Jones on Article X: Of Free-Will

” We are fleshly, we are carnal, we can do nothing perfectly as we ought to do ; wherefore we have need to say with St. Augustine, ’ Domine fac quae prascipis, et praecipe quod vis,’ ’ Lord do thou with me what thou commandest, and then com- mand what thou wilt.’ For we of our own strength and power are not ahle to do his commandments ; but that lack, our Saviour will supply with his fulfilling, and with his perfectness the will take our imperfectness.” — Ser. on Lord’s Prayer.

” We can do nothing but commit sin, and are not able to make amends for the least sin that we commit.” — Ser. St. John’s day.

” But what, is it in our own will and power to return ? or doth God command that which is impossible for us to perform ? Truth it is ’ all our sufficiency is of God.’ Of ourselves we are not able to think a good thought.’ It is God that giveth both to will and to perform. ’ Without mg,’ saith Christ, ’ you are able to do nothing.’ No doubt we have power and free will to run from God; but to draw near unto him is his grace and gift.

T1HKTY NINE ARTICLES.

’ Ail nmlum sufficit sibi liberum arbitrium, ad bonum non,’ ’ free will hath in itself ability enough to evil but none to good.’ He commandeth us therefore to do that which of ourselves we are not able to do, that seeing our want we may crave his grace and help, which will enable us to draw near unto him. ’ Convert us, O Lord, and we shall be converted.’ If he con- vert us not, we shall remain as we are, or rather, proceed to worse. ’ No man cometh unto me,’ saith Christ, ‘except the Father draw him.’ The Spirit and grace of God, of (the) untoward and unwilling, maketh forward and ready ; and so by the efficacy of the Spirit being changed, we which were far off are drawn near.” — Sermons. ’

” This place (Phil. i. 3 — 8,) showeth that we of our own free will, without the grace of God, are not able to begin any good work, nor to go forth with it, nor to finish it. ’ For we of ourselves are not able to think any good thought, as of our- selves, but all our ability is of God.’ (2 Cor. iii.) Then what shall we ascribe to our free will without Christ and without the grace of God ? Surely nothing that is good. Evil cometh of ourselves, and all goodness of God the Father of lights.

(James i.) I would ask one question ; whether to assent to

the grace of God offered, and to receive it is good or no ? And if it be good, as I trust none will deny, then it is of God the Father, and not of us. To this question St. Austin maketh answer and saith, that in outward works, indifferent, neither good nor evil in themselves, we have a certain free liberty to do them or not to do them ; but to do any thing that is acceptable to God, or meritorious, (as they were wont to call works pertaining to justification, or to the salvation of a Chris- tian man,) we cannot do it without the grace of God, nor yet will it, nor assent to it. ‘Therefore,’ (saith Austin) ‘God without us worketh that wc may have a good will, but when we have that good will, and so will that we perform it, he worketh with us ; yet without him either working in us that we may have

a good will, or working with us when we have that good will, we can avail nothing towards good works of piety.” — On Phil.

“Albeit, that we be justified by faith, yet we have no

cause why we should glory in ourselves. For faith is not of us, but it is the gift of God, and not the work of our power, as saith St. Paul.” (2 Cor. iii.) — 0/z Eph. ii. 8 — 10.

” The nature of man by the infection of original sin is so corrupted, and the heart so oppressed with contrary motions and violent resistance unto virtue, that men never consent so willingly and steadfastly unto the knowledge of virtue as they

should do. (Rom. i.) The man is drawn with his own lusts

and love of the world unto the contempt of God, and con-

senteth not unto his true knowledge This aversion and

malicious obstinacy of the will must be daily mortified, or else it will work thine eternal displeasure, and make thee the ever- lasting enemy of God.” — Answer to Bishop of Winchester.

” God requireth an inward and perfect obedience unto the will of God ; the which this nature of man, corrupted by original sin cannot perform, as St. Paul proveth manifestly in the seventh and eighth chapter to the Romans. There re- maineth in man as long as he liveth ignorance and blindness, that he knoweth not God nor his law as he ought to do, but

rebelleth by contumacy against God Likewise the will as

froward and perverse, that it willeth nothing of God nor of his law.” — On the Use of the Law.

” For he ” (Florebell, with whom Philpot agrees on this point,) “judgeth God to be the author of all those things which we do rightwisely (righteously,) and that without his inspiration and help we are not able anything of ourselves well ; yea, neither to endeavour nor to begin ;’ and that the blissful and everlasting life Cometh not lo us by violence and by

that self nature of our good doings, but by the abundance of the divine goodness, recompensing our good deeds and wills, what- soever they be, with so great a reward.” — Transl. of Curio’s Defence.

“Immediately after the resurrection, he breathed upon his disciples and giveth them the Holy Ghost ; to declare that he is the same who at the beginning created our nature and sealed it with his Spirit ; and that it is even he who now in the beginning of a new life, must by his Spirit renew and restore

our decayed nature again Now cannot Christ the image of

God be right proportioned and renewed in us, but by the Holy Ghost.” — Fruitful Lessons.

” ’ Whatsoever is not of faith, that is sin ;’ then that motion of free will before grace is sin. Then what madness is it when a man cannot do well of himself but only evil ? “What health is that, to have power to fall and not to rise or stand, without the help of another. (2 Cor. iii.) ’ Our sufficiency or ableness to

do good is of God.’ Consider well the Avords of the Holy

Ghost, (Rom. x.) where he calleth his own ’ the vessels of mercy.’ And (Rom. viii.) ’ The children of God be led with the Spirit of God.’ (Isa. xxvi.) ’ Lord thou hast wrought all

our works in us.’ Thou indeed consentest, wiliest, and

workest ; but God maketh thee to consent, will, and work, so that this saying also may be always justly laid before thine eyes, ’ “What hast thou that thou hast not received.’ — Old Learning and New.

THOMAS BECON, D. V>.

” After his offence, he ” (Adam) ” came not to God as he ought to have done, neither sought he grace and remission of his sin at the goodness of God by confessing his sin with a faithful ivpcntanl Iioarl ; but straightway, after the transgres-

sion of the precept he fled from God, and hid himself from the face of God, and as they use to say, put his head in a bush like a coward for fear. O where are the powers of free-will, if man be once without the Spirit of God ? Man hath now no power to seek for salvation, but rather continueth still in his old wickedness, and seeketh to be far from the face of God.” — Christmas Banquet.

” What is free will ? It is the liberty that man hath in doing outward things, and the natural work of man in such things as be not spiritual ; as in ordering himself after a civil and political fashion, and outward fulfilling of the moral virtues. Howbeit, he hath not the power, no, nor yet the will to love God, dread God, and to know him, until that he be renewed, and that Christ hath set him at liberty.” — Demands of Scripture.

” But as touching the freedom of the will and power of ourselves, we say with St. Augustine, ’ 0 malum liberum

arbitrium sine Deo,’ ’ Oh, evil is free will without God.’

Again, ’ Quid tantum de naturae possibilitate praesumitur ? Vulnerata, saucia, vexata, perdita est. Vera confessione non falsa defensione opus habet, ’ What do men so much presume of the possibility of nature ? It is wounded, it is mangled, it is troubled, it is lost ; it behoveth us rather truly to confess it than falsely to defend it.’ Again, ’ Liberum arbitrium capti- vatum non nisi ad peccatum valet,’ ’ Free-will, once made thrall, availeth now nothing but to sin.” — Defence of the Apology.

” In our first creation we had a life not only with the

creatures but also with God, which life utterly Adam lost

and this he lost for us also as well as for himself, in respect whereof the Scripture calleth us dead. Concerning this life therefore that is with God we have no will at all, much less any free-will ; for how can a dead man have any will ? The

will therefore we have is only for this life, and with men ; that is, it is not good and free, but in respect of men and in this life ; in respect of God and life with him, all our will is as we are, even dead. A man regenerate, that is born of God, hath the Spirit of God : and as a man born of flesh and blood hath the Spirit thereof, whereby as he can stir up himself to do more and more the deeds of the flesh, so the other can by the Spirit of God in him stir up in himself the gifts and graces of God, to glorify God accordingly. Howbeit, here let us remark, that as the old man is a perpetual enemy to the new-born man, so accordingly to his strength, the works of the new man are letted and made ineffectual.” — Bradford on Election.

” Our meaning for free-will is, that we confess it at all times, to be free from constraint, but never free to embrace that which is good indeed, but only when it is reformed by the grace of God : who also, in all good things that we take in hand, doth not only make us willing, but also giveth all the strength we have to perform them.” — Defence.

” The doctrine of free-will, because it is an enemy to the grace of God, must needs be of itself a damnable doctrine, yet doth it not prejudice the mercy of God, nor shut out repen- tance, the gift of God. And full well do you know that lie cannot hold the foundation of faith (that is in Christ) perfectly, which is a maintainer of free-will.” — Defence of the Answer, <J-c.