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010 - Sections 111-125 Discussion Part II-c · Bondage of the Will

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Speaker 1: Sections one hundred and eleven through one hundred twenty 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
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Speaker 1: domain discussion second part continued section one hundred and eleven.
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Speaker 1: The diatribe at length comes to the passages cited by
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Speaker 1: Luther against free Will, with the intent to refute them.
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Speaker 1: The first passage is that of Genesis sixty three. My
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Speaker 1: spirit shall not always remain in man, seeing that he
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Speaker 1: is flesh. This passage it confutes variously. First it says
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Speaker 1: that flesh here does not signify vile affection, but infirmity.
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Speaker 1: Then it augments the text of Moses, that this saying
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Speaker 1: of his refers to the men of that age, and
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Speaker 1: not to the whole race of men, as if he
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Speaker 1: said in these men. And moreover that it does not
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Speaker 1: refer to all the men, even of that age, because
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Speaker 1: Noah was excepted. And at last it says that this
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Speaker 1: word has in the Hebrew another signification, that it signifies
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Speaker 1: the mercy and not the severity of God, according to
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Speaker 1: the authority of Jerome. By this it would perhaps persuade
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Speaker 1: us that since that saying did not apply to Noah,
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Speaker 1: but to the wicked. It was not the mercy but
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Speaker 1: the severity of God that was shown to Noah, and
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Speaker 1: the mercy not the severity of God that was shown
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Speaker 1: to the wicked. But let us away with these ridiculing
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Speaker 1: vanities of the diatribe, for there is nothing which it
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Speaker 1: advances which does not evince that it looks upon the
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Speaker 1: scriptures as mere fables. What Jerome here triflingly talks about
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Speaker 1: is nothing at all to me, For it is certain
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Speaker 1: that he cannot prove anything that he says. Nor is
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Speaker 1: our dispute concerning the sense of Jerome. But concerning the
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Speaker 1: sense of the scripture. Let that perverter of the scriptures
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Speaker 1: attempt to make it appear that the Spirit of God
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Speaker 1: signifies indignation. I say that he is deficient in both
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Speaker 1: parts of the necessary twofold proof. First, he cannot produce
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Speaker 1: one passage of the scripture in which the Spirit of
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Speaker 1: God is understood as signifying indignation, for on the contrary,
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Speaker 1: kindness and sweetness are everywhere ascribed to the Spirit. And next,
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Speaker 1: if he should prove that it is understood in any
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Speaker 1: place as signifying indignation, yet he cannot easily prove that
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Speaker 1: it follows of necessity that it is so to be
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Speaker 1: received in this place. So also let him attempt to
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Speaker 1: make it appear that flesh is here to be understood
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Speaker 1: as signifying infirmity. Yet he is as deficient as ever
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Speaker 1: in proof. For where Paul calls the Corinthians carnal, he
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Speaker 1: does not signify infirmity but corrupt affection, because he charges
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Speaker 1: them with strife and divisions, which is not infirmity or
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Speaker 1: incapacity to receive stronger doctrine, but malice and that old
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Speaker 1: leaven which he commands them to purge out first Corinthians
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Speaker 1: three three and seven. But let us examine the Hebrew
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Speaker 1: section one hundred and twelve. My spirit shall not always
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Speaker 1: judge in man, for he is flesh. These are verbatim
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Speaker 1: the words of Moses. And if we would away with
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Speaker 1: our own dreams, the words as they there stand are,
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Speaker 1: I think sufficiently plain and clear. And that they are
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Speaker 1: the words of an angry God is fully manifest both
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Speaker 1: from what precedes and from what follows, together with the
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Speaker 1: effect the flood. The cause of their being spoken was
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Speaker 1: the sons of men taking unto them wives from the
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Speaker 1: mere lust of the flesh, and then so filling the
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Speaker 1: earth with violence as to cause God to hasten the flood,
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Speaker 1: and scarcely to delay that for one hundred and twenty
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Speaker 1: years Genesis six one through three, which but for them,
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Speaker 1: he would never have brought upon the earth at all.
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Speaker 1: Read and study Moses, and you will plainly see that
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Speaker 1: this is his meaning. But it is no wonder that
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Speaker 1: the scriptures should be obscure, or that you should be
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Speaker 1: enabled to establish from them not only a free but
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Speaker 1: a divine will. Where you are allowed so to trifle
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Speaker 1: with them as to seek to make out of them
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Speaker 1: a virgilian patchwork. And this is what you call clearing
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Speaker 1: up difficulties and putting an end to all dispute by
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Speaker 1: means of an interpretation. But it is with these trifling
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Speaker 1: vanities that Jerome and Origin have filled the world and
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Speaker 1: have been the original cause of that pestilent practice. Than
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Speaker 1: not attending to the simplicity of the scriptures, it is
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Speaker 1: enough for me to prove that in this passage the
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Speaker 1: divine Authority calls men flesh and flesh, in that sense
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Speaker 1: that the spirit of God could not continue among them,
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Speaker 1: but was at a decreed time to be taken from them,
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Speaker 1: and what God meant when he declared that his spirit
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Speaker 1: should not always judge among men is pplained immediately afterwards,
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Speaker 1: where he determines ane hundred and twenty years as the
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Speaker 1: time that he would still continue to judge. Here he
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Speaker 1: contrasts spirit with flesh, showing that men being flesh, received
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Speaker 1: not the spirit, and he, as being a spirit, cannot
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Speaker 1: approve of flesh. Wherefore it is that the spirit, after
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Speaker 1: an hundred and twenty years, is to be withdrawn. Hence
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Speaker 1: you may understand the passage of Moses. Thus, my spirit,
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Speaker 1: which is in Noah and in the other holy Men,
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Speaker 1: rebukes those impious ones by the word of their preaching
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Speaker 1: and by their holy lives. For to judge among men
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Speaker 1: is to act among them in the office of the Word,
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Speaker 1: to reprove, to rebuke, to beseech them opportunely and importunely,
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Speaker 1: but in vain. For they, being blinded and hardened by
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Speaker 1: the flesh, only become the worse the more they are judged.
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Speaker 1: And so it ever is that wherever the world word
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Speaker 1: of God comes forth in the world, these men become
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Speaker 1: the worse the more they hear of it. And this
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Speaker 1: is the reason why wrath is hastened, even as the
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Speaker 1: flood was hastened at that time, because they now not
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Speaker 1: only sin, but even despise grace. As Christ saith, light
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Speaker 1: is come into the world, and men hate the light
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Speaker 1: John three nineteen. Since therefore men, according to the testimony
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Speaker 1: of God himself, are flesh, they can savor of nothing
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Speaker 1: but flesh. So far is it from possibility that free
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Speaker 1: will should do anything but sin. And if even while
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Speaker 1: the Spirit of God is among them, calling and teaching,
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Speaker 1: they only become worse, what will they do when left
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Speaker 1: to themselves without the Spirit of God Section one hundred
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Speaker 1: and thirteen. Nor is it at all to the purpose
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Speaker 1: you are saying that Moses is speaking with reference to
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Speaker 1: the men of that age, For the same applies unto
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Speaker 1: all men, because all are flesh. As Christ saith, that
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Speaker 1: which is born of the flesh is flesh John three six.
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Speaker 1: And how deep a corruption that is he himself shows
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Speaker 1: in the same chapter where he saith. Except a man
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Speaker 1: be born again, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
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Speaker 1: Let therefore the Christian know that Origin and Jerome, together
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Speaker 1: with all their train, perniciously err when they say that
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Speaker 1: flesh ought not in these passages to be understood as
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Speaker 1: meaning corrupt affection, because that of First Corinthians three three.
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Speaker 1: For ye are yet carnal signifies ungodliness, for Paul means
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Speaker 1: that there are some among them still ungodly. And moreover
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Speaker 1: that even the saints, in as far as they savor
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Speaker 1: of carnal things, are carnal, though justified by the spirit.
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Speaker 1: In a word, you may take this as a general
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Speaker 1: observation upon the scriptures. Wherever mention is made of flesh
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Speaker 1: in countradistinction to spirit, you may, thereby flesh understand everything
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Speaker 1: that is contrary to spirit, as in this passage the
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Speaker 1: flesh profiteth nothing John six sixty three. But where it
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Speaker 1: is used abstractly, there you may understand the corporal state
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Speaker 1: and nature as they twain, shall be one flesh Matthew
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Speaker 1: nineteen five. My flesh is meet indeed, John six fifty five.
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Speaker 1: The word was made flesh John one fourteen. In such
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Speaker 1: passages you may make a figurative alteration in the Hebrew
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Speaker 1: and for flesh say body. For in the Hebrew tongue
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Speaker 1: the one term flesh embraces in signification are two terms
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Speaker 1: flesh and body. And I could wish that these two
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Speaker 1: terms have been distinctively used throughout the canon of the scripture. Thus,
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Speaker 1: then I presume my passage Genesis six still stands directly
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Speaker 1: against free will, since flesh is proved to be that
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Speaker 1: which Paul declares Romans eight five through eight cannot be
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Speaker 1: subject to God, as we may there see, and since
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Speaker 1: the diatribe itself asserts that it cannot will anything good
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Speaker 1: Section one hundred fourteen. Another passage is that of Genesis
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Speaker 1: eight twenty one. The thought and imagination of man's heart
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Speaker 1: is evil from his youth, and that also Genesis six five.
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Speaker 1: Every imagination of man's heart is only evil. Continually these
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Speaker 1: passages it evades. Thus, the proneness to evil which is
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Speaker 1: in most men does not wholly take away the freedom
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Speaker 1: of the will? Does God? I pray you here speak
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Speaker 1: of most men, and not rather all men? When after
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Speaker 1: the flood, as it were repenting, he promises to those
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Speaker 1: who were then remaining and to those who were to come,
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Speaker 1: that he would no more bring a flood upon the
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Speaker 1: earth for man's sake, assigning this as the reason, because
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Speaker 1: man is prone to evil, as though he had said,
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Speaker 1: if I should act according to the wickedness of man,
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Speaker 1: I should never cease from bringing a flood. Wherefore, henceforth
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Speaker 1: I will not act according to that which he deserves.
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Speaker 1: And so forth you see therefore that God, both before
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Speaker 1: and after the flood, declares that man is evil, so
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Speaker 1: that what the diatribe says about most men amounts to
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Speaker 1: nothing at all. Moreover, a proneness or inclination to evil
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Speaker 1: appears to the diatribe to be a matter of little moment,
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Speaker 1: as though it were in our own power to keep
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Speaker 1: ourselves upright or to restrain it. Whereas the Scripture by
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Speaker 1: that proneness signifies the continual bent and impetus of the
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Speaker 1: will to evil. Why does not the diatribe here appeal
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Speaker 1: to the Hebrew. Moses says nothing there about proneness, but
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Speaker 1: that you may have no room for cavillation. The Hebrew
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Speaker 1: Genesis six five runs thus coat ser mushi vote levo
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Speaker 1: o rok rakol haayum, that is, every imagination of the
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Speaker 1: thought of the heart is only evil all days. He
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Speaker 1: does not say that he is intent or prone to evil,
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Speaker 1: but that evil altogether, and nothing but evil, is thought
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Speaker 1: or imagined by man throughout his whole life. The nature
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Speaker 1: of his evil is described to be that which neither
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Speaker 1: does nor can do anything but evil, as being evil itself.
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Speaker 1: For according to the testimony of Christ, an evil tree
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Speaker 1: can bring forth none other than evil fruit Matthew seven
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Speaker 1: seventeen through eighteen. And as to the diatribes pertly objecting,
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Speaker 1: why was time given for repentance? Then, if no part
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Speaker 1: of repentance depend on free will, and all things be
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Speaker 1: conducted according to the law of necessity, I answer, you
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Speaker 1: may make the same objection to all the precepts of God,
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Speaker 1: and say, why does he command at all if all
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Speaker 1: things take place of necessity. He commands in order to
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Speaker 1: instruct and admonish that men, being humbled under the knowledge
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Speaker 1: of their evil, might come to grace. As I have
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Speaker 1: fully shown already, This passage therefore still remains invincible against
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Speaker 1: the freedom of the will Section one hundred and fifteen.
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Speaker 1: The third passage is that of Isaiah forty two. She
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Speaker 1: hath received at the Lord's hand double for all her sins,
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Speaker 1: Jerome says. The diatribe interprets this concerning the divine vengeance,
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Speaker 1: not concerning his grace given in return for evil deeds.
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Speaker 1: I hear you, Jerome says, So therefore it is true.
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Speaker 1: I am disputing about Isaiah, who here speaks in the
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Speaker 1: clearest words, And Jerome is cast in my teeth a
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Speaker 1: man to say no worse of him, of neither judgment
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Speaker 1: nor application. Where now is that promise of ours by
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Speaker 1: which we agreed at the outset, that we would go
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Speaker 1: according to the scriptures and not according to the commentary
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Speaker 1: of men. The whole of this chapter of Isaiah, according
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Speaker 1: to the testimony of the evangelists, where they mention it
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Speaker 1: is referring to John the Baptist, the voice of one
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Speaker 1: crying speaks of the remission of sins proclaimed by the Gospel.
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Speaker 1: But we will allow Jerome, after his manner, to thrust
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Speaker 1: in the blindness of the Jews for an historical sense,
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Speaker 1: and his own trifling vanities for an allegory, and turning
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Speaker 1: all grammar upside down. We will understand this passage as
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Speaker 1: speaking of vengeance, which speaks of the remission of sins.
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Speaker 1: But I pray you what vengeance is fulfilled in the
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Speaker 1: preaching of Christ. Let us, however, see how the words
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Speaker 1: run in the Hebrew. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people
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Speaker 1: in the vocative, or my people in the objective, Saith
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Speaker 1: your God. He I presume who commands to comfort is
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Speaker 1: not executing vengeance. It then follows, speak ye to the
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Speaker 1: heart of Jerusalem and r unto her Isaiah forty one
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Speaker 1: through two. Speak ye to the heart is a hebriism
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Speaker 1: and signifies to speak good things, sweet things, and alluring things.
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Speaker 1: Thus shechem Genesis thirty four three speaks to the heart
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Speaker 1: of Dinah, whom he defiled, that is, when she was
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Speaker 1: heavy hearted, he comforted her with tender words, as our
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Speaker 1: translator has rendered it. And what those good and sweet
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Speaker 1: things are which are commanded to be proclaimed to their comfort.
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Speaker 1: The prophet explains directly afterwards, saying that her warfare is accomplished,
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Speaker 1: her iniquity is pardoned, for she has received of the
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Speaker 1: Lord's hand double for all her sins, her warfare militia
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Speaker 1: which our translators have rendered. Her evil malitia is considered
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Speaker 1: by the Jews, those audacious Grammarians, to signify an appointed time.
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Speaker 1: For thus they understand that passage Job seven one is
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Speaker 1: the not an appointed time to man upon earth. That is,
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Speaker 1: his time is determinately appointed, but I receive it simply
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Speaker 1: and according to the grammatical propriety, as signifying warfare. Wherefore
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Speaker 1: you may understand Isaiah as speaking with reference to the
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Speaker 1: race and labor of the people under the law, who are,
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Speaker 1: as it were, fighting on a platform. Hence, Paul compares
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Speaker 1: both the preachers and the hearers of the word to soldiers,
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Speaker 1: as in the case of Timothy Tewod Timothy two three,
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Speaker 1: whom he commands to be a good soldier and to
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Speaker 1: fight the good fight. And for Corinthians nine twenty four
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Speaker 1: he represents them as running in a race, and observes
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Speaker 1: also that no one is crowned except he strived lawfully.
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Speaker 1: He equips the Ephesians and Thessalonians with arms Ephesians six
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Speaker 1: ten through eighteen, and he glories himself that he had
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Speaker 1: fought the good fight Sewo Timothy for seven, with many
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Speaker 1: like insance in other places. So also at first Samuel
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Speaker 1: two twenty two. It is in the Hebrew and the
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Speaker 1: sons of Eli slept with the women who fought militantibus
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Speaker 1: at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation of
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Speaker 1: whose fighting Moses makes mention in Exodus. And hence it
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Speaker 1: is that the God of the people is called the
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Speaker 1: Lord of Sabaoth, that is, the Lord of warfare and
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Speaker 1: of armies. Isaiah therefore is proclaiming that the warfare of
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Speaker 1: the people under the law, who are pressed down under
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Speaker 1: the law as a burden intolerable, as Peter Saith Acts
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Speaker 1: fifteen seven through ten, is to be at an end,
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Speaker 1: and that they, being freed from the law, are to
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Speaker 1: be translated into the new warfare of the Spirit. Moreover,
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Speaker 1: this end of their most hard warfare, and this translation
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Speaker 1: to the new and all free warfare, is not given
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Speaker 1: unto them on account of their merit, seeing that they
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Speaker 1: could not endure it. Nay, it is rather given unto
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Speaker 1: them on account of their demerit. For their warfare is
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Speaker 1: ended by their iniquities being freely forgiven them. The words
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Speaker 1: are not obscure or ambiguous. Here he saith that their
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Speaker 1: warfare was ended by their iniquities being forgiven them, manifestly
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Speaker 1: signifying that the soldiers under the law did not fulfill
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Speaker 1: the law and could not fulfill it, and that they
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Speaker 1: only carried on a warfare of sin, and were soldiers sinners,
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Speaker 1: as though God had said, I am compelled to forgive
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Speaker 1: them their sins if I would have my law fulfilled
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Speaker 1: by them. Nay, I must take away my law entirely.
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Speaker 1: When I forgive them, for I see they cannot but sin.
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Speaker 1: And the more so the more they fight, that is,
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Speaker 1: the more they strive to fulfill the law by their
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Speaker 1: own bowers. For in the Hebrew, her iniquity is pardoned
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Speaker 1: signifies its being done in gratuitous good will. And it
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Speaker 1: is thus that the iniquity is pardoned without any merit,
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Speaker 1: nay under all demerit, as is shown in what follows.
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Speaker 1: For she hath received at the Lord's hand double for
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Speaker 1: all her sins. That is, as I said before, not
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Speaker 1: only the remission of sins, but an end of the warfare,
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Speaker 1: which is nothing more or less than this, the law
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Speaker 1: being taken out of the way, which is the strength
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Speaker 1: of sin, and their sin being pardoned, which is the
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Speaker 1: sting of death. They reign in a twofold liberty by
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Speaker 1: the victory of Jesus Christ, which is what Isaiah means
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Speaker 1: when he says from the hand of the Lord. For
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Speaker 1: they do not obtain it by their own powers or
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Speaker 1: on account of their own merit, but they receive it
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Speaker 1: from the conqueror and giver, Jesus Christ. And that which
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Speaker 1: is according to the Hebrew in all her sins is
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Speaker 1: according to the Latin for all her sins, or on
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Speaker 1: account of all her sins, as in Hoseiah twelve twelve,
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Speaker 1: Israel served in a wife, that is for a wife,
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Speaker 1: And so also in Psalm fifty nine three they lay
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Speaker 1: in weight in my soul, that is for my soul.
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Speaker 1: Isaiah therefore is here pointing out to us those merits
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Speaker 1: of ours by which we imagine we are to obtain
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Speaker 1: the twofold liberty, that of the end of the law warfare,
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Speaker 1: and that of the pardon of sin, making it appear
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Speaker 1: to us that they were nothing but sins, nay, all sins.
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Speaker 1: Could I therefore suffer this most beautiful passage, which stands
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Speaker 1: invincible against free will, to be thus bedaubed with Jewish
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Speaker 1: filth cast upon it by Jerome and the diatribe God forbid. No,
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Speaker 1: my Isaiah stands victor over free will, and clearly shows
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Speaker 1: that grace is given not to merits or to the
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Speaker 1: endeavors of free will, but to sins and de merits,
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Speaker 1: and that free will, with all its powers, can do
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Speaker 1: nothing but carry on a warfare of sin, so that
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Speaker 1: the very law which it imagines to be given as
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Speaker 1: a help becomes intolerable to it and makes it, the
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Speaker 1: greater sin, the longer it is under its warfare Section
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Speaker 1: one hundred sixteen. But as to the diatribe disputing, thus,
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Speaker 1: although sin abound by the law, and where sin has abounded,
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Speaker 1: grace much more abound. Yet it does not therefore follow
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Speaker 1: that man, doing, by God's help what is pleasing to him, cannot,
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Speaker 1: by works morally good, prepare himself for the favor of God. Wonderful,
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Speaker 1: Surely the diatribe does not speak this out of its
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Speaker 1: own head, but has taken it out of some paper
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Speaker 1: or other sent or received from another quarter, and inserted
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Speaker 1: it into its book. For it certainly can neither see
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Speaker 1: nor hear the meaning of these words. If sin abound
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Speaker 1: by the law, how is it possible that a man
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Speaker 1: can prepare himself by moral works for the favor of God?
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Speaker 1: How can works avail anything when the law avails nothing?
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Speaker 1: Or what else is it for sin to abound by
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Speaker 1: the law, but for all the works done according to
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Speaker 1: the law to become sins? But of this elsewhere, But
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Speaker 1: what does it mean when it says that man, assisted
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Speaker 1: by the help of God, can prepare himself by moral works?
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Speaker 1: Are we here disputing concerning the divine assistance, or concerning
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Speaker 1: free will, for what is not possible through the divine assistance.
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Speaker 1: But the fact is, as I said before, the diatribe
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Speaker 1: cares nothing for the cause it has taken up, and
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Speaker 1: therefore it snores and yawns forth such words as these.
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Speaker 1: But however, it adduces Cornelius the Centurion Acts ten thirty
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Speaker 1: one as an example, observing that his prayers and alms
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Speaker 1: pleased God before he was baptized and before he was
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Speaker 1: inspired by the Holy Spirit. I have read Luke upon
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Speaker 1: the Acts too, and yet I never perceived from one
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Speaker 1: single syllable that the works of Cornelius were morally good
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Speaker 1: without the Holy Spirit, as the diatribe dreams. But on
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Speaker 1: the contrary, I find that he was a just man,
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Speaker 1: one who feared God. For thus Luke calls him. But
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Speaker 1: to call a man without the Holy Spirit a just
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Speaker 1: man and one that feared God is the same thing
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Speaker 1: as calling Baale Christ. Moreover, the whole context shows that
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Speaker 1: Cornelius was clean before God, even upon the testimony of
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Speaker 1: the vision which was sent down from Heaven to Peter,
22:22
Speaker 1: and which reproved him. Are then the righteousness and faith
22:26
Speaker 1: of Cornelius set forth by luke in such words and
22:30
Speaker 1: attending circumstances. And do the Diatribe and its sophists remain
22:34
Speaker 1: blind with open eyes or see the contrary in a
22:38
Speaker 1: light of words and an evidence of circumstances so clear,
22:42
Speaker 1: such is their want of diligence in reading and contemplating
22:45
Speaker 1: the scriptures. And yet they must brand them with the
22:48
Speaker 1: assertion that they are obscure and ambiguous. But granted that
22:54
Speaker 1: he was not as yet baptized, nor had as yet
22:57
Speaker 1: heard the word concerning Christ risen from the dead, does
23:00
Speaker 1: it therefore follow that he was without the Holy Spirit?
23:04
Speaker 1: According to this he will say that John the Baptist
23:07
Speaker 1: and his parents, the Mother of Christ and Simeon, were
23:10
Speaker 1: without the Holy Spirit. But let us take leave of
23:13
Speaker 1: such thick darkness Section one hundred seventeen. The fourth passage
23:20
Speaker 1: is that of Isaiah in the same chapter. All flesh
23:24
Speaker 1: is grass, and all the glory of it as the
23:26
Speaker 1: flower of grass. The grass is withered. The flower of
23:30
Speaker 1: grass is fallen, because the spirit of the Lord hath
23:32
Speaker 1: blown upon it, Isaiah forty six through seven. This scripture
23:37
Speaker 1: appears to my friend Diatribe to be treated with violence
23:41
Speaker 1: by being dragged in as applicable to the causes of
23:44
Speaker 1: grace and free will. Why so I pray because it
23:49
Speaker 1: says Jerome understands spirit to signify indignation, and flesh to
23:54
Speaker 1: signify the infirm condition of man, which cannot stand against God.
23:59
Speaker 1: Here again the trifling vanities of Jerome are cast in
24:03
Speaker 1: my teeth instead of Isaiah. And I find I have
24:06
Speaker 1: more to do in fighting against that wearisomeness with which
24:10
Speaker 1: the diatribe, with so much diligence to use no harsher term,
24:14
Speaker 1: wears me out than I have in fighting against the
24:17
Speaker 1: diatribe itself. But I have given my opinion upon the
24:21
Speaker 1: sentiment of Jerome already. Let me beg permission of the
24:25
Speaker 1: diatribe to compare this gentleman with himself. He says that
24:29
Speaker 1: flesh signifies the infirm condition of man, and spirit the
24:34
Speaker 1: divine indignation has. Then the divine indignation nothing else to
24:40
Speaker 1: wither but that miserable infirm condition of man, which it
24:45
Speaker 1: ought rather to raise up. This, however, is more excellent still.
24:50
Speaker 1: The flower of grass is the glory which arises from
24:53
Speaker 1: the prosperity of corporal things. The Jews gloried in their temple,
24:59
Speaker 1: their circumstance and their sacrifices, and the Greeks in their wisdom. Therefore,
25:04
Speaker 1: the flower of grass is the glory of the flesh,
25:07
Speaker 1: the righteousness of works, and the wisdom of the world.
25:11
Speaker 1: How then, are righteousness and wisdom called by the diatribe
25:15
Speaker 1: corporal things? And after all, what have these to do
25:19
Speaker 1: with Isaiah, who interprets his own meaning in his own words, saying,
25:24
Speaker 1: surely the people is grass? He does not say, surely
25:28
Speaker 1: the infirm condition of man is grass, but the people,
25:32
Speaker 1: and affirms it with an asseveration. And what is the people?
25:38
Speaker 1: Is it the infirm condition of man only? But whether
25:41
Speaker 1: Jerome by the infirm condition of man, means the whole
25:45
Speaker 1: creation together or the miserable lot and state of man only,
25:50
Speaker 1: I am sure I know not be it, however which
25:53
Speaker 1: it may. He certainly makes the divine indignation to gain
25:56
Speaker 1: a glorious renown and a noble spoil from withering a
26:00
Speaker 1: miserable creation or a race of wretched men, and not
26:04
Speaker 1: rather from scattering the proud, pulling down the mighty from
26:08
Speaker 1: their seat, and sending the rich empty away. As Mary
26:11
Speaker 1: sings Luke one fifty one through fifty three, Section one,
26:16
Speaker 1: hundred eighteen. But let us dispatch these hobgoblins of glosses
26:21
Speaker 1: and take Isaiah's words as they are. The people he
26:25
Speaker 1: saith is grass people does not signify flesh merely, or
26:31
Speaker 1: the infirm condition of human nature. But it comprehends everything
26:35
Speaker 1: that there is in people, the rich, the wise, the just,
26:40
Speaker 1: the saints. Unless you mean to say that the Pharisees,
26:44
Speaker 1: the elders, the princes, the nobles, and the rich men
26:47
Speaker 1: were not of the people of the Jews. The flower
26:51
Speaker 1: of grass is rightly called their glory, because it was
26:54
Speaker 1: in their kingdom, their government, and above all in the law,
26:58
Speaker 1: in God, in righteousness, and in wisdom, that they gloried,
27:03
Speaker 1: as Paul shows Romans two three and nine. When therefore
27:09
Speaker 1: Isaiah saith all flesh, what else does he mean but
27:13
Speaker 1: all grass or all people? For he does not say
27:17
Speaker 1: flesh only, but all flesh and two people belong sole body, mind, reasoned, judgment,
27:25
Speaker 1: and whatever is called or found to be most excellent
27:27
Speaker 1: in man. For when he says all flesh is grass,
27:31
Speaker 1: he accepts nothing but the spirit, which withereth it. Nor
27:36
Speaker 1: does he omit anything. When he says the people is grass,
27:41
Speaker 1: speak therefore of free will speak of anything that can
27:44
Speaker 1: be called the highest or the lowest in the people.
27:47
Speaker 1: Isaiah calls the whole flesh and grass, because those three
27:52
Speaker 1: terms flesh, grass, and people, according to his interpretation, who
27:57
Speaker 1: is himself the writer of the book, signify in that
28:01
Speaker 1: place the same thing. Moreover, you yourself affirm that the
28:05
Speaker 1: wisdom of the Greeks and the righteousness of the Jews,
28:08
Speaker 1: which were withered by the Gospel, were grass and the
28:11
Speaker 1: flower of grass. Do you then think that the wisdom
28:14
Speaker 1: which the Greeks had was not the most excellent, and
28:18
Speaker 1: that the righteousness which the Jews wrought was not the
28:21
Speaker 1: most excellent. If you do show us what was more excellent?
28:26
Speaker 1: With what assurance than is it that you philip like
28:29
Speaker 1: flout and say. If any one shall contend that that
28:34
Speaker 1: which is most excellent in the nature of man is
28:36
Speaker 1: nothing else but flesh, that is that it is impious,
28:41
Speaker 1: I will agree with him when he shall have proved
28:43
Speaker 1: his assertion by testimonies from the Holy Scripture. You have
28:47
Speaker 1: here Isaiah, who cries with a loud voice that the
28:50
Speaker 1: people devoid of the spirit of the Lord is flesh,
28:54
Speaker 1: although you will not understand him. Thus you have also
28:58
Speaker 1: your own confession, where you said, though unwittingly, perhaps that
29:02
Speaker 1: the wisdom of the Greeks was grass or the glory
29:06
Speaker 1: of grass, which is the same thing as saying it
29:09
Speaker 1: was flesh. Unless you mean to say that the wisdom
29:12
Speaker 1: of the Greeks did not pertain to reason or to
29:15
Speaker 1: the higemonicon, as you say that is the principal part
29:18
Speaker 1: of man. If therefore you will not deign to listen
29:22
Speaker 1: to me, listen to yourself, where, being caught in the
29:26
Speaker 1: powerful trap of truth, you speak the truth you have. Moreover,
29:31
Speaker 1: the testimony of John. That which is born of the
29:34
Speaker 1: flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
29:36
Speaker 1: Spirit is spirit. John three six. You have, I say
29:41
Speaker 1: this passage which makes it evidently manifest that what is
29:44
Speaker 1: not born of the spirit is flesh. For if it
29:48
Speaker 1: be not so, the distinction of Christ could not subsist,
29:52
Speaker 1: who divides all men into two distinct divisions, flesh and spirit.
29:57
Speaker 1: This passage you floutingly passed by, as if it did
30:00
Speaker 1: not give you the information you want, and betake yourself
30:04
Speaker 1: somewhere else as usual, just dropping as you go along,
30:08
Speaker 1: an observation that John is here saying that those who
30:11
Speaker 1: believe are born of God and are made the sons
30:14
Speaker 1: of God, nay that they are gods and new creatures.
30:18
Speaker 1: You pay no regard, therefore, to the conclusion that is
30:21
Speaker 1: to be drawn from this division, but merely tell us
30:24
Speaker 1: at your ease what persons are on one side of
30:27
Speaker 1: the division, thus confidently relying upon your rhetorical maneuver, as
30:32
Speaker 1: though there were no one likely to discover an evasion
30:35
Speaker 1: and dissimilation so subtly managed Section one hundred nineteen. It
30:42
Speaker 1: is difficult to refrain from concluding that you are, in
30:45
Speaker 1: this passage crafty and double dealing. For he who treats
30:48
Speaker 1: of the scriptures with that prevarication and hypocrisy which you
30:52
Speaker 1: practice in treating of them, may have face enough to
30:55
Speaker 1: pretend that he is not as yet fully acquainted with
30:58
Speaker 1: the scriptures and is willing to be taught, when at
31:01
Speaker 1: the same time he wills nothing less and merely prates
31:05
Speaker 1: thus in order to cast a reproach upon the all
31:07
Speaker 1: clear light of the scriptures, and to cover with the
31:10
Speaker 1: best cloak his determinate perseverance in his own opinions. Thus,
31:15
Speaker 1: the Jews even to this day pretend that what Christ,
31:19
Speaker 1: the apostles, and the whole Church have taught is not
31:22
Speaker 1: to be proved by the scriptures. The papists, too, pretend
31:27
Speaker 1: that they do not yet fully understand the scriptures, although
31:30
Speaker 1: the very stones speak aloud the truth. But perhaps you
31:34
Speaker 1: are waiting for a passage to be produced from the
31:36
Speaker 1: scriptures which shall contain these letters and syllables. The principal
31:41
Speaker 1: part of man is flesh, or that which is most
31:45
Speaker 1: excellent in man is flesh. Otherwise you will declare yourself
31:49
Speaker 1: an invincible victor. Just as though the Jews should require
31:53
Speaker 1: that a portion be produced from the prophets, which shall
31:56
Speaker 1: consist of these letters. Jesus, the son of the carp
32:00
Speaker 1: who was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem, is
32:03
Speaker 1: the Messiah, the Son of God. Here, where you are
32:07
Speaker 1: closely put to it by a plain sentence, you challenge
32:10
Speaker 1: us to produce letters and syllables. In another place where
32:14
Speaker 1: you are overcome both by the sentence and by the
32:17
Speaker 1: letters too. You have recursed to tropes, to difficulties, and
32:21
Speaker 1: to sound interpretations. And there is no place in which
32:25
Speaker 1: you do not invent something whereby to contradict the scriptures.
32:28
Speaker 1: At one time you fly to the interpretations of the
32:31
Speaker 1: fathers at another to absurdities of reason. And when neither
32:35
Speaker 1: of these will serve your turn, you dwell on that
32:38
Speaker 1: which is irrelevant or contingent, Yet with an especial care
32:43
Speaker 1: that you are not caught by the passage immediately in point,
32:47
Speaker 1: But what shall I call you proteus is not half
32:50
Speaker 1: a proteus compared to you. Yet, after all, you cannot
32:53
Speaker 1: get off what victories did the arians boast of, because
32:57
Speaker 1: these syllables and letters homeousias were not to be found
33:01
Speaker 1: in the scriptures, considering it nothing to the purpose that
33:05
Speaker 1: the same thing could be most effectually proved. In other words,
33:09
Speaker 1: but whether or not this be a sign of a good,
33:12
Speaker 1: not to say, pious mind, and a mind desiring to
33:15
Speaker 1: be taught, let impiety or iniquity itself be judged. Take
33:21
Speaker 1: your victory, then, while we, as the vanquished, confess that
33:24
Speaker 1: these characters and syllables, that which is most excellent in
33:27
Speaker 1: man is nothing but flesh, is not to be found
33:30
Speaker 1: in the scriptures. But just behold what a victory you
33:33
Speaker 1: have gained when we most abundantly prove that, though it
33:37
Speaker 1: is not found in the scriptures, that one detached portion
33:41
Speaker 1: or that which is most excellent or the principal part
33:45
Speaker 1: of man is flesh, but that the whole of man
33:48
Speaker 1: is flesh, And not only so, but that the whole
33:51
Speaker 1: people is flesh. And further still, that the whole human
33:55
Speaker 1: race is flesh. For Christ saith that which is born
33:59
Speaker 1: of the flesh is flesh. Do you here set about
34:03
Speaker 1: your difficulty solving your trope, inventing and searching for the
34:07
Speaker 1: interpretations of the fathers, or, turning quite another way, enter
34:11
Speaker 1: upon a dissertation on the Trojan War in order to
34:15
Speaker 1: avoid seeing and hearing this passage now adduced. We do
34:19
Speaker 1: not believe, only but see and experience, that the whole
34:23
Speaker 1: human race is born of the flesh. And therefore we
34:26
Speaker 1: are compelled to believe, upon the word of Christ that
34:30
Speaker 1: which we do not see, that the whole human race
34:32
Speaker 1: is flesh. Do we now then give the Sulphists any
34:36
Speaker 1: room to doubt and dispute whether or not the principal
34:39
Speaker 1: Agamonica part of a man be comprehended in the whole man,
34:43
Speaker 1: in the whole people, in the whole race of men.
34:47
Speaker 1: We know, however, that in the whole human race, both
34:50
Speaker 1: the body and soul are comprehended together with all their
34:53
Speaker 1: powers and works, with all their vices and virtues, with
34:57
Speaker 1: all their wisdom and folly, with all the their righteousness
35:00
Speaker 1: and unrighteousness. All things are flesh, because all things savor
35:06
Speaker 1: of the flesh, that is of their own, and are
35:09
Speaker 1: as Paul saith without the glory of God and the
35:12
Speaker 1: Spirit of God Romans three twenty three, eight five through nine,
35:17
Speaker 1: Section one hundred and twenty. And as to your saying,
35:21
Speaker 1: yet every affection of man is not flesh, there is
35:25
Speaker 1: an affection called soul. There is an affection called spirit,
35:29
Speaker 1: by which we aspire to what is meritoriously good, as
35:33
Speaker 1: the philosophers aspired, who taught that we should rather die
35:37
Speaker 1: a thousand deaths than commit one base action, even though
35:40
Speaker 1: we were assured that men would never know it and
35:43
Speaker 1: that God would pardon it. I answer, he who believes nothing,
35:48
Speaker 1: certainly may easily believe and say anything. I will not
35:52
Speaker 1: ask you, but let your friend Lucien ask you whether
35:55
Speaker 1: you can bring forward any one out of the whole
35:57
Speaker 1: human race. Let him be too fold or sevenfold greater
36:01
Speaker 1: than Socrates himself, who ever performed this of which you speak,
36:06
Speaker 1: and which you say they taught. Why then, do you
36:09
Speaker 1: thus babble in vanities of words? Could they ever aspire
36:14
Speaker 1: to that which is meritoriously good? Who did not even
36:16
Speaker 1: know what good is? If I should ask you for
36:20
Speaker 1: some of the brightest examples of your meritorious good, you
36:23
Speaker 1: would say, perhaps that it was meritoriously good when men
36:27
Speaker 1: died for their country, for their wives and children, and
36:30
Speaker 1: for their parents, or when they refrained from line or
36:34
Speaker 1: from treachery, or when they endured exquisite torments, as did q. Sivola,
36:41
Speaker 1: m Rigulus and others. But what can you point out
36:45
Speaker 1: in all those men but an external show of works.
36:49
Speaker 1: For did you ever see their hearts? Nay, it was
36:52
Speaker 1: manifest from the very appearance of their works that they
36:55
Speaker 1: did all these things for their own glory, so much
36:59
Speaker 1: so that they were not even ashamed to confess and
37:02
Speaker 1: to boast that they sought their own glory. For the Romans,
37:06
Speaker 1: according to their own testimonies, did whatever they did of
37:10
Speaker 1: virtue or valor, from a thirst after glory. The same
37:14
Speaker 1: did the Greeks, the same did the Jews, and the
37:17
Speaker 1: same do all the race of men. But though this
37:21
Speaker 1: be meritoriously good before men, yet before God, nothing is
37:25
Speaker 1: less meritoriously good than all this. Nay, it is most
37:29
Speaker 1: impious and the greatest of sacrilege, because they did it
37:33
Speaker 1: not for the glory of God, nor that they might
37:36
Speaker 1: glorify God, but with the most impious of all robbery.
37:41
Speaker 1: For as they were robbing God of his glory and
37:43
Speaker 1: taking it to themselves, they never were farther from meritorious good,
37:48
Speaker 1: never more base than when they were shining in their
37:51
Speaker 1: most exalted virtues. How could they do what they did
37:55
Speaker 1: for the glory of God when they neither knew God
37:57
Speaker 1: nor his glory, Not, however, because it did not appear,
38:02
Speaker 1: but because the flesh did not permit them to see
38:05
Speaker 1: the glory of God from their fury and madness after
38:08
Speaker 1: their own glory. This therefore, is that right ruling spirit,
38:13
Speaker 1: that principal part of man, which aspires to what is
38:17
Speaker 1: meritoriously good. It is a plunderer of the divine glory
38:21
Speaker 1: and an usurper of the divine majesty. And then the
38:26
Speaker 1: most so when men are at the highest of their
38:29
Speaker 1: meritorious good and the most glittering in their brightest virtues. Deny, therefore,
38:35
Speaker 1: if you can that these are flesh and carried away
38:39
Speaker 1: by an impious affection. But I do not believe that
38:43
Speaker 1: the diatribe can be so much offended at the expression
38:46
Speaker 1: where man is said to be either flesh or spirit,
38:50
Speaker 1: because Alatin would here say man is either carnal or spiritual.
38:54
Speaker 1: For this particularly, as well as many others, must be
38:58
Speaker 1: granted to the Hebrew tongue. But when it says man
39:01
Speaker 1: is flesh or spirit, its signification is the same as
39:05
Speaker 1: ours is when we say man is carnal or spiritual,
39:09
Speaker 1: the same signification which the Latins also convey when they
39:12
Speaker 1: say the wolf is destructive to the folds, moisture is
39:16
Speaker 1: favorable to the young corn, or when they say this
39:20
Speaker 1: fellow is iniquity and evil itself. So also the Holy Scripture,
39:26
Speaker 1: by a force of expression, calls man flesh, that is
39:30
Speaker 1: carnality itself, because it savors too much of nay, of
39:34
Speaker 1: nothing but those things which are of the flesh and spirit,
39:38
Speaker 1: because he savors of seeks, does and can endure nothing
39:43
Speaker 1: but those things which are of the spirit. Unless perhaps
39:47
Speaker 1: the diatribe should still make this remaining query, supposing the
39:51
Speaker 1: whole of man to be flesh, and that which is
39:54
Speaker 1: most excellent in man to be called flesh, must therefore
39:57
Speaker 1: that which is called flesh be at once called called ungodly,
40:02
Speaker 1: I call him ungodly, who is without the Spirit of God.
40:05
Speaker 1: For the Scripture saith that the Spirit was therefore given
40:09
Speaker 1: that He might justify the ungodly. And as Christ makes
40:12
Speaker 1: a distinction between the spirit and the flesh, saying that
40:15
Speaker 1: which is born of the flesh is flesh, and adds
40:18
Speaker 1: that that which is born of the flesh cannot see
40:21
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of God John three three through six. It
40:24
Speaker 1: evidently follows that whatsoever is flesh is ungodly under the
40:29
Speaker 1: wrath of God and a stranger to the Kingdom of God.
40:33
Speaker 1: And if it be a stranger to the Kingdom of God,
40:36
Speaker 1: it necessarily follows that it is under the kingdom and
40:40
Speaker 1: spirit of Satan. For there is no medium between the
40:43
Speaker 1: Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan. They are
40:46
Speaker 1: mutually and eternally opposed to each other. These are the
40:50
Speaker 1: arguments that prove that the most exalted virtues among the nations,
40:55
Speaker 1: the highest perfections of the philosophers, and the greatest excellencies
40:59
Speaker 1: among men, appear indeed in the sight of men to
41:01
Speaker 1: be meritoriously virtuous and good, and are so called, but
41:06
Speaker 1: that in the sight of God they are in truth
41:09
Speaker 1: flesh and subservient to the kingdom of Satan, that is ungodly, sacrilegious,
41:16
Speaker 1: and in every respect evil Section one hundred twenty one.
41:22
Speaker 1: But pray, let us suppose the sentiment of the diatribe
41:25
Speaker 1: to stand good, That every affection is not flesh that
41:29
Speaker 1: is ungodly, but is that which is called good in
41:33
Speaker 1: sound spirit? Only observe what absurdity must hence follow, not
41:39
Speaker 1: only with respect to human reason, but with respect to
41:42
Speaker 1: the Christian religion and the most important articles of faith.
41:46
Speaker 1: For if that which is most excellent in man be
41:49
Speaker 1: not ungodly, nor utterly depraved, nor damnable, but that which
41:54
Speaker 1: is flesh only, that is the grosser and viler affections,
41:58
Speaker 1: what sort of a red shall we make Christ? Shall
42:02
Speaker 1: we rate the price of his blood so low as
42:05
Speaker 1: to say that it redeemed that part of man only
42:08
Speaker 1: which is the most vile, And that the most excellent
42:11
Speaker 1: part of man has power to work its own salvation
42:15
Speaker 1: and does not want Christ. Henceforth, then I must preach
42:19
Speaker 1: Christ as the redeemer, not of the whole man, but
42:22
Speaker 1: of his vilest part, that is, of his flesh. But
42:26
Speaker 1: that the man himself is his own redeemer in his
42:29
Speaker 1: better part. Have it therefore, which way you will. If
42:34
Speaker 1: the better part of man be sound, it does not
42:37
Speaker 1: want Christ as a redeemer. And if it does not
42:40
Speaker 1: want Christ, it triumphs in a glory above that of Christ,
42:44
Speaker 1: for it takes care of the redemption of the better
42:47
Speaker 1: part itself, whereas Christ only takes care of that of
42:50
Speaker 1: the vilest part. And then moreover, the kingdom of Satan
42:54
Speaker 1: will come to nothing at all, for it will reign
42:57
Speaker 1: only in the viler part of man, because the man
43:00
Speaker 1: himself will rule over the better part. So that by
43:03
Speaker 1: this doctrine of yours concerning the principal part of man,
43:07
Speaker 1: it will come to pass that man will be exalted
43:09
Speaker 1: above Christ and the devil both, that is, he will
43:13
Speaker 1: be made God of gods and Lord of lords. Where
43:17
Speaker 1: is now that probable opinion which asserted that free will
43:21
Speaker 1: cannot will anything good. It here contends that it is
43:26
Speaker 1: a principal part meritoriously good and sound, and that it
43:30
Speaker 1: does not even want Christ, but can do more than
43:33
Speaker 1: God himself and the devil can do. Put together, I
43:37
Speaker 1: say this that you may again see how eminently perilous
43:40
Speaker 1: a matter it is to attempt sacred and divine things
43:44
Speaker 1: without the spirit of God and the temerity of human reason.
43:48
Speaker 1: If therefore Christ be the lamb of God that taketh
43:51
Speaker 1: away the sins of the world, it follows that the
43:53
Speaker 1: whole world is under sin, damnation, and the devil. Hence,
43:58
Speaker 1: your distinction between the principal parts and the parts not principle,
44:02
Speaker 1: profits you nothing, For the world signifies men savoring of
44:06
Speaker 1: nothing but the things of the world throughout all their
44:09
Speaker 1: faculties Section one hundred twenty two. If the whole man,
44:16
Speaker 1: says the diatribe, even when regenerated by faith, is nothing
44:19
Speaker 1: else but flesh? Where is the spirit born of the spirit?
44:23
Speaker 1: Where is the child of God? Where is the new creature?
44:27
Speaker 1: I want information upon these points? Thus the diatribe, where now?
44:33
Speaker 1: Where now, my dear friend, diatribe what dream now? You
44:37
Speaker 1: demand to be informed? How the spirit born of the
44:40
Speaker 1: spirit can be flesh? Oh? How elated? How secure of victory?
44:44
Speaker 1: Do you insultingly put this question to me, as though
44:47
Speaker 1: it were impossible for me to stand my ground here?
44:51
Speaker 1: All this while you are abusing the authority of the ancients.
44:55
Speaker 1: For they say that there are certain seeds of good
44:58
Speaker 1: implanted in the minds of men. But however, whether you
45:02
Speaker 1: use or whether abuse the authority of the ancients, it
45:05
Speaker 1: is all one to me. You will see by and
45:08
Speaker 1: by what you believe when you believe men prating out
45:11
Speaker 1: of their own brain without the word of God. Though
45:16
Speaker 1: perhaps your care about religion does not give you much
45:18
Speaker 1: concern as to what any one believes, since you so
45:22
Speaker 1: easily believe men without at all regarding whether or not
45:25
Speaker 1: that which they say be certain or uncertain in the
45:28
Speaker 1: sight of God. And I also wish to be informed
45:32
Speaker 1: when I ever taught that with which you so freely
45:35
Speaker 1: and publicly charge me. Who would be so mad as
45:38
Speaker 1: to say that he who is born of the spirit
45:41
Speaker 1: is nothing but flesh. I make a manifest distinction between
45:46
Speaker 1: flesh and spirit, as things that directly militate against each other.
45:50
Speaker 1: And I say, according to the divine Oracles, that the
45:53
Speaker 1: man who is not regenerated by faith is flesh. But
45:57
Speaker 1: I say that he who is thus regenerated is no
45:59
Speaker 1: longer or flesh, excepting as to the remnants of the flesh,
46:03
Speaker 1: which war against the first fruits of the spirit received.
46:07
Speaker 1: Nor do I suppose you wish to attempt to charge
46:09
Speaker 1: me invidiously with anything wrong here. If you do, there
46:14
Speaker 1: is no charge that you could more iniquitously bring against me.
46:18
Speaker 1: But you either understand nothing of my side of the subject,
46:22
Speaker 1: or else you find yourself unequal to the magnitude of
46:24
Speaker 1: the cause by which you are, perhaps so overwhelmed and
46:27
Speaker 1: confounded that you do not rightly know what you say
46:30
Speaker 1: against me or for yourself. For where you declare it
46:35
Speaker 1: to be your belief, upon the authority of the ancients,
46:38
Speaker 1: that there are certain seeds of good implanted in the
46:41
Speaker 1: minds of men, you must surely quite forget yourself, because
46:45
Speaker 1: you before asserted that free will cannot will anything good,
46:50
Speaker 1: and how cannot will anything good? And certain seeds of
46:54
Speaker 1: good can stand in harmony together? I know not. Thus
46:58
Speaker 1: I am perpetually compelled to remind you of the subject
47:02
Speaker 1: design with which you set out, from which you, with
47:05
Speaker 1: perpetual forgetfulness, depart and take up something contrary to your
47:09
Speaker 1: professed purpose Section one hundred twenty three. Another passage is
47:15
Speaker 1: that of Jeremiah ten twenty three. I know, o, Lord,
47:19
Speaker 1: that the way of man is not in himself. It
47:22
Speaker 1: is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
47:26
Speaker 1: This passage says, the diatribe rather applies to the events
47:30
Speaker 1: of prosperity than to the power of free will. Here
47:35
Speaker 1: again the diatribe, with its usual audacity, introduces a gloss
47:39
Speaker 1: according to its own pleasure, as though the scripture were
47:42
Speaker 1: fully under its control. But in order to any one's
47:46
Speaker 1: considering the sense and intent of the prophet, What need
47:49
Speaker 1: was there for the opinion of a man of so
47:51
Speaker 1: great authority, Erasmus says, so it is enough. It must
47:56
Speaker 1: be so if this liberty of glossing as they lust
48:00
Speaker 1: be permitted the adversaries, what point is there which they
48:04
Speaker 1: might not carry? Let therefore, Erasmus show us the validity
48:08
Speaker 1: of this gloss from the scope of the context, and
48:11
Speaker 1: we will believe him. I, however, will show from the
48:15
Speaker 1: scope of the context that the prophet, when he saw
48:18
Speaker 1: that he taught the ungodly with so much earnestness in vain,
48:22
Speaker 1: was at once convinced that his word could avail nothing
48:25
Speaker 1: unless God should teach them within, and that therefore it
48:29
Speaker 1: was not in man to hear the word of God
48:32
Speaker 1: and to will good. Seeing this judgment of God, he
48:36
Speaker 1: was alarmed and ask of God that he would correct him.
48:39
Speaker 1: But with judgment if he had need to be corrected,
48:43
Speaker 1: and that he might not be given up to his
48:45
Speaker 1: divine wrath with the ungodly whom he suffered to be
48:48
Speaker 1: hardened and to remain in unbelief. But let us suppose
48:52
Speaker 1: that the passages to be understood concerning the events of
48:55
Speaker 1: adversity and prosperity. What will you say, if this gloss
49:00
Speaker 1: should go most directly to overthrow free will? This new
49:04
Speaker 1: evasion is invented, indeed, that ignorant and lazy deceivers may
49:08
Speaker 1: consider it satisfactory the same which they also had in
49:12
Speaker 1: view who invented that evasion the necessity of the consequence.
49:17
Speaker 1: And so drawn away are they by these newly invented terms,
49:20
Speaker 1: that they do not see that they are by these
49:23
Speaker 1: evasions tenfold more effectually entangled in caught than they would
49:27
Speaker 1: have been without them, As in the present instance, if
49:31
Speaker 1: the event of these things which are temporal and over
49:33
Speaker 1: which man Genesis one twenty six thirty was constituted, Lord,
49:38
Speaker 1: be not in our own power, how I pray you
49:41
Speaker 1: can that heavenly thing, the grace of God, which depends
49:44
Speaker 1: on the will of God alone, be in our own power?
49:49
Speaker 1: Can that endeavor of free will attain unto eternal salvation,
49:53
Speaker 1: which is not able to retain a farthing or a
49:56
Speaker 1: hair of the head when we have no power to
49:59
Speaker 1: obtain the creature? Shall it be said that we have
50:02
Speaker 1: power to obtain the creator? What madness is this? The
50:08
Speaker 1: endeavoring of man, therefore unto good or unto evil, when
50:11
Speaker 1: applied to events, is a thousandfold more enormous, because he
50:16
Speaker 1: is in both much more deceived and has much less
50:20
Speaker 1: liberty than he has in striving after money or glory
50:24
Speaker 1: or pleasure. What an excellent evasion is this gloss, then,
50:28
Speaker 1: which denies the liberty of man in trifling and created events,
50:32
Speaker 1: and preaches it up in the greatest and divine events.
50:36
Speaker 1: This is as if one should say, Kodris is not
50:40
Speaker 1: able to pay a groat, but he is able to
50:43
Speaker 1: pay thousands of thousands of pounds. I am astonished that
50:47
Speaker 1: the diatribe, having all along so inveighed against that tenet
50:50
Speaker 1: of Wickliffe that all things take place of necessity, should
50:54
Speaker 1: now itself grant that events come upon us of necessity.
50:59
Speaker 1: And even if you do, says the diatribe, forcibly twist
51:03
Speaker 1: this to apply to free will, all confess that no
51:06
Speaker 1: one can hold on a right course of life without
51:09
Speaker 1: the grace of God. Nevertheless, we still strive ourselves with
51:13
Speaker 1: all our powers, for we pray daily, O Lord, my God,
51:17
Speaker 1: direct my goings in thy sight. He therefore, who implores aid,
51:22
Speaker 1: does not lay aside his own endeavors. The diatribe thinks
51:27
Speaker 1: that it matters not what it answers, so that it
51:29
Speaker 1: does not remain silent with nothing to say, And then
51:32
Speaker 1: it would have what it does say to appear satisfactory.
51:36
Speaker 1: Such a vain confidence has it in its own authority.
51:40
Speaker 1: It ought here to have proved whether or not we
51:42
Speaker 1: strive by our own powers. Whereas it proved that he
51:47
Speaker 1: who prays attempts something, but I pray. Is it here
51:51
Speaker 1: laughing at us or mocking the papists? For he who
51:56
Speaker 1: prays prays by the spirit. Nay, it is the Spirit
52:00
Speaker 1: himself that prays in us Romans eight twenty six through
52:03
Speaker 1: twenty seven. How then, is the power of free will
52:06
Speaker 1: proved by the strivings of the Holy Spirit. Are free
52:10
Speaker 1: will and the Holy Spirit with the diatribe one and
52:14
Speaker 1: the same thing, or are we disputing now about what
52:17
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit can do? The diatribe therefore leaves me
52:21
Speaker 1: this passage of Jeremiah uninjured and invincible, and only produces
52:26
Speaker 1: the gloss out of its own brain. I also can
52:29
Speaker 1: strive by my own powers, and Luther will be compelled
52:32
Speaker 1: to believe this gloss if he will Section one hundred
52:36
Speaker 1: twenty four. There is that passage of Proverbs sixteen one
52:41
Speaker 1: and nine. Also it is of man to prepare the heart,
52:45
Speaker 1: but of the Lord to govern the tongue which the
52:48
Speaker 1: diatribe says refers to events of things, as though this
52:53
Speaker 1: the diatribe's own saying would satisfy us without any further authority.
52:58
Speaker 1: But however, it is quite Sophie, that allowing the sense
53:01
Speaker 1: of these passages to be concerning the events of things,
53:04
Speaker 1: we have evidently come off victorious by the arguments which
53:08
Speaker 1: we have just advanced. That if we have no such
53:11
Speaker 1: thing as freedom of will in our own things and works,
53:14
Speaker 1: much less have we any such thing in divine things
53:17
Speaker 1: and works. But mark the great acuteness of the diatribe,
53:21
Speaker 1: how can it be of man to prepare the heart?
53:24
Speaker 1: When Luther affirms that all things are carried on by necessity?
53:28
Speaker 1: I answer, if the events of things be not in
53:31
Speaker 1: our power as you say, how can it be in
53:34
Speaker 1: man to perform the causing acts? The same answer which
53:38
Speaker 1: you gave me the same receive yourself. Nay, we are
53:42
Speaker 1: commanded to work the more for this very reason, because
53:46
Speaker 1: all things future are to us uncertain, as saith Ecclesiastes.
53:51
Speaker 1: In the morning, sow thy seed, and in the evening
53:54
Speaker 1: hold not thine hand, for thou knowest not which shall prosper,
53:58
Speaker 1: either this or that Ecclesiastes eleven six. All things future,
54:04
Speaker 1: I say, are to us uncertain in knowledge, but necessary
54:08
Speaker 1: in event. The necessity strikes into us a fear of
54:12
Speaker 1: God that we presume not or become secure, while the
54:15
Speaker 1: uncertainty works in us a trusting that we sink not
54:19
Speaker 1: in despair Section one hundred twenty five. But the diatribe
54:25
Speaker 1: returns to harping upon its old string, that in the
54:28
Speaker 1: Book of Proverbs, many things are said in confirmation of
54:31
Speaker 1: free will. As this commit thy works unto the Lord.
54:36
Speaker 1: Do thou hear? This, says the diatribe, Thy works many
54:40
Speaker 1: things in confirmation? What because there are in that book
54:45
Speaker 1: many imperative and conditional verbs and pronouns of the second person.
54:50
Speaker 1: For it is upon these foundations that you build your
54:52
Speaker 1: proof of the freedom of the will. Thus commit Therefore
54:57
Speaker 1: thou canst commit thy works therefore, or thou doest them.
55:01
Speaker 1: So also this passage I am thy God, Isaiah forty
55:05
Speaker 1: one ten. You will understand thus that is thou makest
55:09
Speaker 1: me thy God, thy faith. Hast save thee Luke seven fifty.
55:14
Speaker 1: Do you hear this word thy therefore expound it. Thus
55:17
Speaker 1: thou makest thy faith. And then you have proved free will.
55:22
Speaker 1: Nor am I merely game making? But I am showing
55:25
Speaker 1: the diatribe that there is nothing serious on its side
55:28
Speaker 1: of the subject this passage also in the same chapter,
55:32
Speaker 1: the Lord hath made all things for himself, yea even
55:35
Speaker 1: the wicked for the day of evil Proverb sixteen four.
55:39
Speaker 1: It modifies by its own words and excuses God as
55:42
Speaker 1: having never created a creature evil, as though I had
55:46
Speaker 1: spoken concerning the creation, and not rather concerning that continual
55:50
Speaker 1: operation of God upon the things created, in which operation
55:54
Speaker 1: God acts upon the wicked, as we have before shown
55:57
Speaker 1: in the case of Pharaoh. But he creates the wicked,
56:00
Speaker 1: not by creating wicked ness or a wicked creature, which
56:04
Speaker 1: is impossible, but from the operation of God a wicked
56:08
Speaker 1: man is made or created from a corrupt seed, not
56:12
Speaker 1: from the fault of the maker, but from that of
56:14
Speaker 1: the material. Nor does that of the heart of the
56:18
Speaker 1: king is in the Lord's hand, he inclineth it whithersoever
56:21
Speaker 1: he will. Proverbs twenty one one seem to the diatribe
56:25
Speaker 1: to imply force. He who inclines, it observes, does not
56:29
Speaker 1: immediately compel, as though we were speaking of compulsion, and
56:33
Speaker 1: not rather concerning the necessity of immutability. And that is
56:38
Speaker 1: implied in the inclining of God. Which inclining is not
56:42
Speaker 1: so snoring and lazy a thing, as the diatribe imagines,
56:45
Speaker 1: but is that most active operation of God, which a
56:48
Speaker 1: man cannot avoid or alter, but under which he has
56:52
Speaker 1: of necessity, such a will as God has given him,
56:56
Speaker 1: and such as he carries along by his motion, as
56:59
Speaker 1: I have before shown. Moreover, where Solomon is speaking of
57:04
Speaker 1: the king's heart, the diatribe thinks that the passage cannot
57:07
Speaker 1: rightly be strained to apply in a general sense, but
57:11
Speaker 1: that the meaning is the same as that of Job,
57:13
Speaker 1: where he says, in another place, he maketh the hypocrite
57:17
Speaker 1: to reign because of the sins of the people. At Last, however,
57:21
Speaker 1: it concedes that the king is inclined unto evil by God,
57:26
Speaker 1: but so that He permits the King to be carried
57:28
Speaker 1: away by his inclination in order to chastise the people.
57:32
Speaker 1: I answer, whether God permit or whether he incline, that
57:37
Speaker 1: permitting or inclining does not take place without the will
57:41
Speaker 1: and operation of God, because the will of the king
57:44
Speaker 1: cannot avoid the action of the omnipotent God, seeing that
57:48
Speaker 1: the will of all is carried along just as He
57:51
Speaker 1: wills and acts, whether that will be good or evil.
57:55
Speaker 1: And as to my having made out of the particular
57:57
Speaker 1: will of the king a general application, I did it.
58:01
Speaker 1: I presume neither vainly nor unskillfully. For if the heart
58:06
Speaker 1: of the King, which seems to be of all the
58:09
Speaker 1: most free and to rule over others, cannot will good,
58:13
Speaker 1: but where God inclines it, how much less can any
58:16
Speaker 1: other among men will good. And this conclusion will stand valid,
58:21
Speaker 1: drawn not from the will of the king only, but
58:24
Speaker 1: from that of any other man. For if any one man,
58:28
Speaker 1: how private, soever he be, cannot will before God, but
58:32
Speaker 1: where God inclines, the same must be said of all men. Thus,
58:37
Speaker 1: in the instance of Balim. His not being able to
58:40
Speaker 1: speak what he wished is an evident argument from the
58:43
Speaker 1: Scriptures that man is not in his own power, nor
58:47
Speaker 1: a free chooser and doer of what he does. Were
58:50
Speaker 1: it not so, no examples of it could subsist in
58:53
Speaker 1: the scriptures. End of Section one hundred twenty five