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| The Divine Commands Which are Most Suited to the Will Itself Illustrate Its Freedom.
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Chapter 4.—The Divine Commands Which are Most Suited to the Will Itself Illustrate Its Freedom.
What is the import of the fact that in so many passages God requires all His commandments to be kept and fulfilled? How does He make this requisition, if there is no free will? What means “the happy man,” of whom the Psalmist says that “his will has been the law of the Lord”?2959
Does he not clearly enough show that a man by his own will takes his stand in the law of God? Then again, there are so many commandments which in some way are expressly adapted to the human will; for instance, there is, “Be not overcome of evil,”2960
and others of similar import, such as, “Be not like a horse or a mule, which have no understanding;”2961
and, “Reject not the counsels of thy mother;”2962
and, “Be not wise in thine own conceit;”2963
and, “Despise not the chastening of the Lord;”2964
and, “Forget not my law;”2965
and, “Forbear not to do good to the poor;”2966
and, “Devise not evil against thy friend;”2967
and, “Give no heed to a worthless woman;”2968
and, “He is not inclined to understand how to do good;”2969
and, “They refused to attend to my counsel;”2970
with numberless other passages of the inspired Scriptures of the Old Testament. And what do they all show us but the free choice of the human will? So, again, in the evangelical and apostolic books of the New Testament what other lesson is taught us? As when it is said, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth;”2971
and, “Fear not them which kill the body;”2972
and, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself;”2973
and again, “Peace on earth to men of good will.”2974
So also that the Apostle Paul says: “Let him do what he willeth; he sinneth not if he marry. Nevertheless, he that standeth stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well.”2975
And so again, “If I do this willingly, I have a reward;”2976
while in another passage he says, “Be ye sober and righteous, and sin not;”2977
and again, “As ye have a readiness to will, so also let there be a prompt performance;”2978
then he remarks to Timothy about the younger widows, “When they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they choose to marry.” So in another passage, “All that will to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution;”2979
while to Timothy himself he says, “Neglect not the gift that is in thee.”2980
Then to Philemon he addresses this explanation: “That thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but of thine own will.”2981
Servants also he advises to obey their masters “with a good will.”2982
In strict accordance with this, James says: “Do not err, my beloved brethren . . . and have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect to persons;”2983
and, “Do not speak evil one of another.”2984
So also John in his Epistle writes, “Do not love the world,”2985
and other things of the same import. Now wherever it is said, “Do not do this,” and “Do not do that,” and wherever there is any requirement in the divine admonitions for the work of the will to do anything, or to refrain from doing anything, there is at once a sufficient proof of free will. No man, therefore, when he sins, can in his heart blame God for it, but every man must impute the fault to himself. Nor does it detract at all from a man’s own will when he performs any
act in accordance with God. Indeed, a work is then to be pronounced a good one when a person does it willingly; then, too, may the reward of a good work be hoped for from Him concerning whom it is written, “He shall reward every man according to his works.”2986
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