On the Bondage of the Will (De servo arbitrio)

t How strange that this enlightened and enlightening view of the two kingdoms should he so little realized., substantiated and applied ! this, which needs only to be carried back to the period of the fall, and thence continued downwards to the end of the world, with an understanding, that this is not the creation state of man, and the things of man, but the counsel and scheme of God as made way for by the creation and the fall — to render all Scripture, history, observation and experience, simple and intelligible ! — Luther evidently did not comprehend them in the fulness of their origination, design, operations and results ; but the substance is here — and we can scarcely help breathing out the vain wish that he had, for his own comfort, and that of others whom the Lord hath not disdained to edify by his writings, been enabled to put the elements, with which he here furnishes us, together, in their beginning and endings, and in the connection of the intermediate parts, in a workmanlike manner. He has the materials ; but he neither models, nor lays the foundation, nor buildeth thereon. Still, what grace in his day to have seen so much !

part v. these affections, in the saints ; much more will it fight against God in the ungodly, and their Freewill. On this account Rom. viii. calls it enmity against God.u I should be glad, I say, if any body would take off this argument for me, and defend Freewill from it. For my own part, I confess that, if it could any how be, I should be unwilling to have Freewill given to me, or any thing left in my own hand, which might enable me to endeavour after salvation : not only because in the midst of so many dangers and adversities on the one hand, and of so many assaulting devils on the other, I should not be strong enough to maintain my standing and keep my hold of it (for one devil is mightier than all men put together, and not a single individual of mankind would be saved) ; but because, if there were even no dangers, and no adversities, and no devils, still I should be compelled to toil for ever as uncertainly, and to fight as one that beateth the air.v For, though I should live and work to eternity, my own conscience would never be sure and secure how much she ought to do, that God might be satisfied with her. Do what she might, there would still be left an anxious doubt, whether it pleased God, or whether he required any thing more; as the experience of all self-righteous persons x proves, and as I, to my

u I have already shewn that I do not coincide with Luther in his representation of the flesh and the spirit : that I consider the flesh and the spirit to be the unrenewed body and the renewed mind, severally, of the Lord's called people. But this difference does not affect the argument here. If the renewed man, who has the Spirit, have this conflict to maintain ; what is the wholly unrenewed man before God, and what his endeavour after good ? v LaborareJ] The allusion is evidently to 1 Cor. ix. 26. — but he does not use the word currere. Paul says rpex^. x Justitiariorum.~] I do not find the word, except as bad Latin for e a justice V but the connection determines it to mean own great misery, have learned abundantly by so sect. many years of conflict. xxxi. But now, since God has taken my salvation out of the hands of my own will, and has received it into those of his own ; and has promised to save me, not by my own work or running, but by his own grace and mercy ; I am at ease and certain, because he is faithful and will not lie to me, and because he is moreover great and powerful, so that no number of devils, no number of adversities, can either wear Him out, or pluck me out of his hand. No one/ says he, shall pluck them out of my hand ;

for my Father who gave them me, is greater than all. Thus it comes to pass, that, if all are not saved, some, however, nay, many are ; whereas by the power of Freewill none absolutely ■would be, but we should all to a man be lost? Moreover, we are fearlessly sure that we please God, not by the merit of our own work, but by the favour of his mercy, which he hath promised us ; and that, if we do less than we ought, or ought amiss, he does not impute it to us, but with a fatherly mind forgives and amends it. Such is the boast of every saint in his God.z

here, e persons who are going about to establish their own righteousness,' in opposition to c those who have learned that there is a God-righteousness and have been led to submit to it.' — c Justicers,' or c righteousness-mongers.' y Ovcelr implies more than no man; no person, manor devil. z The defects of Luther's theology are apparent in this paragraph. He gives quietness, but not triumph ; quietness too, we know not why — when a reason might be assigned. We are to live, assuredly to live ; we do not yet live : we are to work too, that we may live ; and our workings must be forgiven and amended. — He did not see Christ's peculiar and peculiarizing headship : he did not see that the efficacy of Christ is his enabling God, by His dying, to raise up the cursed from their curse after suffering a part of it ; that they live, even now, in a risen Christ as though they had risen with him • and that it is eternal life already received and acted — just in such measure as He is pleased to bestow of it — which constitutes the acceptable service they are now rendering : which service He, as he hath appointed, and just in such measure and manner

But if this disturb us, that, it is difficult to maintain the mercy and equity of God, in that he damns the undeserving — namely, ungodly men who are even of such a sort, that, being born in ungodliness, they cannot by any means help being ungodly, remaining so, and being damned ; yea, being compelled by the necessity of their nature to sin and perish (as Paul speaks, " We were all the sons of wrath even as others "), being created such as they are, by God himself, out of a seed which became corrupted through that sin which was Adam's only — In this state of things, we must honour and reverence the exceeding great mercy of God in his dealings with those whom he justifies and saves although most unworthy of such benefits, and must at least make some small concession to his divine wisdom, believing him to be just, when to us he seems unjust. For, if his justice were indeed such as might by human apprehension be pronounced just when it is judged, it would clearly not be divine justice, but would differ nothing from that of man. Now, seeing that God is the one true God, and is moreover totally incomprehensible, and inaccessible to human reason ; it is natural, nay it is necessary, that his justice also be incomprehensible : just as Paul also cries out, saying, " O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how incomprehensible are his judgments and his ways unsearchable." (Rom. xi. 33.)

Now they would not be incomprehensible, if we could, throughout the whole of them, conceive why as he hath appointed, will reward. — But all this upon the basis of Christ's super- creation headship, and their relations to God, in Him : the merit of their acceptance having been wrought already, to the uttermost, by Him only 5 and they having only to enter into and enjoy their portion — a mixed one here., an unmixed one hereafter. See Part iii. Sect, xxxviii. note K John iii. 36. v. 24. x. 28. xvii. 3. 1 John v. 10. they are just. What is man compared with G-ocl ? sect. What is our power capable of, as compared with his? What is our strength compared with his might ? What is our knowledge compared with his wisdom ? What is our substance compared with his substance? In short, what is every thing of ours, as compared with everything of his? a Now if, with no other preceptress than nature, Reproved. we confess that man's power, strength, wisdom, knowledge, substance and every thing of ours is absolutely nothing, when compared with God's power, God's strength, God's wisdom, knowledge, and substance; what is this perverseness of ours, that we pull and hale God's justice and judgment only,b arrogating so much to our own judgment as to try whether we cannot comprehend, judge and estimate the judgment of God ? Why do we not in like manner say here also ;

our judgment is nothing, if it be compared with the divine judgment ? Ask reason herself, whether she be not compelled by conviction to acknowledge, that she is foolish and rash in not allowing the judgment of God to be incomprehensible, when she confesses all the other properties of God to be incomprehensible? What ! in all other things we concede a divine majesty to God; it is in his judgment only, that we are prepared to deny it to him, and cannot, even for this little while, give him credit for being just, when he has promised us, that, after he shall have revealed his glory, it shall come to pass, that we all of us do then both see and feel, that he has been, and is just.

I will give an example to confirm this belief, And paiiiand to console that evil eye,c which suspects God f^\e a Ad illius omnia.'] I do not venture to render, e as compared with its like of His ;' but Luther means so, presuming that our image-ship extends to every divine, property. b Justitiam et judicium.'] Just. The principle of justice -, jud. the faculty of judgment. c Ad consulandum.] An odd expression in this connection -, but he means, to console the spirit which is tempted to see with partv. of injustice. Behold, God so governs this mateJ rial world in outward things, that, if you observe and follow the judgment of human reason, you are compelled to say, either there is no God, or there is an unjust God ; as that poet says, " I am often solicited to think that there are no Gods." For, see how true it is, that the wicked are most prosperous, and the good, on the other hand, most unfortunate ; even proverbs, and experience, who is the mother of proverbs, testifying, that 'the wickeder men are, the more fortunate/ iC The tabernacles of the wicked abound," says Job; and the 73d Psalm complains that sinners abound with riches, in this world.d Is it not most unjust in the judgment of all men, pray, that the wicked should be prospered and the good afflicted?6 Yet

evil eye : e an evil eye is one which is either unsound generally, or is infected with the particular disease of envy, malice and blasphemy.' See Matt. vi. 23. xx. 15. Mark vii. 22. d Job xii. 6. Psalm lxxiii. 12. Our version says, " The tabernacles of robbers prosper." " Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world ; they increase in riches." e Luther feels a difficulty in reconciling the condemnation of the reprobate with God's justice. In fact he acknowledges that he cannot ; begs off, and makes unwarrantable concessions. This difficulty arises from his imperfect conception of the creation and fall of man. If every individual of the human race had a distinct personal subsistence given to him, in the creation of Adam ; and, consequently, had a distinct personal subsistence in him, when he brake his commandment; and, as this distinct substance, was one with him who by his alone personal agency did break that commandment (the union of these many distinct substances in and with his one substance nowise contradicting the alone and distinct agency of the one first man, Adam) ■ where is the injustice of God's bringing out each of these distinct individuals, one after another, into manifest existence and distinct personal agency, and — having given to them individually, for the most part, the opportunity of shewing what they are according to their own making of themselves, not according to his making of them — inflicting upon them the judgment which he had distinctly fore-announced, which by their disobedience as one with Adam they had wilfully incurred, and which for the most part they have by their own subsequent actings in this world proved to be their due,, suitable, and self-made portion ? If

such is the course of the world. It is here, that sect. even the greatest wits have fallen to the depth of God has been pleased to make provision for the mitigation, removal and reversal of this sentence in some of those who have justly incurred it, clearly they who suffer have justly incurred it * and therefore God is only just in inflicting it. — Through not discerning the mystery of the creation, Luther accounted God the creator of these wicked ones, as we have several times seen ; and, through not, in consequence, discerning their participation in the fall, he accounted God their debtor to give them an equivalent for that Freewill, or rather that knowledge of only good, which Adam had possessed, and which he did not see how they had forfeited : I say knowledge of only good, because Adam had no more of Freewill properly so called, than we have, as hath been shewn. With respect to the justice of God in this transaction then, there can be no question ; though Luther makes one. Justice is the fulfilment of relations; God had fulfilled all His, when man incurred his fore-announced curse — then what does justice require, but that it be exacted? Again ; with respect to God's right of instituting such relations as He did between himself and the human race in Adam, there can be no question. God has a right to form any creature that he is pleased and has power to form.

To be consistent with himself, he will give them due relations, and will fulfil his own part in those relations. Now, what was wanting in the relations he gave to Adam ? Did He not give him reason and knowledge, by which he ought to have resisted the temptation ? And if Adam had enough, what could the distinct substances which were in him complain, if God put their safety upon the issue of his obedience ? What difference would there have been, or could they pretend that there would have been, in the result, if each of them distinctly and personally had undergone the same trial ? — But I do not deem this consideration at all necessary : it is the union and unity of each individual of the human race, still retaining his individuality, with Adam, which constitutes his original sin and his original guilt 3 and from which the loss of his creation state and of his creation character was derived. — The only question that can be asked in all this mystery respects the goodness, that is, the lovingkindness of God. It is here that Paul puts the difficulty ; here that he calls for submission 5 and here that he assigns the principle of the procedure. "Is there not unrighteousness r" For it will come to this, no man hath done otherwise than God designed. The answer is, God has exercised his right of the potter, and has exercised it for a great and wise reason. — " What if etc. ?'" — The man whose eyes the Lord hath opened will see, and will search into, these things, and will justify God at his heart. Nor will Paul, with his Isaiah, condemn him. He is using what God hath done and hath revealed unto the very

part v. denying that there is a God, and of feigning that Fortune turns and twists everything, as the whim takes her : such were the Epicureans and Pliny. Following close upon these, Aristotle, to deliver that first Being of his from misery, is of opinion, that he does not see any of the things that exist, but himself; because he considers that it would be most painful to him to see so much of evil, so much of injustice/ The Prophets, on the other hand, who believed that there is a God, are more tempted with the suggestion of God's injustice : as Jeremiah, Job, David, Asaph and others. What do you imagine Demosthenes and Cicero to have thought, when, after having done all they could, they received such wages as they did, in a wretched death?5 Yet this injustice of God, which is exceedingly probable, and inferred by such arguments as no power of reason or light of nature can resist, is most easily removed by the light of the Gospel and the knowledge of grace; which teaches us, that the wicked flourish, it is true, in their body, end for which He hath done and hath revealed it. See Part iii. Sect, xxxviii. note l. Part iv. Sect. x. note z. Sect. xi. note h, and Sect, xxxiv. note d.

f Luther s mention makes it doubtful to which of the two Plinies he refers ; whether to the great naturalist or his nephew : neither of them, however, saw in the works of nature any thing more than matter : both were amiable, as natural men, and the former was a monument of philosophy and industry, called by some the martyr of nature, but more fitly called the martyr of curiosity and self-will. The latter was a wellbred, lettered persecutor of Christians ; but too proud to inquire into their doctrines, and not afraid, though reluctant, to shed their blood. For some excellent remarks upon his character, see Miln. Eccl. Hist. vol. i. pp. 166 — 172. — For a hint at the Epicureans, who were like their master — ' Epicuri de grege porcus ' — See above, Part i. Sect. v. note 9. — For a confirmation of what is here said about Aristotle, see above, Part iv. Sect. viii. note r. s Demosthenes, abandoned in fact by his countrymen, after having fled to the temple of Neptune in Calauria, sucked his poisoned quill : Cicero was delivered up to his philippicized Antony. but they perish in their souls : so that we have sect. the brief solution of all this insolvable question in a single short sentence, c There is a life after this life, in which whatsoever hath not been punished and rewarded here shall hereafter be punished and rewarded;

seeing that this life is nothing but the precurse, or rather beginning, of the life to come.5 If the light of the Gospel then, which owes all its power to the word and faith, be so efficacious, that this question, handled as it had been in all ages but never answered, is so thoroughly made an end of and laid to sleep ; what will happen, think you, when the light of the word and of faith shall have ceased, and when the reality, even the divine Majesty itself, shall be revealed as it is ? Do you not think, that the light of glory will then be able to solve, with the greatest ease, that question which in the light of the word, or of grace^ is insolvable ; seeing that the light of grace hath so readily solved a question, which could not be solved by the light of nature ? Let it be conceded, that there are three great lights — the light of nature, the light of grace, and the light of gloryaccording to the common distinction, which is a good one. In the light of nature, it is a fact not to be explained, that it is just the good man be afflicted, and the bad man prosper. But the light of grace resolves this question. In the light of grace it is inexplicable, how God condemns the man, who cannot, by any power of his own, do otherwise than sin, and be guilty.

In this case, the light of nature, as well as the light of grace, declares that the fault is not in wretched man but in unjust God. For how can they judge otherwise of God? seeing he crowns a wicked man gratuitously without any merits, and does not crown another but condemns him — who perhaps is less, or at the worst not more wicked. — But the light of glory proclaims something else, and, when it arrives, will shew God, whose judgment

pap.t v. is for the present that of incomprehensible justice, ~ to be only that of most just and most manifest justice ; teaching us, in the mean time, to believe, the certainty of this event, admonished and confirmed, as we are, in and unto the expectation of it, by the example of the light of grace, which accomplishes a like prodigy with respect to the light of nature.11 sect. Here I shall put an end to this treatise : prexxxiv. pared, if need be, to plead the cause yet further; although I consider, that I have in this said argument abundantly enough to satisfy the pious mind, which is willing to yield to the force of truth without pertinacity. For, if we believe it to be true, that God foreknows and predestinates every thing ; moreover, that he can neither be mistaken, nor hindered, in his foreknowledge and predestination ; and, once more, that nothing is done . without his will (a truth which reason herself is compelled to yield) ) it follows, from the testimony of the selfsame reason, that there can be no such thing as Freewill in man or angel, or any creature. So again; if we believe Satan to be the

h If the observations of the preceding note be correct, we do not want Luther's illustration, with its distinctions. We need not wait for the decision and discoveries of the great day, to see God just. Nor are his assumptions admissible. God has never left the eternity of man and the future judgment without witness. If these things have been obscured, it is not by God's having put them into the dark, but because men have wilfully shut their eyes to them. The new creation kingdom was announced at the fall — and has been variously preached ever since, to the whole earth. The kingdom of grace does not leave God under the suspicion of injustice ; man has made himself that damned thing which he is. The elect are not crowned sinners. The union of the elect with Christ, and the lack of this union, with its consequent self-left state, in the reprobate, explains both dooms, in perfect consistency with divine equity. The illustration, therefore, is both unneeded and untrue : unneeded,inasmuch as th e spiritual man even now sees the inflexible justice of God to be without spot — what it assuredly is ; and untrue, inasmuch as Luther's insolvable questions are resolved under those lights which he declares to be severally inadequate.

Prince of this world, who is perpetually plotting sect. and lighting against the kingdom of Christ, with x^ all his might, so that he doth not let his captives of human kind go, unless he be driven out by a divine power ; again it is manifest, that there can be no such thing as Freewill. So again, if we believe original sin1 to have so ruined us, as to make most troublesome work even for those who are led by the Spirit, through striving, as it does, against good in them ; it is clear, that nothing is left in man as devoid of the Spirit, which can turn itself to good, but only what turns itself to evil. Again • if the Jews, who followed after righteousness with all their might, have fallen headlong the rather into unrighteousnes : and the Gentiles, who were following after unrighteousness, have freely and unhopedly attained to righteousness ; it is manifest, as in the former instances, by very deed and experience, that man without grace can will nothing but evil. In fine ; if we believe Christ to have redeemed man by his blood, we are obliged to confess that the whole man was undone ; else we shall make Christ either superfluous, or the redeemer of the vilest part in man : which is blasphemous and sacrilegious.1"

' A still inferior view to what he has given us before of original sin, but a very common one : he here takes it for that vitiation of nature., which is the consequence of it — instead of that first sin, which gave origin to the vitiation. — But the argument against Freewill is not affected ; the consequent vitiation is in nowise less than he represents it to be. k He briefly recites certain additional considerations, which must, each of them, be conclusive upon this subject. 1. God's foreknowledge and predestination. 2. Satan's lordship over the world. 3. Original sin. 4. The case of the apostate and rejected Jews, as contrasted with the conversion of the Gentiles. 5. Christ the Redeemer unnecessary, or his benefit vilified. Luther admonishes, thanks^ counsels, prays. Now therefore I beseech thee in the name of Christ, my Erasmus, that thou wouldest at length perform what thou hast promised : thou promisedest that thou wouldest be willing to submit thyself to the man who should teach thee better things. Have done with respect of persons. I confess, thou art a great man, adorned with many of the noblest gifts by God; not to mention others, with genius, and learning, and eloquence, even to a miracle. On the other hand, I have nothing, and am nothing ; save that I could almost glory in being a Christian. Again ; I greatly commend and extol you for this thing also, that you are the only man of all my antagonists that hath attacked the heart of the subject, the head of the cause ;

instead of wearing me out with those extraneous points, the Papacy, Purgatory, Indulgences, and a number of like topics, Which may more fitly be called trifles, than matters of debate : a sort of chase, in which nearly all my opponents have been hunting me hitherto in vain. You are that single and solitary individual, who hath seen the hinge of the matters in dispute, and hath aimed at the neck : I thank you for this from my heart — it is far more to my taste to be occupied in debating this question, so far as time and leisure are accorded me. If those who have heretofore attacked me had done the same ; if

those who are just at this time making their boast of new spirits, and new revelations, would do so; we should have less of sedition and divisions, as well as more of peace and concord. But God thus stirs up Satan to punish our ingratitudes Howbeit, unless you can plead this cause in a style somewhat different from your Diatribe, I could earnestly wish that you would be content with your own proper good, and would cultivate, adorn and advance the cause of literature and the languages, as you have heretofore done, with great profit and praise. By this pursuit of yours you have even served me not a little ; insomuch that I confess myself greatly your debtor, even as I most assuredly venerate you, and sincerely look up to you as my superior, in that particular. God hath not yet willed, nor given to you, that you should be equal to this cause ! Pray do not think that I say this with any arrogancy. And yet I do implore the Lord to make you as much my superior in this particular speedily, as you already are in all others. Nor is it any thing new, that God should instruct a Moses by Jethro, or a Paul by Ananias. As to what you say, that you have failed, miserably indeed, of your aim, if you do not know Christ; I think, you must be

a Ita per Satanam.'] Very true as to instrumentality. But whence then comes this ingratitude ? Could not God cure it ? Could not he drive out the Canaanite altogether from the land ? Regenerate man, and a revived church, is still Adam ; | and it is the glory of God to save and glorify an Adam. He must be shewn therefore, or rather must shew himself what he is. His Canaan is not yet the Lord's world — neither is he yet the risen God-man. The time of ingratitude is yet ; and is yet, because the Lord's real and designed glory requires that it should be so.— There is something satisfying, and cheering, and enlightening, in this view of the Lord's present dealings with his church and people, which reconciles us to what must otherwise be a constant burden and distress — and which leaves no more questions to be asked. Luther had not distinct perceptions of the origin, and nature, and design of evil ; and whilst he talked much of Satan, did not understand him well enough to put him in his place. aware yourself what sort of a saying this is. All will not therefore be in the wrong, because you or I, if it be so, are in the wrong. God is declared to be a God that is wonderful in his saints; so that we may count those for saints, who are the farthest off from saintship.

Nor is it hard to suppose, that you, being a man, may neither rightly understand, nor with sufficient diligence observe, either the Scriptures or the sayings of the Fathers, by whose guidance you imagine that you have obtained your aim. We have a pretty good hint to this effect, when you write that you do not assert at all, but confer. The man who sees clearly through the whole of his subject, and understands it correctly, does not write thus. I, for my part, have not conferred, but asserted, in this book ; yea, and I do assert. Neither is it my desire to appoint any man judge in this cause: I persuade all to receive my decree. The Lord, whose cause this is, shine upon you — and make you a vessel unto honour and glory ! Amen.