, if not guarded against, is ever an anon creeping in upon believers. But should any thence infer that it is entirely in their own power to foster the offered light, his ignorance will easily be reputed by the fact that the very diligence which Paul enjoins is derived only from God. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 1, we are often commanded to purge ourselves of all impurity, though the spirit claims this as his peculiar office. In fine that what properly belongs to God is transferred to us only by way of concession is plain from the words of John. He that is begotten of God keepeth himself. 1 John chapter 5 verse 18, the advocates of free will fasten upon the expression as if it implied that we are kept partly by the power of God, partly by our own, whereas the very keeping of which the apostle speaks is itself from heaven. Hence Christ prays his father to keep us from evil. John chapter 17 verse 15, and we know that believers in their warfare against Satan owe their victory to the armor of God. Accordingly Peter after saying, ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth, immediately adds by way of correction through the spirit. First Peter chapter 1 verse 22, in fine the nothingness of human strength in the spiritual contest is briefly shown by John when he says that whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him. 1 John chapter 3 verse 9, he else forgives the reasons this is the victory that overcomeeth the world even our faith. 1 John chapter 5 verse 4, 12, but the passage is produced from the law of Moses which seems very adverse to the view now given. After promulgating the law he takes the people to witness in these terms. This commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee neither is it far off. It is not in heaven that thou shouldest say who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it, but the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it. 2 Theronomy chapter 30 verses 11, 12, and 14. Certainly if this is to be understood of mere precepts, I admit that it is of no little importance to the matter in hand. 4 Though it were easy to evade the difficulty by saying that the thing here treated off is not the observance of the law, but the facility and readiness of becoming acquainted with it, some scruple perhaps would still remain. The Apostle Paul however, no mean interpreter, removes all doubt when he affirms that Moses here spoke of the doctrine of the Gospel. Romans chapter 10 verse 8. If anyone is so refractory as to contend that Paul violently arrested the words in applying them to the Gospel, though his hardyhood is chargeable with impiety, we are still able, independently of the authority of the apostle, to repel the objection. For if Moses spoke of precepts merely, he was only inflating the people with vain confidence, had they attempted the observance of the law in their own strength, as a matter in which they should find no difficulty, what else could have been the result than to throw them headlong. Where then was that easy means of observing the law, when the only access to it was over a fatal precipice? Accordingly, nothing is more certain than that under these words is comprehended the covenant of mercy, which had been promulgated along with the demands of the law. A few verses before he had said, The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed. To love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. Chateronomy, Chapter 30, Verse 6 This is confirmed by the testimony of Paul, when he observes that the Gospel holds forth salvation to us, not under the harsh, arduous, and impossible terms on which the law treats with us. Namely, that those shall obtain it who fulfill all its demands, but on terms easy, expeditious, and readily obtained. This passage therefore tends in no degree to establish the freedom of the human will. Thirteen They are warned also to adduce certain passages in which God is said occasionally to try men, by withdrawing the assistance of his grace, and to wait until they turn to him, as in Hosea. I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face. Hosea, Chapter 5, Verse 15 As if anything were more common in the prophetical writings, then forgot to put on the semblance of rejecting, and casting off his people until they reformed their lives. But what can our opponents extract from such threats, if they mean to maintain that the people, when abandoned by God, are able of themselves to think of turning unto him? They will do it in the very face of Scripture, on the other hand, if they admit that divine grace is necessary to conversion, why do they dispute with us? But while they admit that grace is so far necessary, they insist on reserving some ability for men. How do they prove it? Certainly not from this, nor any similar passage, for it is one thing to withdraw from men, and look to what he will do when thus abandoned and left to himself, and another thing to assist his powers, whatever they may be. In proportion to their weakness. What, then, it will be asked? Is meant by such expressions? I answer, just the same as if God were to say, since nothing is gained by admonishing, exhorting, rebuking these stubborn people, I will withdraw for a little, and silently leave them to be afflicted. I shall see whether, after long calamity, any remembrance of me will return and induce them to seek my face. But by the departure of the Lord to a distance is meant the withdrawal of prophecy. But he is waiting to see what men will do, is meant that he, while silent, and in a manner hiding himself, tries them for a season with various afflictions. Both he does, that he may humble us the more, for we shall sooner be broken and corrected by the strokes of adversity, unless his spirit train us to the silty. Moreover, when the Lord offended and, as it were, fatigued with their obstinate perverseness, leaves us for a while, by withdrawing his word, in which he is wont in some degree to manifest his presence, and makes trial of what we will do in his absence. From this it is erroneously inferred, that there is some power of free will, the extent of which is to be considered and tried, whereas the only end which he has in view is to bring us to an acknowledgement of our utter nothingness. 14. Another objection is founded on a mode of speaking, which is constantly observed both in scripture and in common discourse. God works are said to be ours, and we are said to do what is holy and acceptable to God, just as we are said to commit sin. But if sins are justly imputed to us, as proceeding from ourselves, for the same reason say they, some share must certainly be attributed to us in works of righteousness. It could not be accordant with reason to say, that we do those things which we are incapable of doing of our own motion, God moving us as if we were stones. These expressions therefore it is said, indicate that while, in the matter of grace, we give the first place to God, a secondary place must be assigned to our agency. If the only thing here insisted on where, that good works are termed ours, I in my turn would reply, that the bread which we ask God to give us, is also termed ours. What then can be inferred from the title of possession, but simply that, by the kindness and free gift of God's that becomes ours, which in other respects is by no means due to us? Therefore, let them either ridicule the same absurdity in the Lord's prayer, or let them cease to regard it as absurd, that good works should be called ours, though our only property in them is derived from the liberality of God. But there is something stronger in the fact, that we are often said in scripture to worship God, to justice, obey the law, and follow good works. This being proper offices of the mind and will, how can they be consistently referred to the spirit, and at the same time attributed to us, unless there be some concurrence on our part with the divine agency? This difficulty will be easily disposed of if we attend to the manner in which the Holy Spirit acts in the righteous. The similitude with which they individuously assail us is foreign to the purpose. For who is so absurd as to imagine that movement in man differs in nothing from the impulse given to a stone, nor can anything of the kind be inferred from our doctrine? To the natural powers of man, we ascribe approving and rejecting, willing and not willing, striving and resisting, namely approving vanity, rejecting solid good, willing evil and not willing good, striving for wickedness and resisting righteousness. What then does the Lord do? If he sees mead to employ the gravity of this description as an instrument of his anger, he gives it whatever aim and direction he pleases, that by a guilty hand he may accomplish his own good work. A wicked man, thus serving the power of God, while he is bent only on following his own lust, can we compare to a stone, which, driven by an external impulse, is born along without motion or sense or will of its own? We see how wide the difference is, but how stands the case with a godly, as to whom chiefly the question is raised. When God erects his kingdom in them, he, by means of his spirit, curbs their will, that it may not follow its natural bent, and be carried hither and thither by vagrant lusts, bents, frames, trains, and guides it according to the rule of his justice, so as to incline it to righteousness and holiness, and establishes and strengthens it by the energy of his spirit, that it may not stumble or fall. For which reason Augustine does expresses himself? It will be said we are therefore acted upon and do not act. Nay, you act and are acted upon, and you then act well when you are acted upon by one that is good. The spirit of God who activates you is your helper in acting, and bears the name of helper because you too do something. In the former member of this sentence, he reminds us that the agency of man is not destroyed by the motion of the Holy Spirit, because nature furnishes the will which is guided so as to aspire to good. As to the second member of the sentence in which he says, that the very idea of help implies that we also do something, we must not understand it as if he were attributing to us some independent power of action. But not to foster a feeling of sloth, he reconciles the agency of God with their own agency, by saying that to wish is from nature, to wish well is from grace. Accordingly he had said a little before, did not God assist us, we should not only not be able to conquer, but not able even to fight. 15. Hence it appears that the grace of God, as this name is used when regeneration is spoken of, is the rule of the spirit in directing and governing the human will. Govern he cannot, without correcting, reforming, renovating, hence we say that the beginning of regeneration consists in the abolition of 40 hours. In black manner he cannot govern without moving, impelling, urging, and restraining. Accordingly, all the actions which are afterwards done are truly said to be wholly his. Meanwhile, we deny not the truth of Augustine's doctrine that the will is not destroyed but rather repaired by grace, the two things being perfectly consistent. Namely, that the human will may be said to be renewed when its vitiosity and perverseness being corrected, it is conformed to the true standard of righteousness and that, at the same time, the will may be said to be made new. Being so vitiated and corrupted that its nature must be entirely changed, there is nothing then to prevent us from saying that our will does what the spirit does in us, although the will contributes nothing of itself apart from grace. We must, therefore, remember that we quoted from Augustine that some men labor in vain to find in the human will some good quality properly belonging to it. Any intermixture which men attempt to make by conjoining the effort of their own will with divine grace is corruption, just as when unwholesome enumadi water is used to dilute wine. But though everything good in the will is entirely derived from the influence of the spirit, yet because we have naturally an innate power of willing, we are not improperly said to do the things of which God claims for himself all the praise. First, because everything which His kindness produces in us is our own, only we must understand that it is not of ourselves. And secondly, because it is our mind, our will, our study which are guided by Him to what is good. 16. The other passages which they gather together from different quarters will not give much trouble to any person of tolerable understanding who pays due attention to the explanations already given. They adduce the passage of Genesis, unto they shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. Genesis chapter 4 verse 7 This they interpret of sin, as if the Lord were promising came that the dominion of sin should not prevail over his mind if he would labor in subduing it. We, however, maintain that it is much more agreeable to the context to understand the words as referring to Abel, it being there the purpose of God to point out the injustice of the envy which Cain had conceived against his brother. And this he thus interweighs by showing, first, that it was vain to think he could, by means of wickedness, surpass his brother in the favor of God, by whom nothing is esteemed but righteousness. And secondly, how ungrateful he was for the kindness he had already received, in not being able to bear with the brother who had been subjected to his authority. But lest it should be thought that we embrace this interpretation, because the other is contrary to our view. Let us grant that God thus here speak of sin. If so, his words contain either an order or a promise. If an order we have already demonstrated that this is no proof of man's ability, if a promise, or is the fulfillment of the promise, when Cain yielded to the sin over which he ought to have prevailed. They will allege a tacit condition in the promise, as if it were said that he would gain the victory if he contended. This subterfuge is altogether unavailing. Four, if the dominion Spokanov refers to sin, no man can have any doubt that the form of expression is imperative, declaring not what we are able, but what it is our duty to do, even if beyond our ability. Although both the nature of the case and the rule of grammatical construction require that it be regarded as a comparison between Cain and Abel, we think the only preference given to the younger brother was that the elder made himself inferior by his own wickedness. 17. They appeal moreover to the testimony of the Apostle Paul, because he says, It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runeth, but of God that showeth mercy. Romans chapter 9 verse 15. From this they infer that there is something in will and endeavor, which, though weak in themselves, still being mercifully aided by God, are not without some measure of success. But if they would attend in sober earnest to the subject there handled by Paul, they would not so rashly pervert his meaning. I am aware they can quote Origin and Jerome in support of this exposition. To this I might, in my turn, oppose Augustine. But it is of no consequence what they thought, if it is clear what Paul meant. He teaches that salvation is prepared for those only on whom the Lord is pleased to bestow his mercy, that ruin and death await all whom he has not chosen. He had proved the condition of the reprobate by the example of Pharaoh, and confirmed the certainty of gratuitous election by the passage in Moses. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Thereafter he concludes that it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runeth, but of God that showeth mercy. If these words are understood to mean that the will or endeavor are not sufficient, because unequal to such a task, the apostle has not used them very appropriately. We must therefore abandon this absurd mode of arguing. It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runeth. Therefore there is some will, some running. Paul's meaning is more simple. There is no will, no running, by which we can prepare the way for our salvation. It is holy of the Divine Mercy. He indeed says nothing more than he says to Titus when he writes, After that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward men appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. Titus chapter 3 verses 4 and 5. Those who argue that Paul insinuated that there was some will and some running when he said, It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runeth, would not allow me to argue after the same fashion, that we have done some righteous works, because Paul says that we have attained the Divine favor, not by works of righteousness which we have done. But if they see a flaw in this mode of arguing, let them open their eyes, and they will see that their own mode is not free from a similar fallacy. The argument which Augustine uses is well founded. If it is said, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runeth, because neither will nor running are sufficient. It may on the other hand be retorted. It is not of God that showeth mercy, because mercy does not act alone. The second proposition being absurd, Augustine justly concludes the meaning of the words to be, that there is no good will in man until it is prepared by the Lord. Not that we ought not to will and run, but that both are produced in us by God. Some with equal unskillfulness rest the saying of Paul, we are laborers together with God. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 9. There cannot be a doubt that these words apply to ministers only, who are called laborers with God, not from bringing anything of their own, but because God makes use of their instrumentality, after he has rendered them fit, and provided them with the necessary endowments. 18. They appeal also to Ecclesiasticus, who is well known to be a writer of doubtful authority. But though he might justly decline his testimony, let us see what he says in support of free will. His words are, he himself made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his counsel. If thou wilt, to keep the commandments, and perform acceptable faithfulness, he has set fire and water before thee, stretch forth thy hand unto whether thou wilt. Before man is life and death, and whether him likeeth shall be given him. Ecclesiasticus chapter 15 verses 14 to 17. Grant that man received at his creation a power of acquiring life or death. What then, if we, on the other hand, can reply that he has lost it? Assuredly, I have no intention to contradict Solomon, who asserts that God has made man upright, that they have sought out many inventions. Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 29. But since man, by degenerating, has made shipwreck of himself and all his blessings, it certainly does not follow that everything attributed to his nature, as originally constituted, applies to it now when we shaded and degenerate. Therefore, not only to my opponents, but to the author of Ecclesiasticus himself, whoever he may have been. This is my answer. If you mean to tell man that in himself there is a power of acquiring salvation, your authority with us is not so great as, in the least degree, to prejudice the undoubted word of God. But if only wishing to curb the malignity of the fleshy, which by transferring the blame of its own wickedness to God, is want to catch at the vain defense, you say that rectitude was given to man in order to make it apparent he was the cause of his own destruction. I willingly assent. Only agree with me in this, that it is by his own fault he is stripped of the ornaments in which the Lord at first attired him, and then let us unite in acknowledging that what he now wants is a physician and not a defender. 19. There is nothing more frequent in their mouths than the parable of the traveler who fell among thieves and was left half-dead. Look chapter 10 verse 32. I am aware that it is a common idea with almost all writers that under the figure of the traveler is represented the calamity of the human race. Hence our opponents argue that man was not so mutilated by the robbery of sin and the devil as not to preserve some remains of his former endowments because it is said he was left half-dead. For where is the half-living, unless some portion of right will and reason remain? First, were I to deny that there is any room for their allegory, what could they say? There can be no doubt that the fathers invented it contrary to the genuine sense of the parable. Allegories ought to be carried no further than scripture expressly sanctions, so far are they from forming a sufficient basis to found doctrine sapun, and were I so disposed and might easily find the means of tearing up this fiction by the roots. The word of God leaves no half-life to man, but teaches that in regard to life and happiness, he has utterly perished. Paul, when he speaks of our redemption, says not that the half-dead are cured, Ephesians chapter 2 verses 5 and 6 and chapter 5 verse 14, but that those who were dead are raised up. He does not call upon the half-dead to receive the illumination of Christ, but upon those who are asleep and buried. In the same way, our Lord himself says, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. John chapter 5 verse 25. How can they presume to set up a flimsy allegory in opposition to so many clear statements? But be it that this allegory is good evidence, what can they extort out of it? Man is half-dead, therefore there is some soundness in him. True, he has a mind capable of understanding, though incapable of attaining to heavenly and spiritual wisdom. He has some discernment of what is honorable, he has some sense of the divinity, though he cannot reach the true knowledge of God. But to what do these amount? They certainly do not refute the doctrine of Augustine, a doctrine confirmed by the common suffragists, even of the schoolmen, that after the fall, the free gifts on which salvation depends were withdrawn, and natural gifts corrupted and defiled. Let it stand, therefore, as an indubitable truth, which no engines can shake, that the mind of man is so entirely alienated from the righteousness of God, that he cannot conceive, desire, or design anything but what is wicked, distorted, foul, impure, and iniquitous. That his heart is so thoroughly envenomed by sin, that it can breathe out nothing but corruption and rottenness, that if some men occasionally make a show of goodness, their mind is ever interwoven with hypocrisy and deceit, their soul inwardly bound with the fetters of wickedness. End of Section 10, Recording by Shana Sir, Fresno, California. to be sought in Christ The parts of this chapter are, 1. The excellence of the doctrine of Christ the Redeemer, a doctrine always entertained by the Church, Section 1. 2. Christ the mediator in both dispensations was offered to the faith of the pious Israelites and people of old, as is plain from the institution of sacrifice, the calling of Abraham's family, and the elevation of David and his posterity, Section 2. 3. Hence the consolation, strength, hope, and confidence of the godly under the law, Christ being offered to them in various ways by their Heavenly Father. Sections 1. The knowledge of God the Creator of no avail without faith in Christ the Redeemer. First reason. Second reason strengthened by the testimony of an apostle. Conclusion. This doctrine entertained by the children of God in all ages from the beginning of the world. Error of throwing open heaven to the heathen who know nothing of Christ. The pretexts for this refuted by passages of Scripture. 2. God never was propitious to the ancient Israelites without Christ the mediator. First reason founded on the institution of sacrifice. Second reason founded on the calling of Abraham. Third reason founded on the elevation of David's family to regal dignity and confirmed by striking passages of Scripture. 3. Christ the solace ever promised to the afflicted. The banner of faith and hope always erected. This confirmed by various passages of Scripture. 4. The Jews taught to have respect to Christ. This teaching sanctioned by our Savior himself. The common saying that God is the object of faith requires to be explained and modified. Conclusion of this discussion concerning Christ. No saving knowledge of God in the heathen. 1. The whole human race having been undone in the person of Adam. The excellence and dignity of our origin as already described is so far from availing us that it rather turns to our greater disgrace until God, who does not acknowledge man when defiled and corrupted by sin as his own work, appear as redeemer in the person of his only begotten Son. Since our fall from life unto death, all that knowledge of God the Creator of which we have discoursed would be useless. Were it not followed up by faith, holding forth God to us as a Father in Christ. The natural course undoubtedly was that the fabric of the world should be a school in which we might learn piety and from it pass to eternal life and perfect felicity. But after looking at the perfection beheld wherever we turn our eye, above and below, we are met by the divine malediction, which while it involves innocent creatures in our fault, of necessity fills our own souls with despair. For although God is still pleased in many ways to manifest his paternal favor towards us, we cannot, from a mere survey of the world, infer that he is a Father. Conscience urging us within, and showing that sin is a just ground for our being forsaken, will not allow us to think that God accounts or treats us as sons. In addition to this are our sloth and ingratitude. Our minds are so blinded that they cannot perceive the truth, and all our senses are so corrupt that we wickedly rob God of his glory. Wherefore, we must conclude with Paul. After that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, yet pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 1 Corinthians 121 By the wisdom of God, he designates this magnificent theater of heaven and earth replenished with numberless wonders. The wise contemplation of which should have enabled us to know God, but this we do with little profit, and therefore he invites us to faith in Christ, faith which, by a semblance of foolishness, disgusts the unbeliever. Therefore, although the preaching of the cross is not in accordance with human wisdom, we must, however, humbly embrace it if we would return to God our Maker, from whom we are estranged, that he may again become our Father. It is certain that after the fall of our first parent, no knowledge of God without a mediator was effectual to salvation. Christ speaks not of his own age merely, but embraces all ages when he says, This is life eternal, that they might know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent, John 17.3. The more shameful, therefore, is the presumption of those who throw heaven open to the unbelieving and profane in the absence of that grace which Scripture uniformly describes as the only door by which we enter into life. Should any confine our Savior's words to the period subsequent to the promulgation of the Gospel, the refutation is at hand. Since on a ground common to all ages and nations, it is declared that those who are estranged from God and as such are under the curse, the children of wrath, cannot be pleasing to God until they are reconciled. To this we may add the answer which our Savior gave to the Samaritan woman. Ye worship ye know not what. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews, John 422. By these words, he both charges every Gentile religion with falsehood and assigns the reason, that is, that under the law the Redeemer was promised to the chosen people only, and that consequently no worship was ever pleasing to God in which respect was not had to Christ. Hence, also Paul affirms that all the Gentiles were without God and deprived of the hope of life. Now, since John teaches that there was life in Christ from the beginning and that the whole world had lost it, John 1.4, it is necessary to return to that fountain, and accordingly Christ declares that inasmuch as he is a propitiator, he is life. And indeed the inheritance of heaven belongs to none but the sons of God, John 15.6. Now, it were most incongruous to give the place and rank of sons to any who have not been engrafted into the body of the only begotten Son, and John distinctly testifies that those become the sons of God who believe in his name. But as it is not my intention at present formally to discuss the subject of faith in Christ, it is enough to have thus touched on it in passing. 2. Hence it is that God never showed himself propitious to his ancient people, nor gave them any hope of grace without a mediator. I say nothing of the sacrifices of the law by which believers were plainly and openly taught that salvation was not to be found anywhere but in the expiation which Christ alone completed. All I maintain is that the prosperous and happy state of the Church was always founded in the Person of Christ. 4. Although God embraced the whole posterity of Abraham in his covenant, yet Paul properly argues, Galatians 3.16, that Christ was truly the seed in which all the nations of the earth were to be blessed, since we know that all who were born of Abraham, according to the flesh, were not accounted the seed. To omit Ishmael and others, how came it that of the two sons of Isaac, the twin brothers Esau and Jacob, while yet in the womb, the one was chosen and the other rejected? Nay, how came it that the firstborn was rejected and the younger alone admitted? Moreover, how happens it that the majority are rejected? Is it plain therefore that the seed of Abraham is considered chiefly in one head and that the promised salvation is not attained without coming to Christ whose office it is to gather together those which were scattered abroad? Thus the primary adoption of the chosen people depended on the grace of the mediator. Although it is not expressed in very distinct terms in Moses, it, however, appears to have been commonly known to all the godly. For before a king was appointed over the Israelites, Hannah, the mother of Samuel, describing the happiness of the righteous, speaks thus in her song. He shall give strength unto his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. Meaning by these words that God would bless his church. To this corresponds the prediction which is afterwards added. I will raise me up a faithful priest and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever. First Samuel 2.10 and 35. And there can be no doubt that our heavenly Father intended that a living image of Christ should be seen in David and his posterity. Accordingly, exhorting the righteous to fear him, he bids them kiss the Son. Corresponding to this is the passage in the Gospel. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father. John 5.23 Therefore though the kingdom was broken up by the revolt of ten tribes, yet the covenant which God had made in David and his successors behaved to stand, as is also declared by his prophets. How be it I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him prince all the days of his life for David, my servant's sake. 1 Kings 11.34 The same thing is repeated a second and third time. It is also expressly said, I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not forever. 1 Kings 11.39 Sometime afterwards it was said, Nevertheless for David's sake did the Lord his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem. 1 Kings 15.4 And when matters were bordering on destruction it was again said, Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for David his servant's sake, as he had promised to give him all way a light, and to his children. 2 Kings 8.19 The sum of the whole comes to this. David, all others being excluded, was chosen to be the person in whom the good pleasure of the Lord should dwell. As it is said elsewhere, he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh. Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which he loved. He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds. From following the youths, great with the young, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. Psalm 78, 60, 67, 70, and 71. In fine, God, in thus preserving his church, intended that its security and salvation should depend on Christ as its head. Accordingly, David exclaims, The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed. And then praise, Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance, intimating that the safety of the church was indissolubly connected with the government of Christ. In the same sense elsewhere, he says, Save, Lord, let the king hear us when we call. Psalm 29. These words plainly teach that believers, in applying for the help of God, had their sole confidence in this, that they were under the unseen government of the king. This may be inferred from another Psalm. Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord, blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Psalm 118, 25, and 26. Here it is obvious that believers are invited to Christ in the assurance that they will be safe when entirely in his hand. To the same effect is another prayer, in which the whole church implores the divine mercy. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man, whom thou madeest strong or best fitted, for thyself. Psalm 80.17. For though the author of the Psalm laments the dispersion of the whole nations, he prays for its revival in him, who is sole head. After the people were led away into captivity, the land laid waste, and matters to appearance desperate, Jeremiah, lamenting the calamity of the church, especially complains that by the destruction of the kingdom the hope of believers was cut off. The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, under his shadow we shall live among the heathen. Lamentations 4.20. From all this it is abundantly plain, that as the Lord cannot be propitious to the human race without a mediator, Christ was always held forth to the holy fathers under the law as the object of their faith. 3. Moreover when comfort is promised in affliction, especially when the deliverance of the church is described, the banner of faith and hope in Christ is unfurled. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed, says Habakkuk 3.13. And whenever mention is made in the prophets of the renovation of the church, the people are directed to the promise made to David, that his kingdom would be forever. And there is nothing strange in this, since otherwise there would have been no stability in the covenant. To this purpose is the remarkable prophecy in Isaiah 7.14, After seeing that the unbelieving king Ahab repugiated what he had testified regarding the deliverance of Jerusalem from siege and its immediate safety, he passes as it were abruptly to the Messiah. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. Intimating indirectly that though the king and his people wickedly rejected the promise offered to them, as if they were bent on causing the faith of God to fail, the covenant would not be defeated, the Redeemer would come in his own time. In fine, all the prophets to show that God was placable were always careful to bring forward that kingdom of David on which redemption and eternal salvation depended. Thus in Isaiah it is said, I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, Isaiah 55, 3, and 4. Intimating that believers in calamitous circumstances could have no hope had they not this testimony that God would be ready to hear them. In the same way, to revive their drooping spirits, Jeremiah says, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. Jeremiah 23, 5, and 6. In Ezekiel also it is said, I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David, he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd, and I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David, a prince among them, I the Lord have spoken it, and I will make with them a covenant of peace, Ezekiel 34, 23, 24, and 25. And again, after discoursing of this wondrous renovation, he says, David, my servant, shall be king over them, and they all shall have one shepherd. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them, it shall be an everlasting covenant with them, Ezekiel 37, 24, through 26. I select a few passages out of many, because I merely wish to impress my readers with the fact that the hope of believers was ever treasured up in Christ alone. All the other prophets concur in this. Thus Hosea, then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together and appoint themselves one head, Hosea 111. This he afterwards explains in clearer terms. Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their King, Hosea 3.5. Micah, also speaking of the return of the people, says expressly, their King shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them, Micah 2.13. So Amos, in predicting the renovation of the people, says, In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that has fallen, and close up the breaches thereof, and I will raise up the ruins and I will build it as in the days of old. Amos 911. In other words, the only banner of salvation was the exaltation of the family of David to regal splendor as fulfilled in Christ. Hence too, Zechariah, as nearer in time to the manifestation of Christ, speaks more plainly. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, thy King cometh under thee. He is just and having salvation. Zechariah 919. This corresponds to the passage already quoted from the Psalms. The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving health of their anointed. Here salvation is extended from the head to the whole body. 4. By familiarizing the Jews with these prophecies, God intended to teach them that in seeking for deliverance they should turn their eyes directly towards Christ. And though they had sadly degenerated, they never entirely lost the knowledge of this general principle, that God, by the hand of Christ, would be the deliverer of the Church, as he had promised to David, and that in this way only the free covenant by which God had adopted his chosen people would be fulfilled. Hence it was that on our Savior's entry into Jerusalem, shortly before his death, the children shouted Hosanna to the Son of David, Matthew 21-9. For there seems to have been a hymn known to all and in general use in which they sung, that the only remaining pledge which they had of the Divine Mercy was the promised advent of a Redeemer. For this reason, Christ tells his disciples to believe in him in order that they might have a distinct and complete belief in God. Ye believe in God, believe also in me, John 14-1. For although, properly speaking, faith rises from Christ to the Father, he intimates that even when it leans on God, it gradually vanishes away, unless he himself interposed to give a solid strength. The majesty of God is too high to be scaled up to by mortals who creep like worms on the earth. Therefore, the common saying that God is the object of faith requires to be received with some modification. When Christ is called the image of the invisible God, Colossians 115, the expression is not used without cause, but is designed to remind us that we can have no knowledge of our salvation until we behold God in Christ. For although the Jewish scribes had by their false glosses darkened what the prophets had taught concerning the Redeemer, yet Christ assumed it to be a fact, received as it were, with public consent, that there was no other remedy in desperate circumstances, no other mode of delivering the church than the manifestation of the mediator. It is true that the fact adverted to by Paul was not so generally known as it ought to have been, that is, that Christ is the end of the law, Romans 10-4, though this is both true and clearly appears from both the law and the prophets. I am not now, however, treating of faith as we shall elsewhere have a fitter place, but what I wish to impress upon my readers in this way is that the first step in piety is to acknowledge that God is a Father to defend, govern, and cherish us until he brings us to the eternal inheritance of his kingdom, that hence it is plain as we lately observed there is no having knowledge of God without Christ, and that consequently from the beginning of the world Christ was held forth to all the elect as the object of their faith and confidence. In this sense Irenaeus says that the Father who is boundless in himself is bounded in the Son because he has accommodated himself to our capacity, lest our minds should be swallowed up by the immensity of his glory. Fanatics not attending to this distort a useful sentiment into an impious dream as if Christ had only a share of the Godhead as a part taken from a whole whereas the meaning merely is that God is comprehended in Christ alone. The saying of John was always true Whosoever denyeth the Son the same has not the Father 1 John 2 23 For though in old time there were many who boasted that they worshipped the supreme deity the maker of heaven and earth yet as they had no mediator it was impossible for them truly to enjoy the mercy of God so as to feel persuaded that he was their Father not holding the head that is Christ their knowledge of God was evanescent and hence they at length fell away to gross and foul superstitions betraying their ignorance just as the Turks in the present day who though proclaiming with full throat that the creator of heaven and earth is their God yet by their rejection of Christ substitute an idol in his place End of Section 11