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014 - Sections 156-168 Discussion Part III-c · Bondage of the Will

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Speaker 1: Sections one hundred fifty six through one hundred sixty eight
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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 concluded section one hundred fifty six. Now,
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Speaker 1: let us come to John, who is also a most
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Speaker 1: copious and powerful subverter of free will. He, at the
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Speaker 1: very outset attributes to free will such blindness that it
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Speaker 1: cannot even see the light of the truth. So far
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Speaker 1: is it from possibility that it should endeavor after it?
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Speaker 1: He speaks, Thus, the light shineth in darkness, and the
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Speaker 1: darkness comprehended it not John one five. And directly afterwards
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Speaker 1: he was in the world, and the world knew him. Not.
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Speaker 1: He came unto his own, and his own knew him
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Speaker 1: not Verses ten through eleven. What do you imagine he
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Speaker 1: means by world? Will you attempt to separate any man
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Speaker 1: from being included in this term, but him who is
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Speaker 1: born again of the Holy Spirit. The term world is
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Speaker 1: very particularly used by this apostle, by which he means
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Speaker 1: the whole race of men. Whatever therefore, he says of
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Speaker 1: the world is to be understood of the whole race
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Speaker 1: of men. And hence whatever he says of the world
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Speaker 1: is to be understood also of free will, as that
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Speaker 1: which is most excellent in man. According to this apostle,
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Speaker 1: then the world does not know the light of truth.
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Speaker 1: The world hates Christ and his The world neither knows
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Speaker 1: nor sees the Holy Spirit. The whole world is settled
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Speaker 1: in enmity. All that is in the world is the
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Speaker 1: lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and
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Speaker 1: the pride of life. Love not the world, ye saith,
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Speaker 1: he are not of the world. The world cannot hate you,
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Speaker 1: but it hateth me, because I testify of it that
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Speaker 1: the works thereof are evil. All these and many other
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Speaker 1: like passages, are proclamations of what free will is, the
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Speaker 1: principal part of the world, ruling the empire of Satan.
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Speaker 1: For John also himself speaks of the world by antithesis,
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Speaker 1: making the world to be everything in the world which
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Speaker 1: is not translated into the kingdom of the Spirit. So
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Speaker 1: also Christ saith to the apostles, I have chosen you
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Speaker 1: out of the world and ordained you, and so forth
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Speaker 1: John fifteen sixteen. If therefore there were any in the
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Speaker 1: world who, by the powers of free will endeavored so
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Speaker 1: as to attain unto good, which would be the case
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Speaker 1: if free will could do anything. John certainly ought in
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Speaker 1: reverence for these persons to have softened down the term,
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Speaker 1: lest by a word of such general application, he should
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Speaker 1: involve them in all the evils of which he condemns
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Speaker 1: the world. But as he does not this, it is
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Speaker 1: evident that he makes free will guilty of all that
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Speaker 1: is laid to the charge of the world. Because whatever
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Speaker 1: the world does, it does by the power of free
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Speaker 1: will will, that is, by its will and by its reason,
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Speaker 1: which are its most exalted faculties. He then goes on,
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Speaker 1: But as many as received him, to them, he gave
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Speaker 1: the power to become the sons of God, even to
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Speaker 1: them that believe on His name, which were born not
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Speaker 1: of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor
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Speaker 1: of the will of man, but of God. John one
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Speaker 1: twelve through thirteen, having finished this distinctive division, he rejects
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Speaker 1: from the Kingdom of Christ all that is of blood,
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Speaker 1: of the will of the flesh, and of the will
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Speaker 1: of man. By blood, I believe he means the Jews,
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Speaker 1: that is, those who wished to be the children of
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Speaker 1: the Kingdom because they were the children of Abraham and
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Speaker 1: of the fathers, and hence gloried in their blood by
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Speaker 1: the will of the flesh. I understand the devoted efforts
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Speaker 1: of the people, which they exercised in the law and
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Speaker 1: in works for flesh. Hearsakeresnifies the carnal without the spirit,
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Speaker 1: who had indeed a will and endeavor, but who, because
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Speaker 1: the spirit was not in them, were carnal by the
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Speaker 1: will of man. I understand the devoted efforts of all, generally,
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Speaker 1: that is, of the nations, or of any man whatever,
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Speaker 1: whether exercised by the law or without the law, so
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Speaker 1: that the sense is they become the sons of God,
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Speaker 1: neither by the birth of the flesh, nor by a
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Speaker 1: devoted observance of the law, nor by any devoted human
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Speaker 1: effort whatever, but by a divine birth. Only if therefore
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Speaker 1: they be neither born of the flesh, nor brought up
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Speaker 1: by the law, nor prepared by any human discipline, but
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Speaker 1: are born again of God. It is manifest that free
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Speaker 1: will here profits nothing. For I understand man to signify
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Speaker 1: here according to the Hebrew manner of speech, any man
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Speaker 1: or all men, even as flesh is understood to signify
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Speaker 1: by antithesis, the people without the spirit and the will
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Speaker 1: of man, I understand to signify the greatest power in men,
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Speaker 1: that is that principal part free will. But be it
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Speaker 1: so that we do not dwell thus upon the signification
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Speaker 1: of the words singly. Yet the sum and substance of
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Speaker 1: the meaning is most clear that John, by this distinctive division,
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Speaker 1: rejects everything that is not of divine generation, since he
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Speaker 1: says that men are made the sons of God, none
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Speaker 1: otherwise than by being born of God, which takes place,
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Speaker 1: according to his own interpretation, by believing on his name.
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Speaker 1: In this rejection, therefore, the will of man, or free will,
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Speaker 1: as it is not of divine generation nor faith, is
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Speaker 1: necessarily included. But if free will avail anything, the will
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Speaker 1: of man ought not to be rejected by John, nor
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Speaker 1: ought men to be drawn away from it and sent
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Speaker 1: to faith and to the new birth, only lest that
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Speaker 1: of Isaiah should be pronounced against him. Woe unto you
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Speaker 1: that call good evil. Whereas now, since he rejects alike
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Speaker 1: all blood, the will of the flesh, and the will
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Speaker 1: of man, it is evident that the will of man
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Speaker 1: avails nothing more towards making men the sons of God
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Speaker 1: than blood does or the carnal birth. And no one
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Speaker 1: doubts whether or not the carnal birth makes men the
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Speaker 1: sons of God. For as Paul saith, they which are
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Speaker 1: the children of the flesh, these are not the children
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Speaker 1: of God Romans nine eight, which he proves by the
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Speaker 1: examples of Ishmael. In Esau Section one hundred fifty seven,
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Speaker 1: the same John introduces the Baptist, speaking thus of Christ
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Speaker 1: and of his fullness we have all received and grace
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Speaker 1: for grace John one sixteen. He says that grace is
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Speaker 1: received by us out of the fullness of Christ. But
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Speaker 1: for what merit or to de voted effort for grace?
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Speaker 1: Saith he that is of Christ, as Paul also saith,
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Speaker 1: the grace of God and the gift by grace which
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Speaker 1: is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many
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Speaker 1: Romans five fifteen. Where is now the endeavor of free
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Speaker 1: will by which grace is obtained? John and Paul here
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Speaker 1: saith that grace is not only not received for any
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Speaker 1: devoted effort of our own, but even for the grace
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Speaker 1: of another, or the merit of another, that is of
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Speaker 1: one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore it is either false that
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Speaker 1: we receive our grace for the grace of another, or
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Speaker 1: else it is evident that free will is nothing at all,
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Speaker 1: For both cannot consist. That the grace of God is
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Speaker 1: both so cheap that it may be obtained in common
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Speaker 1: and everywhere by the little endeavor of any man, and
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Speaker 1: at the same time so dear that it is given
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Speaker 1: unto us only in and through the grace of one man,
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Speaker 1: and he so great. And I would also that the
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Speaker 1: advocates for free will be admonished in this place, that
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Speaker 1: when they assert free will, they are deniers of Christ.
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Speaker 1: For if I obtain grace by my own endeavors, what
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Speaker 1: need have I of the grace of Christ for the
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Speaker 1: receiving of my grace? Or what do I want when
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Speaker 1: I have gotten the grace of God? For the diatribe
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Speaker 1: has said, and all this, Sophists say that we obtain
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Speaker 1: grace and are prepared for the reception of it by
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Speaker 1: our own endeavors, not, however, according to worthiness, but according
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Speaker 1: to congruity. This is plainly denying Christ, for whose grace
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Speaker 1: the Baptist here testifies that we receive grace. For as
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Speaker 1: to that fetch about worthiness, and congruity. I have refuted
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Speaker 1: that already and proved it to be a mere play
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Speaker 1: upon empty words, while the merit of worthiness is really intended,
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Speaker 1: and that to a more impious length than ever the
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Speaker 1: police Magians themselves went, as I have already shown. And
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Speaker 1: hence the ungodly Sophists, together with the Diatribe, have more
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Speaker 1: awfully denied the Lord Christ who bought us, than ever
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Speaker 1: the Pallagians or any heretics have denied him. So far
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Speaker 1: is it from possibility that grace should allow of any
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Speaker 1: particle or power of free will. But however, that the
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Speaker 1: advocates for free will deny Christ is proved not by
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Speaker 1: this scripture only, but by their own very way of life.
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Speaker 1: For by their free will they have made Christ to
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Speaker 1: be unto them, no longer a sweet mediator, but a
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Speaker 1: dreaded judge, whom they strive to please, by the intercessions
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Speaker 1: of the Virgin Mother and of the saints, and also
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Speaker 1: by variously invented works, by rites, ordinances, and vows, by
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Speaker 1: all which they aim at appeasing Christ in order that
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Speaker 1: He might give them grace. But they do not believe
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Speaker 1: that He intercedes before God and obtains grace for them
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Speaker 1: by His blood and grace, as it is here said
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Speaker 1: for grace, and as they believe, so it is unto them,
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Speaker 1: for Christ is in truth an inexorable judge to them,
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Speaker 1: and justly so, for they leave him, who is a
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Speaker 1: mediator and most merciful savior, and account his blood and
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Speaker 1: grace of less value than the devoted efforts and endeavors
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Speaker 1: of their free will. Section one hundred fifty eight. Now
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Speaker 1: let us hear an example of free will. Nicodemus is
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Speaker 1: a man in whom there is everything that you can desire,
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Speaker 1: which free will is able to do. For what does
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Speaker 1: that man omit either of devoted effort or endeavor? He
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Speaker 1: confesses Christ to be true and to have come from God,
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Speaker 1: he declares his miracles. He comes by night to hear
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Speaker 1: him and to converse with him. Does he not appear
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Speaker 1: to have sought after, by the power of free will
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Speaker 1: those things which pertain unto piety and salvation? But mark
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Speaker 1: what shipwreck he makes when he hears the true way
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Speaker 1: of salvation by a new birth to be taught by Christ.
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Speaker 1: Does he acknowledge it or confess that he ever sought
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Speaker 1: after it? Nay, he revolts from it, and is confounded
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Speaker 1: so much so that he does not only say he
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Speaker 1: does not understand it, but heaves against it as impossible,
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Speaker 1: How say is he can these things be true? John
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Speaker 1: three nine? And no wonder, for who ever heard that
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Speaker 1: man must be born again unto salvation of water and
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Speaker 1: of the spirit Verse five? Who ever thought that the
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Speaker 1: Son of God must be exalted, that whosoever should believe
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Speaker 1: in him should not perish but have everlasting life? Verse fifteen?
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Speaker 1: Did the greatest and most acute philosophers ever make mention
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Speaker 1: of this? Did the princes of this world ever possess
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Speaker 1: this knowledge? Did the free will of any man ever
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Speaker 1: attain unto this? By endeavors? Does not Paul confess it
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Speaker 1: to be wisdom hidden in a mystery, foretold indeed by
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Speaker 1: the prophets, but revealed by the Gospel, so that it
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Speaker 1: was secret and hidden from the world. In a word,
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Speaker 1: ask experience, and the whole world. Human reason itself, and
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Speaker 1: in consequence, free will itself, is compelled to confess that
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Speaker 1: it never knew Christ nor heard of him before the
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Speaker 1: Gospel came into the world. And if it did not
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Speaker 1: know him, much less could it seek after him, search
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Speaker 1: for him? Or endeavor to come unto him. But Christ
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Speaker 1: is the way of truth, life and salvation. It must confess. Therefore,
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Speaker 1: whether it will or no, that of its own powers
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Speaker 1: it neither knew nor could seek after those things which
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Speaker 1: pertain unto the way of truth and salvation. And yet,
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Speaker 1: contrary to this our own very confession and experience, like madmen,
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Speaker 1: we dispute in empty words, that there is in us
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Speaker 1: that power remaining which can both know and apply itself
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Speaker 1: unto those things which pertain unto salvation. This is nothing
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Speaker 1: more or less than saying that Christ, the Son of God,
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Speaker 1: was exalted for us when no one could ever have
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Speaker 1: known it or thought of it. But that, nevertheless, this
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Speaker 1: very ignorance is not an ignorance, but a knowledge of Christ,
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Speaker 1: that is, of those things which pertain into salvation. Do
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Speaker 1: you not yet then see and palpably feel out that
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Speaker 1: the asserters of free will are plainly mad, while they
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Speaker 1: call that knowledge which they themselves confess to be ignorance.
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Speaker 1: Is this not to put darkness for light Isaiah five twenty.
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Speaker 1: But so it is, though God so powerfully stop the
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Speaker 1: mouth of free will by its own confession and experience,
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Speaker 1: Yet even then it cannot keep silence and give God
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Speaker 1: the glory Section one hundred fifty nine. And now farther
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Speaker 1: as Christ is said to be the Way, the Truth
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Speaker 1: and the Life, John fourteen six, and that by positive assertion,
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Speaker 1: so that whatever is not Christ is not the way,
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Speaker 1: but error is not the truth, but a lie is
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Speaker 1: not the life but death. It of necessity follows that
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Speaker 1: free will, as it is neither Christ nor in Christ,
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Speaker 1: must be bound in error, in a lie, and in death.
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Speaker 1: Where now will be found that medium and neuter. That
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Speaker 1: the power of free will, which is not in Christ,
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Speaker 1: that is in the way, the truth and the life,
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Speaker 1: is yet not of necessity either error or a lie
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Speaker 1: or death. For if all things which are said concerning
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Speaker 1: Christ and Grace were not said by positive assertion, that
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Speaker 1: they might be opposed to their contraries, that is that
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Speaker 1: out of Christ there is nothing but satan. Out of grace,
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Speaker 1: nothing but wrath. Out of the light, nothing but darkness,
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Speaker 1: out of the life, nothing but death. What I ask
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Speaker 1: you would be the use of all the the writings
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Speaker 1: of the apostles, nay of the whole scripture. The whole
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Speaker 1: would be written in vain, because they would not fix
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Speaker 1: the point that Christ is necessary, which nevertheless is their
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Speaker 1: especial design. And for this reason, because a medium would
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Speaker 1: be found out, which of itself would be neither evil
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Speaker 1: nor good, neither of Christ nor of Satan, neither true
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Speaker 1: nor false, neither alive nor dead, and perhaps neither any
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Speaker 1: thing nor nothing, And that would be called that which
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Speaker 1: is most excellent and most exalted in the whole race
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Speaker 1: of men. Take it. Therefore, which way you will, If
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Speaker 1: you grant that the scriptures speak in positive assertion, you
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Speaker 1: can say nothing for free will, but that which is
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Speaker 1: contrary to Christ. That is, you will say that error, death, Satan,
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Speaker 1: and all evils reign in him. If you do not
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Speaker 1: grant that they speak in positive assertion, you weaken the scriptures,
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Speaker 1: make them to establish nothing, not even to prove that
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Speaker 1: Christ is necessary. And thus while you establish free will,
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Speaker 1: you make Christ void and bring the whole scripture to destruction.
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Speaker 1: And though you may pretend verbally that you confess Christ,
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Speaker 1: yet in reality and in heart you deny him. For
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Speaker 1: if the power of free will be not a thing
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Speaker 1: erroneous altogether and damnable, but sees and wills those things
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Speaker 1: which are good and meritorious, and which pertain unto salvation.
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Speaker 1: It is whole. It wants not the physician Christ, Nor
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Speaker 1: does Christ redeem that part of man, For what need
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Speaker 1: is there for light and life? When there is light
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Speaker 1: and life already. Moreover, if that power be not redeemed,
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Speaker 1: the best part in man is not redeemed, but is
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Speaker 1: of itself good and whole. And then also God is
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Speaker 1: unjust if he damn any man, because he damns that
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Speaker 1: which is the most excellent in man, and whole is
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Speaker 1: he damns him when innocent. For there is no man
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Speaker 1: who has not free will. And although the evil man
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Speaker 1: abuse this, yet this power itself, according to what you teach,
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Speaker 1: is not so destroyed, but that it can and does
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Speaker 1: endeavor towards good. And if it be such, it is
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Speaker 1: without doubt, good, holy and just. Wherefore it ought not
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Speaker 1: to be damned, but to be distinctly separated from the
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Speaker 1: man who is to be damned. But this cannot be done.
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Speaker 1: And even if it could be done, man would then
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Speaker 1: be without free will. Nay, he would not be man
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Speaker 1: at all. He would neither have merit nor demerit. He
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Speaker 1: could neither be damned nor saved, but would be completely
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Speaker 1: a brute, and no longer immortal. It follows therefore that
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Speaker 1: God is unjust, who damns that good, just and holy power, which,
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Speaker 1: though it be in an evil man, does not need
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Speaker 1: Christ as the evil man does Section one hundred sixty.
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Speaker 1: But let us proceed with John. He that believeth on
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Speaker 1: him saith, he is not condemned. But he that believeth
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Speaker 1: not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on
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Speaker 1: the name of the only begotten Son of God. John
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Speaker 1: three eighteen tell me his free will included in the
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Speaker 1: number of those that believe or not. If it be,
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Speaker 1: then again it has no need of grace, because of
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Speaker 1: itself it believes on Christ, whom of itself it never
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Speaker 1: knew nor thought of. If it be not, then it
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Speaker 1: is judged already. And what is this but saying that
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Speaker 1: it is damned in the sight of God. But God
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Speaker 1: damns none but the ungodly. Therefore it is ungodly. And
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Speaker 1: what godliness can that which is ungodly endeavor after? For
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Speaker 1: I do not think that the power of free will
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Speaker 1: can be accepted, seeing that he speaks of the whole
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Speaker 1: man as being condemned. Moreover, unbelief is not one of
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Speaker 1: the grosser affections. But is that chief affection seated and
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Speaker 1: ruling on the throne of the will and reason, just
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Speaker 1: the same as its contrary faith. For to be unbelieving
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Speaker 1: is to deny God and to make him a liar.
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Speaker 1: If we believe not, we make God a liar. First
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Speaker 1: John five ten. How then, can that power which is
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Speaker 1: contrary to God, and which makes him a liar endeavor
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Speaker 1: after that which is good? And if that power be
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Speaker 1: not unbelieving and ungodly, John ought not to say of
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Speaker 1: the whole man that he is condemned already, but to
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Speaker 1: speak thus, man, according to his grosser affections, is condemned already,
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Speaker 1: But according to that which is best and most excellent,
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Speaker 1: he is not condemned, because that endeavors after faith, or
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Speaker 1: rather is already believing. Hence, where the Scripture so often
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Speaker 1: saith all men are liars, we must, upon the authority
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Speaker 1: of free will. On the contrary, say the scripture lies,
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Speaker 1: because man is not a liar as to his best part,
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Speaker 1: that is his reason and will, But as to his
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Speaker 1: flesh only that is his blood and his grosser part,
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Speaker 1: So that that whole according to which he is called man,
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Speaker 1: that is his reason and his will is sound and holy. Again,
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Speaker 1: there is that of the Baptist. He that believeth on
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Speaker 1: the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the
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Speaker 1: Son shall not see life. But the wrath of God
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Speaker 1: abideth on him. John three thirty six. We must understand
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Speaker 1: upon him Thus, that is the wrath of God abideth
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Speaker 1: upon the grosser affections of the man. But upon that
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Speaker 1: power of free will, that is, upon his will and
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Speaker 1: his reason abide grace and everlasting life. Hence, according to this,
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Speaker 1: in order that free will might stand, whatever is in
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Speaker 1: the scriptures said against the ungodly, you are by the
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Speaker 1: figure senecticy to twist round to apply to that brutal
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Speaker 1: part of man, that the truly rational and human part
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Speaker 1: might remain safe. I have therefore to render thanks to
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Speaker 1: the asserters of free will, because I may sin with
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Speaker 1: all confidence, knowing that my reason and will, or my
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Speaker 1: free will, cannot be damned, because it cannot be destroyed
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Speaker 1: by my sinning, but forever remains sound, righteous and holy,
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Speaker 1: and thus happy in my will and reason. I shall
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Speaker 1: rejoice that my filthy and brutal flesh is distinctly separated
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Speaker 1: from me and damned so far shall I be from
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Speaker 1: wishing Christ to become its redeemer. You see here to
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Speaker 1: what the doctrine of free will brings us. It denies
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Speaker 1: all things divine and human, temporal and eternal, and with
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Speaker 1: all these enormities, makes a laughing stock of itself Section
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Speaker 1: one hundred sixty one. Again, the Baptist saith, a man
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Speaker 1: can receive nothing except it were given him from above.
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Speaker 1: John three twenty seven. Let not the diatribe here produce
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Speaker 1: its forces where it enumerates all those things which we
22:03
Speaker 1: have from heaven. We are now disputing not about nature,
22:07
Speaker 1: but about grace. We are inquiring not what we are
22:11
Speaker 1: upon earth, but what we are in heaven. Before God.
22:15
Speaker 1: We know that man was constituted lord over all things
22:18
Speaker 1: which are beneath himself, over which he has a right
22:21
Speaker 1: and a free will, that those things might do and
22:24
Speaker 1: obey as he wills and thinks. But we are now
22:28
Speaker 1: inquiring whether he has a free will over God that
22:31
Speaker 1: he should do and obey in those things which man wills,
22:35
Speaker 1: or rather whether God has not a free will over man,
22:39
Speaker 1: that he should will and do what God wills, and
22:42
Speaker 1: should be able to do nothing but what He wills
22:45
Speaker 1: and does The Baptist here says that he can receive
22:49
Speaker 1: nothing except it be given him from above, wherefore free
22:53
Speaker 1: will must be a nothing at all. Again, he that
22:58
Speaker 1: is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth.
23:02
Speaker 1: He that cometh from heaven is above all John three
23:05
Speaker 1: thirty one. Here again he makes all those earthly who
23:09
Speaker 1: are not of Christ, and says that they savor and
23:13
Speaker 1: speak of earthly things only. Nor does he leave any
23:16
Speaker 1: medium characters. But surely free will is not he that
23:21
Speaker 1: cometh from heaven. Wherefore it must of necessity be he
23:25
Speaker 1: that is of the earth, and that speaks of the earth,
23:28
Speaker 1: and savors of the earth. But if there were any
23:31
Speaker 1: power in man which at any time, in any place,
23:34
Speaker 1: or by any work did not savor of the earth,
23:37
Speaker 1: the Baptist ought to have accepted this person, and not
23:41
Speaker 1: to have said in a general way concerning all those
23:43
Speaker 1: who are out of Christ, that they are of the
23:46
Speaker 1: earth and speak of the earth. So also afterwards, Christ saith,
23:52
Speaker 1: ye are of the world, I am not of the world.
23:56
Speaker 1: Ye are from beneath. I am from above John eight
24:00
Speaker 1: twenty three. And yet those to whom he spoke had
24:04
Speaker 1: free will, that is reason, and will But still he
24:08
Speaker 1: says that they are of the world. But what news
24:12
Speaker 1: would he have told if he had merely said that
24:15
Speaker 1: they were of the world as to their grosser affections?
24:18
Speaker 1: Did not the whole world know this? Before? Moreover, what
24:22
Speaker 1: need was there for his saying that men were of
24:25
Speaker 1: the world as to that part in which they are brutal?
24:29
Speaker 1: For according to that beasts are also of the world
24:33
Speaker 1: Section one hundred sixty two. And now what do those
24:37
Speaker 1: words of Christ where he saith, No one can come
24:40
Speaker 1: unto me except my Father, which hath sent me draw
24:43
Speaker 1: him John six forty four leave to free will, For
24:48
Speaker 1: he says it is necessary that every one should hear
24:51
Speaker 1: and learn of the Father himself, and that all must
24:55
Speaker 1: be taught of God. Here Indeed, he not only declares
25:00
Speaker 1: that the works and devoted efforts of free will are
25:02
Speaker 1: of no avail, but that even the word of the
25:05
Speaker 1: Gospel itself, of which he is here speaking, is heard
25:08
Speaker 1: in vain. Unless the Father himself speak within and teach
25:13
Speaker 1: and draw no one can No one can saith he
25:17
Speaker 1: come by which that power whereby men can endeavor something
25:21
Speaker 1: towards Christ, that is, towards those things which pertain unto
25:24
Speaker 1: salvation is declared to be a nothing at all, Nor
25:29
Speaker 1: does that at all prophet free will, which the diatribe
25:32
Speaker 1: brings forward out of Augustine by way of casting a
25:36
Speaker 1: slur upon this all clear and all powerful scripture, that
25:39
Speaker 1: God draws us in the same way as we draw
25:42
Speaker 1: a sheep, by holding out to it a green bow.
25:46
Speaker 1: By this similitude, he would prove that there is in
25:49
Speaker 1: us a power to follow the drawing of God. But
25:52
Speaker 1: this similitude avails nothing in the present passage. For God
25:56
Speaker 1: holds out not one of his good things only, but many, nay,
26:00
Speaker 1: even his son Christ himself. And yet no man follows
26:03
Speaker 1: him unless the Father hold him forth otherwise within and
26:07
Speaker 1: draw otherwise, Nay, the whole world follows the sun, whom
26:12
Speaker 1: he holds forth. But this similitude harmonizes sweetly with the
26:16
Speaker 1: experience of the godly, who are now made sheep and
26:20
Speaker 1: know God their shepherd. These living in and being moved
26:25
Speaker 1: by the spirit, follow wherever God wills, and whatever he
26:29
Speaker 1: holds out to them. But the ungodly man comes not
26:32
Speaker 1: unto him, even when he hears the word, unless the
26:36
Speaker 1: Father draw and teach within, which he does by shedding
26:39
Speaker 1: abroad his Spirit, and where that is done, there is
26:43
Speaker 1: a different kind of drawing from that which is without.
26:46
Speaker 1: There Christ is held forth in the illumination of the Spirit,
26:50
Speaker 1: whereby the man is drawn unto Christ with the sweetest
26:53
Speaker 1: of all drawing, under which he is passive, while God speaks, teaches,
26:58
Speaker 1: and draws, rather than seeks or runs of himself Section
27:03
Speaker 1: one hundred sixty three. I will produce yet one more
27:07
Speaker 1: passage from John, where he saith, the Spirit shall reprove
27:11
Speaker 1: the world of sin, because they believe not in Me
27:15
Speaker 1: John sixteen nine. You here see that it is sin
27:19
Speaker 1: not to believe in Christ. And this sin is seated
27:23
Speaker 1: not in the skin, nor in the hairs of the head,
27:27
Speaker 1: but in the very reason and will. Moreover, as Christ
27:31
Speaker 1: makes the whole world guilty from this sin, and as
27:34
Speaker 1: it is known by experience that the world is ignorant
27:37
Speaker 1: of this sin, as much so as it is ignorant
27:41
Speaker 1: of Christ, seeing that it must be revealed by the
27:44
Speaker 1: reproof of the Spirit, it is manifest that free will,
27:48
Speaker 1: together with its will and reason, is accounted a captive
27:52
Speaker 1: of this sin and condemned before God. Wherefore, as long
27:56
Speaker 1: as it is ignorant of Christ and believes not in him,
27:59
Speaker 1: It can will or attempt nothing good, but necessarily serves
28:03
Speaker 1: that sin of which it is ignorant. In a word,
28:08
Speaker 1: since the Scripture declares Christ everywhere by positive assertion and
28:11
Speaker 1: by antithesis, as I said before, in order that it
28:15
Speaker 1: might subject everything that is without the spirit of Christ
28:18
Speaker 1: to Satan, to ungodliness, to error, to darkness, to sin,
28:23
Speaker 1: to death, and to the wrath of God. All the
28:26
Speaker 1: testimonies concerning Christ must make directly against free will, and
28:31
Speaker 1: they are innumerable. Yeay, the whole of the Scripture. If
28:36
Speaker 1: therefore our subject of discussion is to be decided by
28:39
Speaker 1: the judgment of the Scripture, the victory in every respect
28:43
Speaker 1: is mine. For there is not one jot or tittle
28:47
Speaker 1: of the Scripture remaining which does not condemn the doctrine
28:50
Speaker 1: of free will altogether. But if the great theologians and
28:54
Speaker 1: defenders of free will know not, or pretend not to know,
28:58
Speaker 1: that the Scripture ever were declares Christ by positive assertion
29:02
Speaker 1: and by antithesis, yet all Christians know it, and in
29:06
Speaker 1: common confess it. They know. I say that there are
29:09
Speaker 1: two kingdoms in the world, mutually militating against each other,
29:14
Speaker 1: that Satan reigns in the one who on that account
29:17
Speaker 1: is by Christ called the Prince of this world John
29:20
Speaker 1: twelve thirty one, and by Paul, the God of this
29:24
Speaker 1: World second Corinthians four four, who, according to the testimony
29:29
Speaker 1: of the same Paul, holds all captive according to his will,
29:32
Speaker 1: who are not rescued from him by the Spirit of Christ,
29:36
Speaker 1: nor does he suffer any to be rescued by any
29:39
Speaker 1: other power but that of the Spirit of God, as
29:42
Speaker 1: Christ testifies in the parable of the strong man armed
29:46
Speaker 1: keeping his palace in peace. In the other kingdom Christ reigns,
29:51
Speaker 1: which kingdom continually resists in wars against that of Satan,
29:55
Speaker 1: into which we are translated not by any power of
29:59
Speaker 1: our own, but by the grace of God, whereby we
30:02
Speaker 1: are delivered from this present evil world and are snatched
30:05
Speaker 1: from the power of darkness. The knowledge and confession of
30:08
Speaker 1: these two kingdoms, which thus ever mutually war against each
30:13
Speaker 1: other with so much power and force, would alone be
30:16
Speaker 1: sufficient to confute the doctrine of free will, Seeing that
30:19
Speaker 1: we are compelled to serve in the Kingdom of Satan
30:22
Speaker 1: until we be liberated by a divine power. All this
30:26
Speaker 1: I say is known in common among Christians, and fully
30:29
Speaker 1: confessed in their proverbs, by their prayers, by their pursuits,
30:34
Speaker 1: and by their whole lives Section one hundred sixty four.
30:39
Speaker 1: I omit to bring forward that truly Achillian scripture of mine,
30:43
Speaker 1: which the diatribe proudly passes by untouched. I mean that
30:47
Speaker 1: which Paul teaches Romans seven and Galatians five, that there
30:52
Speaker 1: is in the saints and in the Godly, so powerful
30:55
Speaker 1: a warfare between the spirit and the flesh, that they
30:57
Speaker 1: cannot do what they would from this warfare. I argue, thus,
31:02
Speaker 1: if the nature of man be so evil even in
31:05
Speaker 1: those who are born again of the Spirit, that it
31:08
Speaker 1: does not only endeavor after good, but is even averse
31:11
Speaker 1: to it, and militates against good, how should it endeavor
31:15
Speaker 1: after good in those who are not born again of
31:17
Speaker 1: the spirit, and who are still in the old man
31:21
Speaker 1: and serve under Satan. Nor does Paul there speak of
31:25
Speaker 1: the grosser affections only by means of which, as a
31:28
Speaker 1: common escape gap the diatribe is accustomed to get out
31:32
Speaker 1: of the way of all the scriptures. But he enumerates
31:35
Speaker 1: among the works of the flesh heresy, idolatry, contentions, divisions,
31:40
Speaker 1: and so forth, which he describes as reigning in those
31:43
Speaker 1: most exalted faculties, that is, in the reason and the will.
31:49
Speaker 1: If therefore flesh with these affections war against the spirit
31:53
Speaker 1: in the saints, much more will it war against God
31:56
Speaker 1: in the ungodly and in free will. Hence Romans eight
32:01
Speaker 1: seven he calls it enmity against God. I should, like,
32:06
Speaker 1: I say, to see this argument of mine overturned and
32:09
Speaker 1: free will defended against it. As to myself, I openly
32:14
Speaker 1: confess that I should not wish free will to be
32:17
Speaker 1: granted me, even if it could be so, nor anything
32:20
Speaker 1: else to be left in my own hands, whereby I
32:22
Speaker 1: might endeavor something toward my own salvation. And that not
32:26
Speaker 1: merely because in so many opposing dangers and so many
32:29
Speaker 1: assaulting devils, I could not stand and hold it fast,
32:33
Speaker 1: in which state no man could be saved, seeing that
32:36
Speaker 1: one devil is stronger than all men. But because even
32:40
Speaker 1: though there were no dangers, no conflicts, no devils, I
32:44
Speaker 1: should be compelled to labor under a continual uncertainty and
32:49
Speaker 1: to beat the air. Only, nor would my conscience, even
32:53
Speaker 1: if I should live and work to all eternity, ever
32:56
Speaker 1: come to a settled certainty, how much it ought to
32:58
Speaker 1: do in order to satisfy God. God, for whatever work
33:02
Speaker 1: should be done, there would still remain a scrupling, whether
33:05
Speaker 1: or not it pleased God, or whether he required anything more,
33:09
Speaker 1: as is proved in the experience of all justiciaries, and
33:13
Speaker 1: as I myself learned to my bitter cost, through so
33:16
Speaker 1: many years of my own experience. But now, since God
33:21
Speaker 1: has put my salvation out of the way of my
33:23
Speaker 1: will and has taken it under his own, and has
33:26
Speaker 1: promised to save me, not according to my working or
33:29
Speaker 1: manner of life, but according to his own grace and mercy,
33:33
Speaker 1: I rest fully assured and persuaded that He is faithful
33:37
Speaker 1: and will not lie, and moreover great and powerful, so
33:41
Speaker 1: that no devils, no adversities, can destroy him or pluck
33:44
Speaker 1: me out of his hand. No one saith he shall
33:48
Speaker 1: pluck them out of my hand, because my Father, which
33:51
Speaker 1: gave them me, is greater than all John ten twenty
33:55
Speaker 1: seven to twenty eight. Hence it is certain that in
33:58
Speaker 1: this way, if all all are not saved, yet some,
34:02
Speaker 1: yea many shall be saved. Whereas by the power of
34:05
Speaker 1: free will, know one whatever could be saved, but all
34:09
Speaker 1: must perish together. And moreover we are certain and persuaded
34:14
Speaker 1: that in this way we please God not from the
34:17
Speaker 1: merit of our own works, but from the favor of
34:19
Speaker 1: His mercy promised unto us, and that if we work
34:23
Speaker 1: less or work badly, he does not impute it unto us,
34:26
Speaker 1: but as a father, pardons us and makes us better.
34:30
Speaker 1: This is the glory in which all the saints have
34:33
Speaker 1: in their God Section one hundred sixty five. And if
34:38
Speaker 1: you are concerned about this, that it is difficult to
34:42
Speaker 1: defend the mercy and justice of God, seeing that he
34:45
Speaker 1: damns the undeserving, that is, those who are for that
34:50
Speaker 1: reason ungodly, because being born in iniquity, they cannot by
34:54
Speaker 1: any means prevent themselves from being ungodly and from remaining
34:58
Speaker 1: so and being damned, but are compelled from the necessity
35:02
Speaker 1: of nature to sin and perish. As Paul saith, we
35:06
Speaker 1: all were the children of wrath, even as others Ephesians
35:09
Speaker 1: two three, when at the same time they were created
35:12
Speaker 1: such by God himself from a corrupt seed by means
35:16
Speaker 1: of the sin of Adam. Here God is to be
35:20
Speaker 1: honored and revered as being most merciful towards those whom
35:23
Speaker 1: he justifies and saves under all their unworthiness. And it
35:27
Speaker 1: is to be in no small degree ascribed unto his
35:30
Speaker 1: wisdom that he causes us to believe him to be just,
35:34
Speaker 1: even where he appears to be unjust. For if his
35:38
Speaker 1: righteousness were such that it was considered it to be
35:41
Speaker 1: righteousness according to human judgment, it would be no longer divine,
35:45
Speaker 1: nor would it in anything differ from human righteousness. But
35:49
Speaker 1: as he is the one and true God, and moreover
35:52
Speaker 1: incomprehensible and inaccessible by human reason, it is right, nay,
35:57
Speaker 1: it is necessary, that his righteousness should be incomprehensible, even
36:02
Speaker 1: as Paul exclaims, saying, Oh the depth of the riches
36:07
Speaker 1: both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable
36:10
Speaker 1: are his judgments and his ways past finding out Romans
36:15
Speaker 1: eleven thirty three. But they would be no longer past
36:19
Speaker 1: finding out if we were, in all things able to
36:22
Speaker 1: see how they were righteous? What is man compared with God?
36:27
Speaker 1: What can our power do when compared with His power?
36:30
Speaker 1: What is our strength compared with his strength? What is
36:34
Speaker 1: our knowledge compared with his wisdom? What is our substance
36:39
Speaker 1: compared with His substance? In a word, what is all
36:43
Speaker 1: that we are compared with all that He is. If
36:48
Speaker 1: then we confess, according to the teaching of nature, that
36:51
Speaker 1: human power, strength, wisdom, knowledge, substance, and all human things
36:57
Speaker 1: together are nothing when compared with the divine our strength, wisdom, knowledge,
37:03
Speaker 1: and substance. What perverseness must it be in us to
37:07
Speaker 1: attack the righteousness and judgments of God only, and to
37:11
Speaker 1: arrogate so much to our own judgment as to wish
37:14
Speaker 1: to comprehend, judge, and rate the divine judgments. Why do
37:19
Speaker 1: we not hear, in like manner, say at once, what
37:23
Speaker 1: is our judgment nothing when compared with the divine judgments?
37:27
Speaker 1: But ask reason herself if she is not, from conviction,
37:30
Speaker 1: compelled to confess that she is foolish and rash for
37:34
Speaker 1: not allowing the judgments of God to be incomprehensible when
37:38
Speaker 1: she confesses that all the other divine things are incomprehensible
37:43
Speaker 1: In everything else, we concede to God a divine majesty,
37:47
Speaker 1: and yet are ready to deny it to his judgments.
37:51
Speaker 1: Nor can we for a little while believe that He
37:53
Speaker 1: is just, even when he promises that it shall come
37:56
Speaker 1: to pass that when He shall reveal his glory, we
38:00
Speaker 1: shall all see and palpably feel that He ever was
38:03
Speaker 1: and is just Section one hundred sixty six. But I
38:08
Speaker 1: will produce an example that may go to confirm this
38:11
Speaker 1: faith and to console that evil eye which suspects God
38:14
Speaker 1: of injustice. Behold, God so governs this corporal world in
38:19
Speaker 1: external things, that, according to human reason and judgment, you
38:23
Speaker 1: must be compelled to say either that there is no
38:26
Speaker 1: God or that God is unjust as a certain one Saith.
38:31
Speaker 1: I am often tempted to think that there is no God.
38:36
Speaker 1: Foresee the great prosperity of the wicked, and on the contrary,
38:39
Speaker 1: the great adversity of the good. According to the testimony
38:43
Speaker 1: of the proverbs and of experience, the parent of all proverbs,
38:47
Speaker 1: the more abandoned men are, the more successful the tabernacles
38:52
Speaker 1: of robbers. Saith job prosper and Psalm seventy three complains
38:57
Speaker 1: that the sinners of the world abound in riches. Is
39:01
Speaker 1: it not I pray you in the judgment of all
39:04
Speaker 1: most unjust, that the evil should be prosperous and the
39:08
Speaker 1: good afflicted? Yet so it is in the events of
39:11
Speaker 1: the world. And here it is that the most exalted
39:14
Speaker 1: minds have so fallen as to deny that there is
39:17
Speaker 1: any God at all, and to fable that fortune disposes
39:22
Speaker 1: all things at random, such were Epicurus and Pliny and Aristotle,
39:28
Speaker 1: in order that he might make his first cause, being
39:31
Speaker 1: free from every kind of misery. Is of opinion that
39:34
Speaker 1: he thinks of nothing whatever but himself, because he considers
39:38
Speaker 1: that it must be most irksome to him to see
39:41
Speaker 1: so many evils in so many injuries. But the prophets themselves,
39:45
Speaker 1: who believed there is a God, were tempted still more
39:48
Speaker 1: concerning the injustice of God, as Jeremiah, Job, David, Aesaf
39:54
Speaker 1: and others. And what do you suppose Demosthenes and Cicero thought, who,
40:00
Speaker 1: after they had done all they could, received no other
40:03
Speaker 1: reward than a miserable death. And yet all this, which
40:07
Speaker 1: is so very much like injustice in God, when set
40:11
Speaker 1: forth in those arguments which no reason or light of
40:14
Speaker 1: nature can resist, is most easily cleared up by the
40:17
Speaker 1: light of the Gospel and the knowledge of grace, by
40:21
Speaker 1: which we are taught that the wicked flourish in their bodies,
40:24
Speaker 1: but lose their souls. And the whole of this insolvable
40:28
Speaker 1: question is solved in one word, there is a life
40:32
Speaker 1: after this life in which will be punished and repaid
40:36
Speaker 1: everything that is not punished and repaid here, for this
40:39
Speaker 1: life is nothing more than an entrance on and a
40:42
Speaker 1: beginning of that life which is to come. If then
40:47
Speaker 1: even the light of the Gospel, which stands in the
40:49
Speaker 1: Word and in the Faith only, is able to effect
40:53
Speaker 1: so much as with ease, to do away with and
40:55
Speaker 1: settle this question, which has been agitated through so many
40:58
Speaker 1: ages and never solved. How do you suppose matters will
41:02
Speaker 1: appear when the light of the Word and of faith
41:05
Speaker 1: shall cease, and the essential truth itself shall be revealed
41:09
Speaker 1: in the Divine majesty. Do you not suppose that the
41:13
Speaker 1: light of glory will then most easily solve that question
41:16
Speaker 1: which is now insolvable by the light of the Word
41:18
Speaker 1: and of grace. Even as the light of grace now
41:22
Speaker 1: easily solves that question which is insolvable by the light
41:25
Speaker 1: of nature. Let us therefore hold in consideration the three lights,
41:31
Speaker 1: the light of nature, the light of grace, and the
41:34
Speaker 1: light of glory, which is the common and very good distinction.
41:38
Speaker 1: By the light of nature, it is insolvable. How it
41:41
Speaker 1: can be just that a good man should be afflicted
41:44
Speaker 1: and the wicked should prosper. But this is solved by
41:47
Speaker 1: the light of grace. By the light of grace, it
41:51
Speaker 1: is insolvable how God can damn him who, by his
41:54
Speaker 1: own powers can do nothing but sin and become guilty.
41:59
Speaker 1: Both the light of nations nature and the light of
42:01
Speaker 1: grace hearsay that the fault is not in the miserable man,
42:05
Speaker 1: but in the unjust God. Nor can they judge otherwise
42:08
Speaker 1: of that God who crowns the wicked man freely without
42:11
Speaker 1: any merit, and yet crowns not but damns another who
42:14
Speaker 1: is perhaps less or at least not more wicked. But
42:18
Speaker 1: the light of glory speaks otherwise. That will show that God,
42:23
Speaker 1: to whom alone belongeth the judgment of incomprehensible righteousness, is
42:28
Speaker 1: of righteousness most perfect and most manifest, in order that
42:32
Speaker 1: we may, in the meantime believe it being admonished and
42:36
Speaker 1: confirmed by that example of the light of grace, which
42:39
Speaker 1: solves that which is as great a miracle to the
42:42
Speaker 1: light of nature. Conclusion, Section one hundred sixty seven. I
42:48
Speaker 1: shall here draw this book to a conclusion prepared if
42:52
Speaker 1: it were necessary to pursue this discussion still farther, though
42:55
Speaker 1: I consider that I have now abundantly satisfied the godly
42:59
Speaker 1: man who wishes to believe the truth without making resistance.
43:03
Speaker 1: For if we believe it to be true that God
43:05
Speaker 1: foreknows and foreordains all things, that he can be neither
43:10
Speaker 1: deceived nor hindered in his prescience and predestination, and that
43:15
Speaker 1: nothing can take place but according to His will, which
43:18
Speaker 1: Reason herself is compelled to confess, then according to the
43:22
Speaker 1: testimony of Reason herself, there can be no free will
43:26
Speaker 1: in man, in angel, or in any creature. Hence, if
43:31
Speaker 1: we believe that Satan is the prince of this world
43:34
Speaker 1: ever in snaring and fighting against the Kingdom of Christ
43:38
Speaker 1: with all his powers, and that he does not let
43:41
Speaker 1: go his captives without being forced by the divine power
43:44
Speaker 1: of the Spirit, it is manifest that there can be
43:47
Speaker 1: no such thing as free will. Again, if we believe
43:52
Speaker 1: that original sin has so destroyed us that even in
43:55
Speaker 1: the godly who are led by the Spirit, it causes
43:58
Speaker 1: the utmost molestation by striving against that which is good,
44:02
Speaker 1: it is manifest that there can be nothing left in
44:05
Speaker 1: a man devoid of the spirit, which can turn itself
44:09
Speaker 1: towards good, but which must turn itself towards evil again.
44:14
Speaker 1: If the Jews, who followed after righteousness with all their powers,
44:19
Speaker 1: ran rather into unrighteousness, while the Gentiles who followed after
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Speaker 1: unrighteousness attained unto a free righteousness which they never hoped for,
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Speaker 1: it is equally manifest from their very works and from experience,
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Speaker 1: that man without grace can do nothing but will evil. Finally,
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Speaker 1: if we believe that Christ redeemed men by his blood,
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Speaker 1: we are compelled to confess that the whole man was lost.
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Speaker 1: Otherwise we shall make Christ superfluous or a redeemer of
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Speaker 1: the grossest part of man only, which is blasphemy in
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Speaker 1: sacrilege Section one hundred sixty eight. And now, my friend, Erasmus,
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Speaker 1: I entreat you, for Christ's sake, to perform what you promised.
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Speaker 1: You promised that you would willingly yield to him who
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Speaker 1: should teach you better than you knew. Lay aside all
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Speaker 1: respect of persons you I confess are great and adorned
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Speaker 1: with many, and those the most noble gifts of God,
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Speaker 1: to say nothing of the rest, with talent, with erudition,
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Speaker 1: and with eloquence to a miracle. Whereas I have nothing
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Speaker 1: and am nothing excepting that I glory in being almost
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Speaker 1: a Christian. In this moreover, I give you great praise
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Speaker 1: and proclaim it you alone, in pre eminent distinction from
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Speaker 1: all others, have entered upon the thing itself that is
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Speaker 1: the grand turning point of the cause, and have not
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Speaker 1: wearied me with those irrelevant points about popery, purgatory indulgences,
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Speaker 1: and other like baubles, rather than causes with which all
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Speaker 1: have hitherto tried to hunt me down. Though in vain,
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Speaker 1: you and you alone saw what was the grand hinge
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Speaker 1: upon which the whole turned, and therefore you attacked the
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Speaker 1: vital part at once, for which from my heart I
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Speaker 1: thank you for. In this kind of discussion I willingly
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Speaker 1: engage as far as time and leisure permit me. Had
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Speaker 1: those who have heretofore attacked me done the same, and
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Speaker 1: would those still do the same, who are now boasting
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Speaker 1: of new spirits and new revelations, we should have less
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Speaker 1: sedition and sectarianism, and more peace and concord. But thus
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Speaker 1: has God, by the instrumentality of Satan, avenged our ingratitude.
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Speaker 1: But however, if you cannot manage this cause otherwise than
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Speaker 1: you have managed it in this diatribe, do I pray
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Speaker 1: you remain content with your own proper gift, study, adorn,
46:52
Speaker 1: and promote literature and languages, as you have hitherto done,
46:56
Speaker 1: to great advantage and with much credit, in which which
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Speaker 1: capacity you have rendered me also a certain service, so
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Speaker 1: much so that I confess myself to be much indebted
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Speaker 1: to you, And in that character I certainly venerate and
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Speaker 1: honestly respect you. But as to this are a cause.
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Speaker 1: To this, God has neither willed nor given it you
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Speaker 1: to be equal. Though I entreat you not to consider
47:20
Speaker 1: this as spoken in arrogance. No, I pray that the
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Speaker 1: Lord may, day by day make you as much superior
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Speaker 1: to me in these matters as you are superior to
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Speaker 1: me in all others. And it is no new thing
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Speaker 1: for God to instruct a Moses by a Jethro, or
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Speaker 1: to teach a Paul by an Anonius. And as to
47:41
Speaker 1: what you say, you have greatly missed the mark. After all,
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Speaker 1: if you are ignorant of Christ, you yourself, if I mistake,
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Speaker 1: not know what that is. But all will not therefore
47:53
Speaker 1: err because you or I may err. God is glorified
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Speaker 1: in his saints in a wonderful way, so that we
47:59
Speaker 1: may consider those saints who are the farthest from sanctity.
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Speaker 1: Nor is it an unlikely thing that you, as being man,
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Speaker 1: should not rightly understand, nor with sufficient diligence, weigh the
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Speaker 1: scriptures or the sayings of the fathers under which guides you.
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Speaker 1: Imagine you cannot miss the mark, And that such is
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Speaker 1: the case is quite manifest. From this you are saying
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Speaker 1: that you do not assert, but collect. No men would
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Speaker 1: write thus who was fully acquainted with and well understood
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Speaker 1: his subject. On the contrary, I, in this book of
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Speaker 1: mine have collected things, but have asserted, and still do assert.
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Speaker 1: And I wish none to become judges, but all to
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Speaker 1: yield assent. And may the Lord whose cause this is
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Speaker 1: illuminate you and make you a vessel to honor and
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Speaker 1: to glory. Amen. Phenice fifteen twenty five, end of section
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Speaker 1: one hundred sixty eight