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012 - Sections 135-145 Discussion Part III-a · Bondage of the Will

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Speaker 1: Sections one hundred thirty five through one hundred forty five
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Speaker 1: of The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther, translated
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Speaker 1: by Henry Cole. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: Discussion third part. We are now arrived at the last
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Speaker 1: part of this discussion, wherein I am as I proposed
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Speaker 1: to bring forward my forces against free Will. But I
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Speaker 1: shall not produce them all. For who could do that
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Speaker 1: within the limits of this small book, when the whole scripture,
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Speaker 1: in every letter and iota, stands on my side. Nor
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Speaker 1: is there any necessity for so doing, seeing that free
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Speaker 1: Will already lies vanquished and prostrate under a twofold overthrow,
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Speaker 1: the one where I have proved that all those things
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Speaker 1: which it imagined made for itself made directly against itself.
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Speaker 1: The other where I have made it manifest that those
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Speaker 1: scriptures which it attempted to refute still remain invincible. If
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Speaker 1: therefore it had not been vanquished by the former. It
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Speaker 1: is enough if it be laid prostrate by the one
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Speaker 1: weapon or the other. And now what need is there
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Speaker 1: that the enemy, already despatched by the one weapon or
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Speaker 1: the other, should have his dead body stabbed with a
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Speaker 1: number of weapons more in this part. Therefore, I shall
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Speaker 1: be as brief as the subject will allow, and from
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Speaker 1: such numerous armies I shall produce only two champion generals,
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Speaker 1: with few of their allegiance, Paul and John the Evangelist,
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Speaker 1: Section one hundred thirty five. Paul, writing to the Romans,
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Speaker 1: thus enters upon his argument against free will and for
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Speaker 1: the grace of God, the wrath of God saith. He
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Speaker 1: is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
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Speaker 1: men who hold the truth in unrighteousness Romans one eighteen.
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Speaker 1: Dost thou hear this general sentence against all men, that
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Speaker 1: they are all under the wrath of God. And what
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Speaker 1: is this but claring that they all merit wrath and punishment,
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Speaker 1: for He assigns the cause of the wrath against them,
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Speaker 1: they do nothing but that which merits wrath, because they
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Speaker 1: are all ungodly and unrighteous, and hold the truth in unrighteousness.
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Speaker 1: Where is now the power of free will which can
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Speaker 1: endeavor anything good? Paul makes it to merit the wrath
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Speaker 1: of God, and pronounces it ungodly and unrighteous. That therefore
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Speaker 1: which merits wrath and is ungodly, only endeavors and avails
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Speaker 1: against grace, not for grace. But some one will here
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Speaker 1: laugh at the yawning inconsiderateness of Luther, for not looking
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Speaker 1: fully into the intention of Paul. Some one will say
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Speaker 1: that Paul does not here speak of all men, nor
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Speaker 1: of all their doings, but of those only who are
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Speaker 1: ungodly and unrighteous, and who, as the words themselves describe them,
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Speaker 1: hold the truth in unrighteousness. But that it does not
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Speaker 1: hence follow that all men are the same. Here I
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Speaker 1: observe that in this passage of Paul, the words against
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Speaker 1: all ungodliness of men are of the same import as
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Speaker 1: if you should say against the ungodliness of all men.
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Speaker 1: For Paul in almost all these instances uses a hebriism,
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Speaker 1: so that the sense is all men are ungodly and unrighteous,
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Speaker 1: and hold the truth in unrighteousness, and therefore all merit wrath. Hence,
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Speaker 1: in the Greek there is no relative which might be
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Speaker 1: rendered of those who but an article causing the sense
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Speaker 1: to run. Thus the wrath of God is revealed from
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Speaker 1: Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men holding the
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Speaker 1: truth in unrighteousness. So that this may be taken as
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Speaker 1: an epithet as it were applicable to all men, as
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Speaker 1: holding the truth in unrighteousness, even as it is an
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Speaker 1: epithet where it is said our Father which art in Heaven,
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Speaker 1: which might, in other words, be expressed thus our heavenly Father,
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Speaker 1: or our Father in heaven. For it is so expressed
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Speaker 1: to distinguish those who believe in fear God. But these
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Speaker 1: things might appear frivolous and vain, did not the very
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Speaker 1: train of Paul's argument require them to be so understood
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Speaker 1: and prove them to be true. For he had said
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Speaker 1: just before the Gospel is the power of God unto
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Speaker 1: salvation to every one that believeth to the jew first,
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Speaker 1: and also to the Greek Romans one sixteen. These words
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Speaker 1: are surely neither obscure or ambiguous to the jew first
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Speaker 1: and also to the Greek. That is, the Gospel of
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Speaker 1: the power of God is necessary unto all men, that
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Speaker 1: believing in it, they might be saved from the wrath
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Speaker 1: of God revealed? Does he not, then, I pray you
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Speaker 1: who declares that the Jews, who excelled in righteousness, in
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Speaker 1: the law of God and in the power of free will,
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Speaker 1: are without a difference, destitute and in need of the
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Speaker 1: power of God by which they might be saved, and
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Speaker 1: who makes that power necessary unto them? Consider that they
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Speaker 1: are all under wrath? What men, then, will you pretend
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Speaker 1: to say are not under the wrath of God? When
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Speaker 1: you are thus compelled to believe that the most excellent
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Speaker 1: men in the world, the Jews and Greeks, were so.
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Speaker 1: And further, whom among the Jews and Greeks themselves will
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Speaker 1: you accept when Paul subjects all of them included in
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Speaker 1: the same word, without difference to the same sentence. And
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Speaker 1: are we to suppose that there were no men out
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Speaker 1: of these two most exalted nations who aspired to what
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Speaker 1: was meritoriously good? Were there none among them who thus
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Speaker 1: aspired with all the powers of their free will? Yet
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Speaker 1: Paul makes no distinction on this account. He includes them
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Speaker 1: all under wrath and declares them all to be ungodly
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Speaker 1: and unrighteous. And are we not to believe that all
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Speaker 1: the other apostles, each one, according to the work he
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Speaker 1: had to do, included all other nations under this in
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Speaker 1: the same way of declaration Section one hundred thirty six.
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Speaker 1: This passage of Paul therefore stands firmly and forcibly urging
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Speaker 1: that free will, even in its most exalted state, in
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Speaker 1: the most exalted men, who were endowed with the law, righteousness, wisdom,
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Speaker 1: and all the virtues, was ungodly and unrighteous and merited
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Speaker 1: the wrath of God. Or the argument of Paul amounts
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Speaker 1: to nothing. And if it stand good, his division leaves
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Speaker 1: no medium. For he makes those who believe the gospel
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Speaker 1: to be under the salvation and all the rest to
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Speaker 1: be under the wrath of God. He makes the believing
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Speaker 1: to be righteous and the unbelieving to be ungodly, unrighteous
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Speaker 1: and under wrath. For the whole that he means to say,
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Speaker 1: is this, the righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel.
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Speaker 1: That it might be by faith. But God would be
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Speaker 1: wanting in wisdom if he could reveal righteousness unto men
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Speaker 1: when they either knew it already or had some seeds
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Speaker 1: of it in themselves. Since, however, He is not wanting
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Speaker 1: in wisdom and yet reveals unto men the righteousness of salvation,
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Speaker 1: it is manifest that free will, even in the most
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Speaker 1: exalted of men, not only has wrought and can work
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Speaker 1: no righteousness, but does not even know what is righteousness
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Speaker 1: before God. Unless you mean to say that the righteousness
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Speaker 1: of God is not revealed unto these most exalted of men,
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Speaker 1: but to the most vile. But the boasting of Paul
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Speaker 1: is quite the contrary, that he is a debtor both
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Speaker 1: to the Jews and to the Greeks, to the wise
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Speaker 1: and to the unwise, to the Greeks and to the barbarians. Wherefore, Paul,
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Speaker 1: comprehending in this passage all men together in one mass,
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Speaker 1: concludes that they are all ungodly, unrighteous, and ignorant of
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Speaker 1: the righteousness of faith. So far is it from possibility
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Speaker 1: that they can will or do anything good. And this
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Speaker 1: conclusion is moreover confirmed from this that God reveals the
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Speaker 1: righteousness of faith to them as being ignorant and sitting
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Speaker 1: in darkness. Therefore, of themselves they know it not. And
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Speaker 1: if they be ignorant of the righteousness of salvation, they
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Speaker 1: are certainly under wrath and damnation. Nor can they extricate
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Speaker 1: themselves therefrom nor endeavor to extricate themselves. For how can
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Speaker 1: you endeavor if you know neither what you are to
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Speaker 1: endeavor after, nor in what way, nor to what extent
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Speaker 1: you are to endeavor Section one hundred thirty seven. With
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Speaker 1: this conclusion, both the thing itself and experience. Agree, for
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Speaker 1: show me one of the whole race of mankind. Be
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Speaker 1: he the most holy and most jest of all men?
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Speaker 1: Unto whose mind it ever came that the way unto
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Speaker 1: righteousness and salvation was to believe in Him who is
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Speaker 1: both God and Man, who die for the sins of men,
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Speaker 1: and rose again and sitteth at the right hand of
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Speaker 1: God the Father, that he might still the wrath of
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Speaker 1: God the Father, which Paul here says, is revealed from heaven.
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Speaker 1: Look at the most eminent philosophers, What ideas had they
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Speaker 1: of God? What have they left behind them in their
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Speaker 1: writings concerning the wrath to come? Look at the Jews,
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Speaker 1: instructed by so many wonders and so many successive prophets,
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Speaker 1: What did they think of this way of righteousness? They
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Speaker 1: not only did not receive it, but so hated it
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Speaker 1: that no nation under Heaven has more atrociously persecuted Christ
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Speaker 1: unto this day. And who would dare to say that
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Speaker 1: in so great a people there was not one who
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Speaker 1: cultivated free will and endeavored with all its powers. How
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Speaker 1: comes it to pass, then, that they all endeavor in
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Speaker 1: the directly opposite, And that that which was the most
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Speaker 1: excellent and the most excellent of men, not only did
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Speaker 1: not follow this way of righteousness, not only did not
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Speaker 1: know it, but even thrust it from them with the
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Speaker 1: greatest hatred, and wished to away with it when it
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Speaker 1: was published and revealed, So much so that Paul saith
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Speaker 1: this way was to the Jews a stumbling block, and
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Speaker 1: to the Gentiles foolishness fors Corinthians one twenty three. Since
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Speaker 1: therefore Paul speaks of the Jews and Gentiles without difference,
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Speaker 1: and since it is certain that the Jews and Gentiles
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Speaker 1: comprehend the principal nations under heaven, it is hence certain
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Speaker 1: the free will is nothing else than the greatest enemy
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Speaker 1: to righteousness and the salvation of man. For it is
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Speaker 1: impossible but that there must have been some among the
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Speaker 1: Jews and gentile Greeks who wrought and endeavored with all
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Speaker 1: the powers of free will, and yet by all that
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Speaker 1: endeavoring did nothing but carry on a war against grace.
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Speaker 1: Do you, therefore, now come forward and say what free
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Speaker 1: will can endeavor towards good when goodness and righteousness themselves
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Speaker 1: are a stumbling block on d to it and foolishness.
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Speaker 1: Nor can you say that this applies to some and
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Speaker 1: not all. Paul speaks of all without difference. Where he
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Speaker 1: says to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the
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Speaker 1: Gentiles foolishness. Nor does he accept any but believers. To us,
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Speaker 1: saith he who are called and saints. It is the
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Speaker 1: power of God and the wisdom of God. First Corinthians,
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Speaker 1: one twenty four. He does not say to some gentiles,
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Speaker 1: to some Jews, but plainly to the Gentiles and to
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Speaker 1: the Jews who are not of us. Thus by a
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Speaker 1: manifest division, separating the believing from the unbelieving, and leaving
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Speaker 1: no medium whatever. And we are now speaking of gentiles
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Speaker 1: as working without grace. To whom Paul saith, the righteousness
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Speaker 1: of God is foolishness, and they abhor it. This is
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Speaker 1: that meritorious endeavor of free will towards good Section one
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Speaker 1: hundred thirty eight. See moreover whether Paul himself does not
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Speaker 1: particularize the most exalted among the Greeks, where he saith
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Speaker 1: that the wisest among them became vain in their imaginations,
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Speaker 1: and their foolish heart was darkened, that they became wise
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Speaker 1: in their own conceits, that is, by their subtle disputations
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Speaker 1: Romans one twenty one. Does he not hear, I pray
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Speaker 1: you touch that which was the most exalted and most
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Speaker 1: excellent in the Greeks when he touches their imaginations, For
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Speaker 1: these comprehend their most sublime and exalted thoughts and opinions,
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Speaker 1: which they considered as solid wisdom. But he calls that
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Speaker 1: their wisdom, as well in other places, foolishness, as here
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Speaker 1: vain imagination, which by its endeavoring only became worse, till
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Speaker 1: at last they worshiped an idol in their own darkened hearts,
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Speaker 1: and proceeded to the other enormities, which he afterwards enumerates.
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Speaker 1: If therefore, the most exalted and devoted endeavors and works
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Speaker 1: in the most exalted of the nations be evil and ungodly,
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Speaker 1: what shall we think of the rest, who are, as
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Speaker 1: it were, the commonalty and the vilest of the nations.
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Speaker 1: Nor does Paul here make any difference between those who
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Speaker 1: are the most exalted, For he condemns all the devotedness
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Speaker 1: of their wisdom, without any respect of persons. And if
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Speaker 1: he condemn their very works and devoted endeavors, he condemns
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Speaker 1: those who exert them, even though they strive with all
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Speaker 1: the powers of free will, their most exalted endeavor, I say,
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Speaker 1: is declared to be evil, how much more then the
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Speaker 1: persons themselves who exert it. So also just afterwards he
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Speaker 1: rejects the Jews without any difference. Who are Jews in
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Speaker 1: the letter and not in the spirit. Thou saith he
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Speaker 1: honorest God in the letter and in the circumcision. Again,
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Speaker 1: he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, but
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Speaker 1: he is a Jew, which is one inwardly Romans one,
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Speaker 1: twenty seven through twenty nine. What can be more manifest
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Speaker 1: than the division here made? The Jew outwardly is a
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Speaker 1: transgressor of the law. And how many Jews must we
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Speaker 1: suppose there were without the faith? Who were men, the
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Speaker 1: most wise, the most religious, the most honorable, who aspired
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Speaker 1: unto righteousness and truth with all the devotion of endeavor.
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Speaker 1: Of these the apostle continually bears testimony that they had
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Speaker 1: a zeal of God, that they followed after righteousness, that
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Speaker 1: they strove day and night to attain unto salvation, that
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Speaker 1: they lived blameless. And yet they are transgressors of the
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Speaker 1: law because they are not Jews in the spirit. Nay,
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Speaker 1: they determinately resist the righteousness of faith. What conclusion then
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Speaker 1: remains to be drawn, but that free will is then
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Speaker 1: the worst when it is the best, And that the
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Speaker 1: more is it endeavors, the worse it becomes, and the
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Speaker 1: worse it is. The words are plain, the division is certain,
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Speaker 1: nothing can be said against it Section one hundred thirty nine.
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Speaker 1: But let us hear Paul, who is his own interpreter,
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Speaker 1: in the third chapter, drawing up, as it were, a conclusion,
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Speaker 1: he saith, what then are we better than they? No?
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Speaker 1: In no wise, for we have before proved both Jews
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Speaker 1: and Greeks that they are all under sin Romans three nine.
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Speaker 1: Where is now free will? All saith he both Jews
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Speaker 1: and Greeks are under sin? Are there any tropes or
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Speaker 1: difficulties here? What would the invented interpretations of the whole
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Speaker 1: world do against this all clear sentence? He who says
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Speaker 1: all accepts none. And he who describes them all as
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Speaker 1: being under sin, that is, the servants of sin, leaves
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Speaker 1: them no degree of good whatever. But where has he
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Speaker 1: given this proof that they are all both Jews in
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Speaker 1: Gentiles under sin? Nowhere? But where I have already shown, namely,
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Speaker 1: where he saith the wrath of God is revealed from
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Speaker 1: Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. This he
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Speaker 1: proves to them afterwards from experience, showing them that, being
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Speaker 1: hated of God, they were given up to so many
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Speaker 1: vices in order that they might be convinced from the
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Speaker 1: fruits of their ungodliness, that they willed and did nothing
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Speaker 1: but evil. And then he judges the Jews also separately,
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Speaker 1: where he saith that the Jew in the letter is
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Speaker 1: a transgressor of the law, which he proves in like
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Speaker 1: manner from the fruits and from experience, saying, thou who
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Speaker 1: declarest that a man should not steal, stealest thyself, and
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Speaker 1: thou who abhorrest idols, committest sacrilege, thus excepting none whatever
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Speaker 1: but those who are Jews in the Spirit Section one
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Speaker 1: hundred forty. But let us see how Paul proves his
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Speaker 1: sentiments out of the Holy scriptures, and whether the passages
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Speaker 1: which he adduces are made to have more force in
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Speaker 1: Paul than they have in their own places. As it
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Speaker 1: is written, saith he there is none righteous, no not one.
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Speaker 1: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh
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Speaker 1: after God. They are all gone out of the way
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Speaker 1: they are altogether become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no,
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Speaker 1: not one, and so forth Romans three ten through twenty three. Here,
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Speaker 1: let him that can produce his convenient interpretation, invent tropes
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Speaker 1: and pretend that the words are ambiguous and obscure. Let
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Speaker 1: him that dares defend free will against these damnable doctrines,
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Speaker 1: then I will at once give up all and recant,
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Speaker 1: and will myself become a confessor and asserter of free will.
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Speaker 1: It is, sir, and that these words apply to all men.
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Speaker 1: For the prophet introduces God as looking down from heaven
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Speaker 1: upon men and pronouncing this sentence upon them. So also
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Speaker 1: Psalm fourteen two through three. God looked down from heaven
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Speaker 1: upon the children of men, to see if there were
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Speaker 1: any that did understand and seek after God. But they
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Speaker 1: are all gone out of the way, and so forth,
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Speaker 1: And that the Jews might not imagine that this did
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Speaker 1: not apply to them by anticipation, and asserts that it
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Speaker 1: applied to them most particularly, saying we know that what
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Speaker 1: things soever the Law saith, it saith to them that
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Speaker 1: are under the law Romans three nineteen. And his intention
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Speaker 1: is the same where he saith to the Jew first,
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Speaker 1: and also to the Greek. You hence hear that all
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Speaker 1: the sons of men, all that are under the law,
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Speaker 1: that is, the Gentiles as well as the Jews, are
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Speaker 1: accounted before God, ungodly, not understanding, not seeking after God, no,
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Speaker 1: not even one of them, being all gone out of
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Speaker 1: the way and become unprofitable. And surely, among all the
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Speaker 1: children of men and those who are under the law,
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Speaker 1: those must also be numbered who are the best and
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Speaker 1: most laudable, who aspire after that which is meritorious and good,
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Speaker 1: with all the powers of free will. And those also
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Speaker 1: of whom the diet tribe boasts as having the sense
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Speaker 1: and certain seeds of good implanted in them. Unless it
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Speaker 1: means to contend that they are the children of angels,
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Speaker 1: How then can they endeavor toward good? Who are all,
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Speaker 1: without exception ignorant of God, and neither regard nor seek
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Speaker 1: after God. How can they have a power able to
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Speaker 1: attain unto good, who all without exception decline from good
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Speaker 1: and become utterly unprofitable. Are not the words most clear?
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Speaker 1: And do they not declare this, that all men are
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Speaker 1: ignorant of God and despise God, and then turn unto evil?
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Speaker 1: And become unprofitable and to good her. Paul is not
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Speaker 1: here speaking of the ignorance of seeking food or the
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Speaker 1: contempt of money, but of the ignorance and contempt of
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Speaker 1: religion and of godliness. And that ignorance and contempt, most
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Speaker 1: undoubtedly are not in the flesh, that is, as you
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Speaker 1: interpret it, the inferior and grosser affections, but in the
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Speaker 1: most exalted and most noble powers of men, in which righteousness, godliness,
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Speaker 1: the knowledge and reverence of God ought to reign, that is,
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Speaker 1: in the reason and in the will, and thus in
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Speaker 1: the very power of free will, in the very seed
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Speaker 1: of good, in that which is the most excellent in man.
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Speaker 1: Where are you now, friend, Erasmus, you who promised that
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Speaker 1: you would freely acknowledge that the most excellent faculty in
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Speaker 1: man is flesh that is ungodly, if it should be
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Speaker 1: proved from the scriptures knowledge, Now then when you hear
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Speaker 1: that the most excellent faculty in man is not only ungodly,
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Speaker 1: but ignorant of God, existing in the contempt of God,
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Speaker 1: turned to evil and unable to turn towards good. For
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Speaker 1: what is it to be unrighteous but for the will,
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Speaker 1: which is one of the most noble faculties in man
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Speaker 1: to be unrighteous? What is it to understand nothing either
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Speaker 1: of God or good but for the reason which is
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Speaker 1: another of the most noble faculties in man, to be
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Speaker 1: ignorant of God and good, that is, to be blind
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Speaker 1: to the knowledge of Godliness. What is it to be
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Speaker 1: gone out of the way and to have become unprofitable
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Speaker 1: but for men to have no power in one single faculty,
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Speaker 1: and the least power in their most noble faculties, to
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Speaker 1: turn unto good, but only to turn unto evil? What
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Speaker 1: is it not to fear God, but for men to be,
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Speaker 1: in all their faculties, and most of all, in their
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Speaker 1: noblest faculties, contemn near of all the things of God,
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Speaker 1: of his words, his works, his laws, his precepts, and
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Speaker 1: his Will. What then, can reason propose that is right,
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Speaker 1: who is thus blind and ignorant? What can the will
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Speaker 1: choose that is good, which is thus evil and impotent? Nay,
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Speaker 1: what can the will pursue where the reason can propose
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Speaker 1: nothing but the darkness of its own blindness and ignorance,
22:26
Speaker 1: And where the reason is thus erroneous and the will averse?
22:30
Speaker 1: What can the man either do or attempt that is
22:33
Speaker 1: good Section one hundred fifty one. But perhaps some one
22:38
Speaker 1: may here sophistically observe. Though the will be gone out
22:42
Speaker 1: of the way, and the reason be ignorant as to
22:45
Speaker 1: the perfection of the act, yet the will can make
22:48
Speaker 1: some attempt, and the reason can attain to some knowledge
22:52
Speaker 1: by its own powers. Seeing that we can attempt many
22:55
Speaker 1: things which we cannot perfect. And we are here speaking
22:59
Speaker 1: of the exists distance of a power, not of the
23:01
Speaker 1: perfection of the act. I answer the words of the
23:06
Speaker 1: prophet comprehend both the act and the power. For his
23:10
Speaker 1: saying man seeks not God is the same as if
23:13
Speaker 1: he had said man cannot seek God, which you may
23:17
Speaker 1: collect from this. If there were a power or ability
23:21
Speaker 1: in man to will good, it could not be but that,
23:24
Speaker 1: as the motion of the divine omnipotence could not suffer
23:27
Speaker 1: it to remain actionless or to keep holiday. As I
23:31
Speaker 1: before observed, it must be moved forth into act in
23:34
Speaker 1: some man, at least in some one man or another,
23:38
Speaker 1: and must be made manifest so as to afford an example.
23:42
Speaker 1: But this is not the case, for God looks down
23:45
Speaker 1: from heaven and does not see even one who seeks
23:48
Speaker 1: after him or attempts it. Wherefore it follows that that
23:52
Speaker 1: power is nowhere to be found which attempts or wills
23:56
Speaker 1: to attempt to seek after him, and that all men
24:00
Speaker 1: are gone out of the way. Moreover, if Paul be
24:04
Speaker 1: not understood to speak at the same time of impotency,
24:08
Speaker 1: his disputation will amount to nothing. For Paul's whole design
24:12
Speaker 1: is to make grace necessary unto all men. Whereas if
24:16
Speaker 1: they could make some sort of beginning themselves, grace would
24:19
Speaker 1: not be necessary. But now, since they cannot make that beginning,
24:24
Speaker 1: grace is necessary. Hence you see that free will is
24:28
Speaker 1: by this passage utterly abolished, and nothing meritorious or good
24:32
Speaker 1: whatever left in man, seeing that he is declared to
24:36
Speaker 1: be unrighteous, ignorant of God, a contemner of God, averse
24:41
Speaker 1: to God, and unprofitable in the sight of God. And
24:44
Speaker 1: the words of the prophet are sufficiently forcible, both in
24:47
Speaker 1: their own place and in Paul, who adduces them. Nor
24:51
Speaker 1: is it an inconsiderable assertion when men are said to
24:54
Speaker 1: be ignorant of and to despise God. For these are
24:58
Speaker 1: the fountain springs of all iniquities, the sink of all sins,
25:03
Speaker 1: and the hell of all evils. What evil is there not?
25:07
Speaker 1: Where there are ignorance and contempt of God. In a word,
25:11
Speaker 1: the whole kingdom of Satan in men could not be
25:14
Speaker 1: defined in fewer or more expressive words than by saying
25:18
Speaker 1: they are ignorant of and despise God. For there is unbelief,
25:23
Speaker 1: there is disobedience, there is sacrilege, there is blasphemy against God.
25:29
Speaker 1: There is cruelty and a want of mercy towards our neighbor.
25:33
Speaker 1: There is the love of Self in all the things
25:35
Speaker 1: of God and man. Here you have a description of
25:39
Speaker 1: the glory and power of free will. Section one hundred
25:43
Speaker 1: forty two. Paul, however, proceeds and testifies that he now
25:48
Speaker 1: expressly speaks with reference to all men, and to those
25:52
Speaker 1: more especially who are the greatest and most exalted, saying
25:56
Speaker 1: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
25:59
Speaker 1: become guilty before God, for by the works of the
26:02
Speaker 1: law shall no flesh be justified in His sight. Romans three,
26:07
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty. How I pray you shall every mouth be stopped.
26:12
Speaker 1: If there be still a power remaining by which we
26:16
Speaker 1: can do something. For one might then say to God
26:20
Speaker 1: that which is here in the world is not altogether nothing.
26:24
Speaker 1: There is that here which you cannot damn, even that
26:27
Speaker 1: to which you yourself gave the power of doing something.
26:31
Speaker 1: The mouth of this at least will not be stopped,
26:33
Speaker 1: for it cannot be obnoxious to you. For if there
26:37
Speaker 1: be any sound power in free will, and it be
26:40
Speaker 1: able to do something, to say that the whole world
26:43
Speaker 1: is obnoxious to or guilty before God is false. For
26:47
Speaker 1: that power whose mouth is not to be stopped cannot
26:50
Speaker 1: be an inconsiderable thing, or a something in one small
26:54
Speaker 1: part of the world only, but a thing most conspicuous
26:57
Speaker 1: and most general throughout the whole world. Or if its
27:01
Speaker 1: mouth be to be stopped, then it must be obnoxious
27:05
Speaker 1: to and guilty before God, together with the whole world.
27:09
Speaker 1: But how can it rightly be called guilty if it
27:11
Speaker 1: be not unrighteous and ungodly, that is meriting punishment and vengeance.
27:18
Speaker 1: Let your friends, I pray you find out by what
27:20
Speaker 1: convenient interpretation that power of man is to be cleared
27:24
Speaker 1: from this charge of guilt by which the whole world
27:28
Speaker 1: is declared guilty before God, Or by what contrivance it
27:31
Speaker 1: is to be accepted from being comprehended in the expression
27:34
Speaker 1: all the world these words, they are all gone out
27:39
Speaker 1: of the way. There is none righteous, No, not one,
27:44
Speaker 1: are mighty thunderclaps and riving thunderbolts. They are in reality
27:49
Speaker 1: that hammer breaking the rock in pieces mentioned by Jeremiah,
27:53
Speaker 1: by which is broken in pieces everything that is not
27:57
Speaker 1: in one man only, nor in some men, nor in
27:59
Speaker 1: a part of men, but in the whole world, no
28:03
Speaker 1: one man being accepted, So that the whole world ought
28:07
Speaker 1: at those words to tremble, to fear, and to flee away.
28:11
Speaker 1: For what words more awful or fearful could be uttered
28:15
Speaker 1: than these. The whole world is guilty. All the sons
28:19
Speaker 1: of men are turned out of the way and become unprofitable.
28:23
Speaker 1: There is no one that fears God. There is no
28:26
Speaker 1: one that is not unrighteous. There is no one that understandeth,
28:30
Speaker 1: There is no one that seeketh after God. Nevertheless, such
28:35
Speaker 1: ever has been and still is the hardness and insensible
28:38
Speaker 1: obstinacy of our hearts, that we never should of ourselves
28:41
Speaker 1: hear or feel the force of these thunderclaps or thunderbolts,
28:45
Speaker 1: but should, even while they were sounding in our ears,
28:48
Speaker 1: exalt and establish free will with all its powers, in
28:51
Speaker 1: defiance of them, and thus in reality fulfill that of
28:55
Speaker 1: Malachi one. For they build, but I will throw down
29:00
Speaker 1: with the same power of words. Also is this said,
29:04
Speaker 1: by the deeds of the law, shall no flesh be
29:06
Speaker 1: justified in his sight. By the deeds of the law
29:10
Speaker 1: is a forcible expression. As is also this the whole world,
29:15
Speaker 1: and this all the children of men. For it is
29:19
Speaker 1: to be observed that Paul abstains from the mention of
29:22
Speaker 1: persons and mentions their ways, only that is that he
29:26
Speaker 1: might comprehend all persons, and whatever in them is most excellent.
29:31
Speaker 1: Whereas if he had said the commonalty of the Jews,
29:35
Speaker 1: or the Pharisees, or certain of the ungodly are not justified,
29:39
Speaker 1: he might have seemed to leave some excepted, who, from
29:43
Speaker 1: the power of free will in them, and by a
29:45
Speaker 1: certain aid from the law, were not altogether unprofitable. But
29:50
Speaker 1: now when he condemns the works of the law themselves
29:53
Speaker 1: and makes them unrighteous in the sight of God, it
29:56
Speaker 1: becomes manifest that he condemns all who were mighty in
30:00
Speaker 1: a devoted observance of the law and of works, and
30:04
Speaker 1: none devotedly observe the law and the works, but the
30:06
Speaker 1: best and most excellent among them, nor did they thus
30:10
Speaker 1: observe them, but with their best and most exalted faculties,
30:13
Speaker 1: that is their reason and their will. If therefore, those
30:19
Speaker 1: who exercise themselves in the observance of the law and
30:22
Speaker 1: of works, with all the devoted strivings and endeavorings, both
30:25
Speaker 1: of reason and of will, that is, with all the
30:28
Speaker 1: power of free will, and who were assisted by the
30:31
Speaker 1: law as a divine aid, and were instructed out of
30:35
Speaker 1: it and roused to exertion by it. If I say
30:39
Speaker 1: these are condemned of impiety because they are not justified,
30:43
Speaker 1: and are declared to be flesh in the sight of God,
30:46
Speaker 1: what then will there be left in the whole race
30:49
Speaker 1: of mankind which is not flesh, and which is not ungodly.
30:53
Speaker 1: For all are condemned alike who are of the works
30:56
Speaker 1: of the law, And whether they exercise themselves in the law,
31:00
Speaker 1: all with the utmost devotion or moderate devotion, or with
31:04
Speaker 1: no devotion at all, it matters nothing. None of them
31:08
Speaker 1: could do anything but work the works of the law.
31:11
Speaker 1: And the works of the law do not justify. And
31:13
Speaker 1: if they do not justify, they prove their workmen to
31:17
Speaker 1: be ungodly, and leave them so. And if they be ungodly,
31:21
Speaker 1: they are guilty and merit the wrath of God. These
31:25
Speaker 1: things are so clear that no one can open his
31:28
Speaker 1: mouth against them Section one hundred forty three. But many
31:33
Speaker 1: elude and evade Paul by saying that he here calls
31:37
Speaker 1: the ceremonial works works of the law, which works after
31:41
Speaker 1: the death of Christ were dead. I answer this is
31:45
Speaker 1: that notable error and ignorance of Jerome, which, although Augustine
31:49
Speaker 1: strenuously resisted it, yet, by the withdrawing of God and
31:53
Speaker 1: the prevailing of Satan, has found its way throughout the world,
31:57
Speaker 1: and has continued down to this day, the means of
32:00
Speaker 1: which it has come to pass that it has been
32:03
Speaker 1: impossible to understand Paul, and the knowledge of Christ has
32:06
Speaker 1: consequently been obscured. Therefore, if there had been no other
32:11
Speaker 1: error in the Church, this one might have been sufficiently
32:14
Speaker 1: pestilent and powerful to destroy the Gospel, for which Jerome,
32:19
Speaker 1: if peculiar grace did not interpose, has deserved hell rather
32:23
Speaker 1: than heaven. So far am I from daring to canonize
32:27
Speaker 1: him or call him a saint. But however, it is
32:31
Speaker 1: not truth that Paul is here speaking of the ceremonial
32:34
Speaker 1: works only for If that be the case, how will
32:37
Speaker 1: his argument stand good? Whereby he concludes that all are
32:41
Speaker 1: unrighteous and need grace. But perhaps you will say, be
32:45
Speaker 1: it so that we are not justified by the ceremonial works,
32:49
Speaker 1: yet one might be justified by the moral works of
32:52
Speaker 1: the decalogue. By this syllogism of yours, then you have
32:56
Speaker 1: proved that to such grace is not necessary. If this
33:01
Speaker 1: be the case, how very useful must that grace be,
33:04
Speaker 1: which delivers us from the ceremonial works, only the easiest
33:08
Speaker 1: of all works, which may be extorted from us through
33:11
Speaker 1: mere fear or self love. And this, moreover is erroneous.
33:17
Speaker 1: That ceremonial works are dead and unlawful since the death
33:20
Speaker 1: of Christ. Paul never said any such thing. He says
33:24
Speaker 1: that they do not justify, and that they profit the
33:27
Speaker 1: man nothing in the sight of God, so as to
33:30
Speaker 1: make him free from unrighteousness. Holding this truth, any one
33:34
Speaker 1: may do them and yet do nothing that is unlawful. Thus,
33:38
Speaker 1: to eat and to drink are works which do not
33:41
Speaker 1: justify or recommend us to God. And yet he who
33:44
Speaker 1: eats and drinks does not therefore do that which is unlawful.
33:49
Speaker 1: These men err also in this the ceremonial works were
33:53
Speaker 1: as much commanded and exacted in the old law and
33:56
Speaker 1: in the Decalogue as the moral works, and therefore the
34:01
Speaker 1: latter had neither more nor less forced than the former.
34:04
Speaker 1: For Paul is here speaking principally to the Jews, as
34:07
Speaker 1: he saith Romans won. Wherefore, let no one doubt that
34:12
Speaker 1: by the works of the law here all the works
34:14
Speaker 1: of the whole law are to be understood. For if
34:17
Speaker 1: the law be abrogated and dead, they cannot be called
34:20
Speaker 1: the works of the law. For an abrogated or dead
34:24
Speaker 1: law is no longer a law. And that Paul knew
34:27
Speaker 1: full will. Therefore he does not speak of the law
34:30
Speaker 1: abrogated when he speaks of the works of the law,
34:33
Speaker 1: but of the law in force and authority. Otherwise, how
34:37
Speaker 1: easy would it have been for him to say the
34:39
Speaker 1: law is now abrogated, and then he would have spoken
34:43
Speaker 1: openly and clearly. But let us bring forward Paul himself,
34:47
Speaker 1: who is the best interpreter of himself. He Saith Galatians
34:52
Speaker 1: three ten. As many as are of the works of
34:55
Speaker 1: the law are under the curse, For it is written,
34:58
Speaker 1: cursed is every one one that continueth not in all
35:01
Speaker 1: things which are written in the Book of the Law
35:03
Speaker 1: to do them. You see that Paul here where he
35:07
Speaker 1: is urging the same point as he is in his
35:09
Speaker 1: Epistle to the Romans, and in the same words speaks
35:12
Speaker 1: wherever he makes mention of the works of the law,
35:15
Speaker 1: of all the laws that are written in the Book
35:16
Speaker 1: of the Law. And what is still more worthy of remark,
35:21
Speaker 1: Paul himself cites Moses, who curses those that continue not
35:25
Speaker 1: in the law, whereas he himself curses those who are
35:29
Speaker 1: of the works of the law, thus adducing a testimony
35:33
Speaker 1: of a different scope from that of his own sentiment,
35:36
Speaker 1: the former being in the negative, the latter in the affirmative.
35:41
Speaker 1: But this he does because the real state of the
35:44
Speaker 1: case is such in the sight of God, that those
35:46
Speaker 1: who are the most devoted to the works of the
35:48
Speaker 1: law are the farthest from fulfilling the law, as being
35:53
Speaker 1: without the Spirit, who only is the fulfiller of the law,
35:57
Speaker 1: which such may attempt to fulfill by their own powers,
36:00
Speaker 1: but they will effect nothing after all. Wherefore both declarations
36:05
Speaker 1: are true, that of Moses that they are a cursed
36:08
Speaker 1: who continue not in the works of the Law, and
36:12
Speaker 1: that of Paul that they are a cursed who are
36:15
Speaker 1: of the works of the law. For both characters of
36:18
Speaker 1: persons require the spirit, without which the works of the law,
36:23
Speaker 1: how many an excellence, soever, they may be justify, not
36:27
Speaker 1: as Paul saith. Wherefore neither character of persons continue in
36:32
Speaker 1: all things that are written as Moses Saith Section one
36:37
Speaker 1: hundred forty four. In a word, Paul, by this division
36:41
Speaker 1: of his fully confirms that which I maintain. For he
36:45
Speaker 1: divides law working men into two classes, those who work
36:49
Speaker 1: after the spirit and those who work after the flesh,
36:52
Speaker 1: leaving no medium whatever he speaks. Thus, by the deeds
36:56
Speaker 1: of the law shall no flesh be justified. Romans three
37:00
Speaker 1: twenty What is this but saying that those whose works
37:04
Speaker 1: profit them not work the works of the law without
37:07
Speaker 1: the spirit, as being themselves flesh, that is unrighteousness and
37:12
Speaker 1: ignorant of God. So Galatians three two, making the same division,
37:16
Speaker 1: he Saith received ye the spirit by the works of
37:19
Speaker 1: the law, or by the hearing of faith again Romans
37:23
Speaker 1: three twenty one. But now the righteousness of God is
37:26
Speaker 1: manifest without the law, And again Romans three twenty eight.
37:31
Speaker 1: We conclude therefore that a man is justified by faith
37:34
Speaker 1: without the works of the Law from all which it
37:38
Speaker 1: is manifest and clear that in Paul the Spirit is
37:41
Speaker 1: set in opposition to the works of the Law, as
37:44
Speaker 1: well as to all other things which are not spiritual,
37:47
Speaker 1: including all the powers of and everything pertaining to the flesh,
37:52
Speaker 1: So that the meaning of Paul is evidently the same
37:55
Speaker 1: as that of Christ John three six, that everything which
37:59
Speaker 1: is not of the Spirit is flesh. Be it ever
38:01
Speaker 1: so precious, wholly and great. Nay, be they works of
38:05
Speaker 1: the Divine Law, the most excellent and wrought by all
38:07
Speaker 1: the powers imaginable, For the Spirit of Christ is wanting,
38:11
Speaker 1: without which all things are nothing short of being damnable.
38:17
Speaker 1: Let it then be a settled point that Paul, by
38:19
Speaker 1: the works of the Law, means not the ceremonial works,
38:22
Speaker 1: but the works of the whole Law. Then this will
38:26
Speaker 1: be a settled point also, that in the works of
38:28
Speaker 1: the Law everything is condemned, that is, without the spirit,
38:33
Speaker 1: and without the spirit is that power of free will,
38:37
Speaker 1: For that is the point in dispute that most exalted
38:41
Speaker 1: faculty in man, For to be of the works of
38:45
Speaker 1: the Law is the most exalted state in which man
38:48
Speaker 1: can be. The apostle. Therefore, does not say who are
38:52
Speaker 1: of sins and of ungodliness against the law, But who
38:56
Speaker 1: are of the works of the law? That is, who
39:00
Speaker 1: are the best of men and the most devoted to
39:02
Speaker 1: the law, And who are, in addition to the power
39:05
Speaker 1: of free will even assisted that is instructed and roused
39:09
Speaker 1: into action by the law itself. If therefore free will,
39:15
Speaker 1: assisted by the law, and exercising all its powers in
39:18
Speaker 1: the law, profit nothing and justify not, but be left
39:22
Speaker 1: in sin and in the flesh, what must we suppose
39:25
Speaker 1: it able to do when left to itself without the
39:27
Speaker 1: law by the law? Saith Paul is the knowledge of
39:32
Speaker 1: sin Romans three twenty. Here he shows how much and
39:35
Speaker 1: how far the law profits. That free will is of
39:39
Speaker 1: itself so blind that it does not even know what
39:42
Speaker 1: is sin, but has need of the law for its teacher.
39:47
Speaker 1: And what can that man do towards taking away sin,
39:50
Speaker 1: who does not even know what is sin? All that
39:53
Speaker 1: he can do is to mistake that which is sin
39:56
Speaker 1: for that which is no sin, and that which is
39:59
Speaker 1: no sin for that which is sin. And this experience
40:02
Speaker 1: sufficiently proves how does the world, by the medium of
40:06
Speaker 1: those whom it accounts the most excellent and the most
40:09
Speaker 1: devoted to righteousness and piety, hate and persecute the righteousness
40:13
Speaker 1: of God preached in the Gospel, and brand it with
40:16
Speaker 1: the name of heresy, error, and every opprobrious appellation, while
40:21
Speaker 1: it boasts of and sets forth its own works and devices,
40:25
Speaker 1: which are really sin and error, as righteousness and wisdom.
40:29
Speaker 1: By this scripture, therefore, Paul stops the mouth of free will,
40:33
Speaker 1: where he teaches that by the law its sin is discovered,
40:36
Speaker 1: unto it of which sin it was before ignorant. So
40:40
Speaker 1: far is he from conceding to it any power whatever
40:44
Speaker 1: to attempt that which is good Section one hundred forty five.
40:49
Speaker 1: And here is solved that question of the Diatribe so
40:53
Speaker 1: often repeated throughout its book, if we can do nothing,
40:56
Speaker 1: to what purpose are so many laws, so many priests,
41:00
Speaker 1: so many threatenings, and so many promises. Paul here gives
41:04
Speaker 1: an answer. By the law is the knowledge of sin.
41:08
Speaker 1: His answer is far different from that which would enter
41:11
Speaker 1: the thoughts of man or of free will. He does
41:15
Speaker 1: not say, by the law is proved free will because
41:18
Speaker 1: it cooperates with it unto righteousness. For righteousness is not
41:22
Speaker 1: by the law, but by the law is the knowledge
41:25
Speaker 1: of sin, seeing that the effect the work in the
41:29
Speaker 1: office of the law is to be a light to
41:32
Speaker 1: the ignorant and the blind, such a light as discovers
41:35
Speaker 1: to them disease, sin, evil, death, hell, and the wrath
41:40
Speaker 1: of God, though it does not deliver from these, but
41:43
Speaker 1: shows them only. And when a man is thus brought
41:47
Speaker 1: to a knowledge of the disease of sin, he is
41:49
Speaker 1: cast down, is afflicted, nay despairs. The law does not
41:54
Speaker 1: help him much, less can he help himself. Another light
41:57
Speaker 1: is necessary, which might discover to him the remedy. This
42:02
Speaker 1: is the voice of the Gospel, revealing Christ as the
42:05
Speaker 1: deliverer from all these evils. Neither free will nor reason
42:09
Speaker 1: can discover him. And how should it discover him, when
42:14
Speaker 1: it is itself dark and devoid, even in the light
42:17
Speaker 1: of the Law, which might discover to it its disease,
42:20
Speaker 1: which disease in its own light seeth not, but believes
42:24
Speaker 1: it to be sound health. So also in Galatians three,
42:28
Speaker 1: treating on the same point, he saith, wherefore then serveth
42:32
Speaker 1: the law to which he answers, not, as the diatribe does,
42:36
Speaker 1: in a way that proves the existence of free will,
42:39
Speaker 1: But he saith it was added because of transgressions, until
42:43
Speaker 1: the seed should come, to whom the promise was made
42:47
Speaker 1: Galatians three nineteen. He saith because of transgressions, not, however,
42:52
Speaker 1: to restrain them as Jerome dreams. For Paul shows that
42:56
Speaker 1: to take away and to restrain sins by the gift
42:59
Speaker 1: of right life righteousness was that which was promised to
43:02
Speaker 1: the seed to come, but to cause transgressions to abound,
43:06
Speaker 1: as He saith Romans five twenty. The law entered that
43:10
Speaker 1: sin might abound, not that sins were not committed and
43:14
Speaker 1: did not abound without the law, but they were not
43:17
Speaker 1: known to be transgressions, and sins of such magnitude, for
43:21
Speaker 1: the most and greatest of them were considered to be righteousnesses.
43:26
Speaker 1: And while sins are thus unknown, there is no place
43:28
Speaker 1: for remedy or for hope, because they will not submit
43:32
Speaker 1: to the hand of the healer, considering themselves to be
43:35
Speaker 1: whole and not to want a physician. Therefore, the law
43:39
Speaker 1: is necessary, which might give the knowledge of sin, in
43:42
Speaker 1: order that he who is proud and whole in his
43:45
Speaker 1: own eyes, being humbled down into the knowledge of the
43:49
Speaker 1: iniquity and greatness of his sin, might groan and breathe
43:53
Speaker 1: after the grace that is laid up in Christ only observed. Therefore,
43:57
Speaker 1: the simplicity of the words by the la Law is
44:00
Speaker 1: the knowledge of sin. And yet these alone are of
44:04
Speaker 1: force sufficient to confound and overthrow free will altogether. For
44:09
Speaker 1: if it be true that of itself it knows not
44:13
Speaker 1: what is sin and what is evil. As the Apostle
44:16
Speaker 1: saith here and Romans seven seven through eight, I should
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Speaker 1: not have known that concupiscence was sin, except the Law
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Speaker 1: has said, thou shalt not covet. How can it ever
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Speaker 1: know what is righteousness and good? And if it know
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Speaker 1: not what righteousness is, how can it endeavor to attain
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Speaker 1: unto it? We know not the sin in which we
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Speaker 1: were born, in which we live, in which we move
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Speaker 1: and exist, and which lives, moves, and reigns in us.
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Speaker 1: How then should we know that righteousness which is without us,
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Speaker 1: and which reigns in heaven. These works bring that miserable thing,
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Speaker 1: free will, to nothing, nothing at all. End of Section
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Speaker 1: one hundred forty five