menu_book Chapter 6

institutes of the christian religion book two by john calvin translated by henry beverage chapter three part one everything proceeding from the corrupt nature of man damnable the principal matters in this chapter are one a recapitulation of the former chapter proving from passages of scriptures that the intellect and will of man are so corrupted that no integrity no knowledge or fear of god can now be found in him section one and two two objections to this doctrine from the virtues which shone in some of the heathen refuted section three and four three what kind of will remains in man the slave of sin section five the remedy and cure section six four the opinion of neopelagian sophists concerning the preparation and efficacy of the will and also concerning perseverance and co-operating grace reputed both by reason and scripture section seven to twelve five some passages from augustine confirming the truth of this doctrine section thirteen and fourteen sections one the intellect and will of the whole man corrupt the term flesh applies not only to the sensual but also to the higher part of the soul

this demonstrated from scripture two the heart also involved in corruption and hence in no part of man can integrity or knowledge or the fear of god be found three objection that some of the heathen were possessed of admirable endowments and therefore that the nature of man is not entirely corrupt answer corruption is not entirely removed but only inwardly restrained explanation of this answer for objection still urged that the virtuous and vicious among the heathen must be put upon the same level or the virtuous proof that human nature properly cultivated is not devoid of virtue answer that these are not ordinary properties of human nature but special gifts of god these gifts defiled by ambition and hence the actions proceeding from them however esteemed by man have no merit with god v though man has still the faculty of feeling there is no soundness in it he falls under the bondage of sin necessarily and yet voluntarily

necessity must be distinguished from compulsion the ancient theologians acquainted with this necessity some passages condemning the vacillation of lombard six conversion to god constitutes the remedy or soundness of the human will days not only begun but continued and completed the beginning continuance and completion being ascribed entirely to god this proved by ezekiel's description of the stony heart and from other passages of scripture seven various objections one the will is converted by god but when once prepared does its part in the work of conversion answer from augustine two grace can do nothing without will nor the will without grace answer grace itself produces will god prevents the unwilling making him willing and follows up this preventing grace that he may not will in vain another answer gathered from various passages of augustine 8. Answer to the second objection continued. No will inclining to good except in the elect. The cause of election out of man. Hence right will as well as election are from the good pleasure of God. The beginning of willing and doing well is of faith. Faith again is the gift of God. And hence mere grace is the cause of our beginning to will well. This proved by scripture.

9. Answer to second objection continued, that goodwill is merely of grace proved by the prayers of saints. Three actions. 1. God does not prepare man's heart so that he can afterwards do some good of himself, but every desire of rectitude, every inclination to study, and every effort to pursue it is from him. 2. This desire, study, and effort do not stop short, but continue to effect.

three this progress is constant the believer perseveres to the end a third objection and three answers to it ten a fourth objection answer fifth objection answer answer confirmed by many passages of scripture and supported by a passage from augustine eleven perseverance not of ourselves but of god objection two errors in the objection refutation of both twelve an objection founded on the distinction of co-operating grace answer answer confirmed by the testimony of augustine and bernard thirteen last part of the chapter in which it is proved by many passages of augustine that he held the doctrine here taught fourteen an objection representing augustine's adviance with himself and other theologians removed a summary of augustine's doctrine on free will one the nature of man in both parts of his soul namely intellect and will cannot be better ascertained than by attending to the epithets applied to him in scripture if he is fully depicted and it may easily be proved that he is by the words of our saviour

that which is born of the flesh is flesh john chapter three verse six he must be a very miserable creature for as an apostle declares to be carnally minded is death romans chapter eight verse eight it is enmity against god and is not subject to the law of god neither indeed can be is it true that the flesh is so perverse that it is perpetually striving with all its might against god that it cannot accord with the righteousness of the divine law that in short it can beget nothing but the materials of death grant that there is nothing in human nature but flesh and then extract something good out of it if you can but it will be said that the word flesh applies only to the sensual and not to the higher part of the soul this however is completely refuted by the words both of christ and his apostle the statement of our lord is that a man must be born again because he is flesh he requires not to be born again with reference to the body but a mind is not born again merely by having some portion of it reformed it must be totally renewed

this is confirmed by the antithesis used in both passages in the contrast between the spirit and the flesh there is nothing left of an intermediate nature in this way everything in man which is not spiritual falls under the denomination of carnal but we have nothing of the spirit except through regeneration everything therefore which we have from nature is flesh any possible doubt which might exist on the subject is removed by the words of paul ephesians chapter four verse twenty three where after a description of the old man who he says is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts he bids us be renewed in the spirit of our mind you see that he places unlawful and deprived desires not in the sensual part merely but in the mind itself and therefore requires that it should be renewed

indeed he had a little before drawn a picture of human nature which shows that there is no part in which it is not perverted and corrupted for when he says that the gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of god through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart ephesians chapter four verses seventeen to eighteen there can be no doubt that his words apply to all whom the lord has not yet formed anew both to wisdom and righteousness this is rendered more clear by the comparison which immediately follows and by which he reminds believers that they have not so learned christ these words implying that the grace of christ is the only remedy for that blindness and its evil consequences thus too had isaiah prophesied of the kingdom of christ when the lord promised to the church that though darkness should cover the earth and gross darkness the people yet that he should arise upon it and his glory should be seen upon it isaiah chapter forty verse two when it is thus declared that divine light is to arise on the church alone all without the church is left in blindness and darkness

i will not enumerate all that occurs throughout scripture and particularly in the psalms and prophetical writings as to the vanity of man there is much in what david says surely men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lie to be laid into balance they are altogether lighter than vanity psalms chapter sixty two verse ten the human mind receives a humbling blow when all the thoughts which proceed from it are derided as foolish frivolous perverse and insane two in no degree more lenient is the condemnation of the heart when it is described as deceitful above all things and desperately wicked jeremiah chapter seventeen verse nine but as i study brevity i will be satisfied with a single passage one however in which as in a bright mirror we may behold a complete image of our nature the apostle when he would humble man's pride uses these words there is none righteous no not one there is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after god

they are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that does good no not one their throat is an open sepulchre with their tongues they have used deceit the poison of asps is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and misery are in their ways and the way of peace have they not known there is no fear of god before their eyes romans chapter three verses ten to eighteen thus he thunders not against certain individuals but against the whole posterity of adam not against the depraved manners of any single age but the perpetual corruption of nature his object in the passage is not merely to upbraid men in order that they may repent but to teach that all are overwhelmed with inevitable calamity and can be delivered from it only by the mercy of god as this could not be proved without previously proving the overthrow and destruction of nature he produced those passages to show that its ruin is complete let it be a fixed point then that men are such as is here described not by vicious custom but by depravity of nature

the reasoning of the apostle that there is no salvation for man save in the mercy of god because in himself he is desperate and undone could not otherwise stand i will not here labour to prove that the passages apply with a view of removing the doubts of any who might think them quoted out of place i will take them as if they had been used by paul for the first time and not taken from the prophets first then he strips man of righteousness that is integrity and purity and secondly he strips him of sound intelligence he argues that the effect of intelligence is proved by apostasy from god to seek him is the beginning of wisdom and therefore such defect must exist in all who have revolted from him he subjoins that all have gone astray and become as it were mere corruption that there is none that does good he then enumerates the crimes by which those who have once given loose to their wickedness pollute every member of their bodies lastly he declares that they have no fear of god according to whose rule all our steps should be directed

if these are the hereditary properties of the human race it is vain to look for anything good in our nature i confess indeed that all these iniquities do not break out in every individual still it cannot be denied that the hydra lurks in every breast for as a body while it contains and fosters the cause and matter of disease cannot be called healthy although pain is not actually felt so a soul while teeming with such deeds of vice cannot be called sound this similitude however does not apply throughout in a body however morbid the functions of life are performed but the soul when plunged into that deadly abyss not only labours under vice but is altogether devoid of good here again we are met with a question very much the same as that which was previously solved in every age there have been some who under the guidance of nature were all their lives devoted to virtue it is of no consequence that many blots may be detected in their conduct by the mere study of virtue they evinced that there was somewhat of purity in their nature

the value which virtues of this kind have in the sight of god will be considered more fully when we treat of the merit of works meanwhile however it will be proper to consider it in this place also in so far as necessary for the exposition of the subject in hand such examples then seem to warn us against supposing that the nature of man is utterly vicious since under its guidance some have not only excelled in illustrious deeds but conducted themselves most honourably through the whole course of their lives but we ought to consider that notwithstanding of the corruption of our nature there is some room for divine grace such grace as without purifying it may lay it under internal restraint for did the lord let every mind loose to wanton in its lusts doubtless there is not a man who would not show that his nature is capable of all the crimes with which paul charges it romans chapter three compared with psalms chapter fourteen verse three what can you exempt yourself from the number of those whose feet are swift to shed blood whose hands are foul with rapine and murder whose throats are like open sepulchres whose tongues are deceitful whose lips are venomous whose actions are useless unjust rotten deadly

whose soul is without god whose inward parts are full of wickedness whose eyes are on the watch for deception whose minds are prepared for insult whose every part in short is framed for endless deeds of wickedness if every soul is capable of such abominations and the apostle declares this boldly it is surely easy to see what the result would be if the lord were to permit human passion to follow its bent no ravenous beast would rush so furiously no stream however rapid and violent so impetuously burst its banks in the elect god cures these diseases in the mode which will shortly be explained in others he only lays them under such restraint as may prevent them from breaking forth to a degree incompatible with the preservation of the established order of things hence how much soever men may disguise their impurity some are restrained only by shame others by a fear of the loss from breaking out into many kinds of wickedness some aspire to an honest life as deeming it most conducive to their interest while others are raised above the vulgar lot

that by the dignity of their station they may keep inferiors to their duty thus god by his providence curbs the perverseness of nature preventing it from breaking forth into action yet without rendering it inwardly pure for the objection however is not yet solved for we must either put cataline on the same footing with camillus or hold camillus to be an example that nature when carefully cultivated is not fully void of goodness i admit that the specious qualities which camillus possessed were divine gifts and appear entitled to commendation when viewed in themselves but in what way will they be proofs of a virtuous nature must we not go back to the mind and from it begin to reason thus if a natural man possesses such integrity of manners nature is not without the faculty of studying virtue but what if his mind was depraved and perverted and followed any thing rather than rectitude such it undoubtedly was if you grant that he was only a natural man

how then will you laud the power of human nature for good if even where there is the highest semblance of integrity a corrupt bias is always detected therefore as you would not commend a man for virtue whose vices impose upon you by a show of virtue so you will not attribute a power of choosing rectitude to the human will while rooted in depravity still the surest and easiest answer to the objection is that those are not common endowments of nature but special gifts of god which he distributes in their verse forms and in a definite measure to men otherwise profane for which reason we hesitate not in common language to say that one is of a good another of a vicious nature though we cease not to hold that both are placed under the universal condition of human depravity all we mean is that god has conferred on the one a special grace which he has not seen it meet to confer on the other when he was pleased to set soul over the kingdom he made him as it were a new man

this is the thing meant by plato when alluding to a passage in the iliad he says that the children of kings are distinguished at their birth by some special qualities god in kindness to the human race often giving a spirit of heroism to those whom he destines for empire in this way the great leaders celebrated in history were formed the same judgment must be given in the case of private individuals but as those endued with the greatest talents were always impelled by the greatest ambitions a stain which defiles all virtues and makes them lose all favour in the sight of god so we cannot set any value on anything that seems praiseworthy in ungodly men we may add that the principal part of rectitude is wanting when there is no zeal for the glory of god and there is no such zeal in those whom he has not regenerated by his spirit nor is it without good cause said in isaiah that on christ should rest the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the lord isaiah chapter eleven verse two

for by this we are taught that all who are strangers to christ are destitute of that fear of god which is the beginning of wisdom psalms chapter one hundred eleven verse ten the virtues which deceive us by an empty show may have their praise in civil society and the common intercourse of life but before the judgment seat of god they will be of no value to establish a claim of righteousness five when the wheel is enchained as the slave of sin it cannot make a movement towards goodness far less steadily pursue it every such movement is the first step in that conversion to god which in scripture is entirely ascribed to divine grace thus jeremiah prays turn thou me and i shall be turned jeremiah chapter thirty one verse eighteen hence too in the same chapter describing the spiritual redemption of believers the prophet says the lord has redeemed jacob and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he jeremiah chapter thirty one verse eleven intimating how close the fetters are with which the sinner is bound so long as he is abandoned by the lord

and acts under the yoke of the devil nevertheless there remains a will which both inclines and hastens on with the strongest affection towards sin man when placed under this bondage being deprived not of will but of soundness of will bernard says not improperly that all of us have a will but to will well is proficiency to will ill is defect thus simply to will is the part of man to will ill the part of corrupt nature to will well the part of grace moreover when i say that the will deprived of liberty is led or dragged by necessity to evil it is strange that any should deem the expression harsh seeing there is no absurdity in it and it is not at variance with pious use it does however offend those who know not how to distinguish between necessity and compulsion for any one to ask them is not god necessarily good is not the devil necessarily wicked what answer would they give the goodness of god is so connected with his godhead that it is not more necessary to be god than to be good whereas the devil by his fall was so estranged from goodness that he can do nothing but evil

should any one give utterance to the profane jeer that little praise is due to god for a goodness to which he is forced is it not obvious to every man to reply it is owing not to violent impulse but to his boundless goodness that he cannot do evil therefore if the free will of god in doing good is not impeded because he necessarily must do good if the devil who can do nothing but evil nevertheless sins voluntarily can it be said that man sins less voluntarily because he is under a necessity of sinning this necessity is uniformly proclaimed by augustine who even when pressed by the invidious cavil of celestius hesitated not to assert it in the following terms man through liberty became a sinner but corruption and suing as the penalty has converted liberty into necessity whenever mention is made of the subject he hesitates not to speak in this way of the necessary bondage of sin let this then be regarded as the sum of the distinction man since he was corrupted by the fall since not forced or unwilling but voluntarily

by a most forward bias of the mind not by violent compulsion or external force but by the movement of his own passion and yet such is the depravity of his nature that he cannot move and act except in the direction of evil if this is true the thing not obscurely expressed is that he is under a necessity of sinning bernard assenting to augustine thus writes among animals man alone is free and yet seen intervening he suffers a kind of violence but a violence proceeding from his will not from nature so that it does not even deprive him of innate liberty for that which is voluntary is also free a little after he adds thus by some means strange and wicked the will itself being deteriorated by sin makes a necessity but so that the necessity inasmuch as it is voluntary cannot excuse the will and the will inasmuch as it is enticed cannot exclude the necessity for this necessity is in a manner voluntary

he afterwards says that we are under a yoke but no other yoke than that of voluntary servitude therefore in respect of servitude we are miserable and in respect of will inexcusable because the will when it was free made itself the slave of sin at length he concludes thus the soul in some strange and evil way is held under this kind of voluntary yet sadly free necessity both bond and free bond in respect of necessity free in respect of will and what is still more strange and still more miserable it is guilty because free and enslaved because guilty and therefore enslaved because free my readers hence perceive that the doctrine which i deliver is not new but the doctrine which of old augustine delivered with the consent of all the godly and which was afterwards shut up in the cloisters of monks for almost a thousand years lombard by not knowing how to distinguish between necessity and compulsion gave occasion to a pernicious error six on the other hand it may be proper to consider what the remedy is which divine grace provides for the correction and cure of natural corruption

since the lord in bringing assistance supplies us with what is lacking the nature of that assistance will immediately make manifest its converse namely our penury when the apostle says to the philippians being confident of this very thing that which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of jesus christ philippians chapter one verse six there cannot be a doubt that by the good work thus begun he means the very commencement of conversion in the will god therefore begins the good work in us by exciting in our hearts a desire a love and a study of righteousness or to speak more correctly by turning training and guiding our hearts unto righteousness and he completes this good work by confirming us unto perseverance but lest any one should cavil that the good work thus begun by the lord consists in aiding the will which is in itself weak the spirit elsewhere declares what the will when left to itself is able to do

his words are a new heart also will i give you and a new spirit will i put within you and i will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and i will give you a heart of flesh and i will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them ezekiel chapter 36 verses 26 to 27 how can it be said that the weakness of the human will is aided so as to enable it to aspire effectually to the choice of good when the fact is that it must be fully transformed and renovated if there is any softness in a stone if you can make it tender and flexible

into any shape then it may be said that the human heart may be shaped for rectitude provided that which is imperfect in it is supplemented by divine grace but if the spirit by the above similitude meant to show that no good can ever be extracted from our heart until it is made altogether new let us not attempt to share with him what he claims for himself alone if it is like turning us sown into flesh when god turns us to the study of rectitude everything proper to our own will is

abolished and that which succeeds in its place is holy of god i say the will is abolished but not in so far as it is will for in conversion everything essential to our original nature remains i also say that it is created anew not because the will then begins to exist but because it is turned from evil to good this i maintain is really the work of god because as the apostle testifies we are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves second corinthian chapter 3 verse 5

accordingly he elsewhere says not merely that god assists the weak or corrects the depraved will but that he worketh in us to will philippians chapter two verse thirteen from this it is easily inferred as i have said that everything good in the will is entirely the result of grace in the same sense the apostle elsewhere says it is the same god which worketh all in all first corinthian chapter twelve verse six for he is not there treating of universal government but declaring that all the good qualities which believers possess are due to god in using the term all he certainly makes god the author of spiritual life from its beginning to its end this he had previously taught in different terms when he said that there is one lord jesus christ by whom are all things and we by him first corinthian chapter eight verse six thus plainly extolling the new creation by which everything of our common nature is destroyed there is here a tacit antithesis between adam and christ which he elsewhere explains more clearly when he says

we are his workmanship created in christ jesus unto good works which god has before ordained that we should walk in them ephesians chapter two first ten his meaning is to show in this way that our salvation is gratuitous because the beginning of goodness is from the second creation which is obtained in christ if any even the minutest ability were in ourselves there would also be some merit but to show our utter destitution he argues that we merit nothing because we are created in christ jesus unto good works which god has prepared again intimating by these words that all the fruits of good works are originally and immediately from god hence the psalmist after saying that the lord has made us to deprive us of all sharing the work immediately adds not we ourselves that he is speaking of regeneration which is the commencement of the spiritual life is obvious from the context in which the next words are we are his people and the sheep of his pasture psalm chapter one hundred verse three not contented with simply giving god the praise of our salvation

he distinctly excludes us from all sharing it just as if he had said that not one particle remains to man as a ground of boasting the whole is of god End of Section 6 Recording by Shena Sear, Fresno, California