CHAPTER V. Grace necessary to Holiness. CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Grant to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Col. 9 after Trin. Of ourselves and by ourselves we have no goodness, help, nor salvation: but contrarywise, sin, damnation, and death everlasting. Which if we deeply weigh and consider, we shall the better understand the great mercy of God, and how our salvation cometh only by Christ: for in ourselves (as of ourselves) we find nothing whereby we may be delivered from this miserable captivity, into the which we were CALVIN. Man neither rationally chooses as the object of his pursuit that which is truly good for him according to the excellence of his immortal nature, nor takes the advice of reason, nor duly exerts his understanding: but without reason, without reflection, follows his natural inclination, like the herds of the field. It is therefore no argument for the liberty of the will that man is led by natural instinct to desire what is good: but it is necessary that he discern what is good according to right reason, that as soon as he knows it he choose it, and as soon as he has chosen it he pursue it. To remove every difficulty, we must advert to two instances of false reasoning. For the desire here intended is not a proper mo CHURCH OF ENGLAND. CALVIN. cast, through the envy of tion of the will, but a nathe devil, by breaking of tural inclination; and the God's commandment in our good in question relates not first parent Adam. We are to virtue or righteousness, all become unclean, but we but to condition; as when all are not able to cleanse we say a man is well or in ourselves, nor to make one good health. Lastly, though another of us clean. We man has the strongest desire are by nature the children after what is good, yet he of God's wrath, but we are does not pursue it. There is not able to make ourselves no man to whom eternal fethe children and inheri- licity is unwelcome, yet no tors of God's glory. We man aspires to it without the are sheep that run astray, influence of the Spirit. Since, but we cannot of our own therefore, the desire of happower come again to the piness natural to man fursheep-fold; so great is our nishes no argument for the imperfection and weakness. liberty of the will, any more -2d Hom. on the misery of than a tendency in metals man, p. 10. and stones towards the perfection of their nature argues liberty in them; let us consider in some other particulars, whether the will be in every part so entirely vitiated and depraved, that it can produce nothing but what is evil; or whether it retain any small part uninjured which may be the source of good desires.-Institut. l. 2. c. 2. s. 26. CHURCH OF ENGLAND. St. Paul, in many places, painteth us out in our colours, calling us the children of the wrath of God when we be born: saying also, that we cannot think a good thought, of ourselves; much less can we say well, CALVIN. If we allow that men destitute of grace have some motions towards true goodness though ever so feeble, what answer shall we give to the apostle, who denies that we are sufficient of ourselves even to conceive a good CHURCH OF ENGLAND. or do well, ourselves.-1 Hom. on the misery of man, p. 8. Grant that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same. Col. 5 after East. CALVIN. thought?* What reply shall we make to the Lord, who pronounces by the mouth of Moses, that every imagination of the human heart is only evil?+ Nor would there be any consistency in the assertion of Paul, that it is God which worketh in us to will," if any will preceded the grace of the spirit.—Institut. l. 2. c. 2. s. 27. Dr. Tomline gives it as his opinion, that "The Holy Spirit points out the way to health, and truth, and life; but it rests with ourselves whether we will follow its directions." p. 62. Here again we find great dissonance between the bishop. church and the 2 Cor. iii. 5. † Gen. viii. 21. Phil. ii, 13. CHAPTER VI. Doctrine of the Will. CHURCH OF ENGLAND. The condition of man, after the fall of Adam, is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith, and calling upon God; wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will. Art. 10. Because through the weakness of our mortal nature we. can do no good thing without thee, grant us the help of thy grace, that in keeping thy commandments we may please thee both in will and deed. Col. 1 after Trin. Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, CALVIN. The will therefore is so bound by the slavery of sin, that it cannot excite, much less apply itself, to any thing good; for such a disposition is the beginning of a conversion to God, which the scriptures attribute wholly to divine grace.—Institut. l. 2. c. 3. s. 5. When God commands us to the pursuit of what is right, all that belongs to our own will is removed; and what succeeds to it is wholly from God. The will I say is removed, not considered as a faculty, for in the conversion of a man, the original properties of our nature remain entire. I say also, that it is created anew; not that the will then begins to exist, but that it is then converted from an evil one to a good one. This I affirm to CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Trin. CALVIN. plenteously bringing forth be done entirely by God, the fruit of good works, because, according to the tesmay of thee be plenteously timony of the same apostle, rewarded. Col. 25 after we "we are not sufficient even to think."* Therefore he elsewhere declares, not merely that God assists the infirmity of our will, or corrects its depravity, but that he worketh in us to will." Whence it is easy to infer, what I have before remarked, that whatever good is in the will, it is the work of grace alone.-Institut. l. 2. c. 3. s. 6. Dr. Tomline says, "Our reformers, in framing this (tenth) article, were cautious not to deny to man all exercise of free-will in the formation of religious principle, or the discharge of religious duty. They were too well acquainted with scripture, and entertained too just notions of the character of moral responsible beings, to intend any such degradation of human nature." p. 55. "To what purpose would this advice ("Take heed how ye hear," Luke viii. 18) be given, if men had not the power of resisting the wiles of the devil, of supporting the trials of persecution, and of withstanding the temptation of the riches and treasures of this world ?" God gives to every man, through the means of his grace, a power to perform the conditions of the gospel :-a power, the efficacy of which depends upon the exertion of the human will." p. 64. How must the writer of these passages have deceived himself, if he really believed them to be consistent with the language of the church as quoted above! * 2 Cor. iii. 5. Phil. ii. 13. |