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| The Blame of Our Misdeeds Not to Be Cast Upon God. The One Power Which Rests with Man is the Power of Volition. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter
II.—The Blame of Our Misdeeds Not to Be Cast Upon God. The
One Power Which Rests with Man is the Power of Volition.
What moderation, in short, is there in that
utterance, “The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as seemed
(good) to the Lord, so hath it been done!”515 And accordingly, if we renew nuptials
which have been taken away, doubtless we strive against the will of
God, willing to have over again a thing which He has not willed us to
have. For had He willed (that we should), He would not have taken
it away; unless we interpret this, too, to be the will of God, as if He
again willed us to have what He just now did not will. It is not
the part of good and solid faith to refer all things to the will of God
in such a manner as that; and that each individual should so
flatter516
516 Adulari. Comp.
de Pæn., c. vi. sub init.; ad Ux., b. i. c. iv.
ad init. | himself by saying that “nothing is done
without His permission,” as to make us fail to understand that
there is a something in our own power. Else every sin
will be excused if we persist in contending that nothing is done by us
without the will of God; and that definition will go to the destruction
of (our) whole discipline, (nay), even of God Himself; if either He
produce by517 His own will things
which He wills not, or else (if) there is nothing which God wills
not. But as there are some things which He forbids, against which
He denounces even eternal punishment—for, of course, things which
He forbids, and by which withal He is offended, He does
not will—so too, on the contrary, what He does
will, He enjoins and sets down as acceptable, and repays with the
reward of eternity.518
518 i.e., eternal
life: as in de Bapt., c. ii.; ad Ux.,
b. i. c. vii. ad init. | And so, when we
have learnt from His precepts each (class of actions), what He does not
will and what He does, we still have a volition and an arbitrating
power of electing the one; just as it is written, “Behold, I have
set before thee good and evil: for thou hast tasted of the tree
of knowledge.” And accordingly we ought not to lay to the
account of the Lord’s will that which lies subject to our own
choice; (on the hypothesis) that He does not will, or else (positively)
nills what is good, who does nill what is evil. Thus, it is a
volition of our own when we will what is evil, in antagonism to
God’s will, who wills what is good. Further, if you inquire
whence comes that volition whereby we will anything in antagonism to
the will of God, I shall say, It has its source in ourselves. And
I shall not make the assertion rashly—for you must needs
correspond to the seed whence you spring—if indeed it be true,
(as it is), that the originator of our race and our sin, Adam,519
519 De Pæn., c.
xii. ad fin. | willed the sin which he committed. For
the devil did not impose upon him the volition to sin, but
subministered material to the volition. On the other hand, the
will of God had come to be a question of obedience.520
520 In obaudientiam
venerat. | In like manner you, too, if you fail to
obey God, who has trained you by setting before you the precept of free
action, will, through the liberty of your will, willingly turn into the
downward course of doing what God nills: and thus you think
yourself to have been subverted by the devil; who, albeit he does
will that you should will something which God nills still does
not make you will it, inasmuch as he did not reduce those
our protoplasts to the volition of sin; nay, nor (did reduce
them at all) against their will, or in ignorance as to what God
nilled. For, of course, He nilled (a thing) to be done when He
made death the destined consequence of its commission. Thus the
work of the devil is one: to make trial whether you do will that
which it rests with you to will. But when you have willed,
it follows that he subjects you to himself; not by having
wrought volition in you, but by having found a favourable
opportunity in your volition. Therefore, since the only thing
which is in our power is volition—and it is herein that our mind
toward God is put to proof, whether we will the things which coincide
with His will—deeply and anxiously must the will of God be
pondered again and again, I say, (to see) what even in secret He
may will.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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