(Calvin, Institutes on the Christian Religion 1, part 16)
Chapter 18.
18. The instrumentality of the wicked employed by God, while He
continues free from every taint.
This last chapter of the First Book consists of three parts: I. It
having been said above that God bends all the reprobate, and even
Satan himself, at his will, three objections are started. First,
that this happens by the permission, not by the will of God. To this
objection there is a twofold reply, the one, that angels and men,
good and bad, do nothing but what is appointed by God; the second,
that all movements are secretly directed to their end by the hidden
inspiration of God, sec. 1, 2. II. A second objection is, that there
are two contrary wills in God, if by a secret counsel he decrees
what he openly prohibits by his law. This objection refuted, sec. 3.
III. The third objection is, that God is made the author of all
wickedness, when he is said not only to use the agency of the
wicked, but also to govern their counsels and affections, and that
therefore the wicked are unjustly punished. This objection refuted
in the last section.
Sections.
1. The carnal mind the source of the objections which are raised
against the Providence of God. A primary objection, making a
distinction between the permission and the will of God,
refuted. Angels and men, good and bad, do nought but what has
been decreed by God. This proved by examples.
2. All hidden movements directed to their end by the unseen but
righteous instigation of God. Examples, with answers to
objections.
3. These objections originate in a spirit of pride and blasphemy.
Objection, that there must be two contrary wills in God,
refuted. Why the one simple will of God seems to us as if it
were manifold.
4. Objection, that God is the author of sin, refuted by examples.
Augustine's answer and admonition.
1. From other passages, in which God is said to draw or bend
Satan himself, and all the reprobate, to his will, a more difficult
question arises. For the carnal mind can scarcely comprehend how,
when acting by their means, he contracts no taint from their
impurity, nay, how, in a common operation, he is exempt from all
guilt, and can justly condemn his own ministers. Hence a distinction
has been invented between doing and permitting because to many it
seemed altogether inexplicable how Satan and all the wicked are so
under the hand and authority of God, that he directs their malice to
whatever end he pleases, and employs their iniquities to execute his
judgements. The modesty of those who are thus alarmed at the
appearance of absurdity might perhaps be excused, did they not
endeavour to vindicate the justice of God from every semblance of
stigma by defending an untruth. It seems absurd that man should be
blinded by the will and command of God, and yet be forthwith
punished for his blindness. Hence, recourse is had to the evasion
that this is done only by the permission, and not also by the will
of God. He himself, however, openly declaring that he does this,
repudiates the evasion. That men do nothing save at the secret
instigation of God, and do not discuss and deliberate on any thing
but what he has previously decreed with himself and brings to pass
by his secret direction, is proved by numberless clear passages of
Scripture. What we formerly quoted from the Psalms, to the effect
that he does whatever pleases him, certainly extends to all the
actions of men. If God is the arbiter of peace and war, as is there
said, and that without any exception, who will venture to say that
men are borne along at random with a blind impulse, while He is
unconscious or quiescent? But the matter will be made clearer by
special examples. From the first chapter of Job we learn that Satan
appears in the presence of God to receive his orders, just as do the
angels who obey spontaneously. The manner and the end are different,
but still the fact is, that he cannot attempt anything without the
will of God. But though afterwards his power to afflict the saint
seems to be only a bare permission, yet as the sentiment is true,
"The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord,
so it has been done," we infer that God was the author of that trial
of which Satan and wicked robbers were merely the instruments.
Satan's aim is to drive the saint to madness by despair. The Sabeans
cruelly and wickedly make a sudden incursion to rob another of his
goods. Job acknowledges that he was deprived of all his property,
and brought to poverty, because such was the pleasure of God.
Therefore, whatever men or Satan himself devise, God holds the helm,
and makes all their efforts contribute to the execution of his
judgements. God wills that the perfidious Ahab should be deceived;
the devil offers his agency for that purpose, and is sent with a
definite command to be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the
prophets, (2 Kings 22: 20.) If the blinding and infatuation of Ahab
is a judgement from God, the fiction of bare permission is at an
end; for it would be ridiculous for a judge only to permit, and not
also to decree, what he wishes to be done at the very time that he
commits the execution of it to his ministers. The Jews purposed to
destroy Christ. Pilate and the soldiers indulged them in their fury;
yet the disciples confess in solemn prayer that all the wicked did
nothing but what the hand and counsel of God had decreed, (Acts 4:
28,) just as Peter had previously said in his discourse, that Christ
was delivered to death by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, (Acts 2: 23;) in other words, that God, to whom all things
are known from the beginning, had determined what the Jews had
executed. He repeats the same thing elsewhere, "Those things, which
God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ
should suffer, he has so fulfilled," (Acts 4: 18.) Absalom
incestuously defiling his father's bed, perpetrates a detestable
crime. God, however, declares that it was his work; for the words
are, "Thou midst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all
Israel, and before the sun." The cruelties of the Chaldeans in Judea
are declared by Jeremiah to be the work of God. For which reason,
Nebuchadnezzar is called the servant of God. God frequently
exclaims, that by his hiss, by the clang of his trumpet, by his
authority and command, the wicked are excited to war. He calls the
Assyrian the rod of his anger, and the axe which he wields in his
hand. The overthrow of the city and downfall of the temple, he calls
his own work. David, not murmuring against God, but acknowledging
him to be a just judge, confesses that the curses of Shimei are
uttered by his orders. "The Lord," says he, "has bidden him curse."
Often in sacred history whatever happens is said to proceed from the
Lord, as the revolt of the ten tribes, the death of Eli's sons, and
very many others of a similar description. Those who have a
tolerable acquaintance with the Scriptures see that, with a view to
brevity, I am only producing a few out of many passages, from which
it is perfectly clear that it is the merest trifling to substitute a
bare permission for the providence of God, as if he sat in a
watch-tower waiting for fortuitous events, his judgements meanwhile
depending on the will of man.
2. With regard to secret movements, what Solomon says of the
heart of a king, that it is turned hither and thither, as God sees
meet, certainly applies to the whole human race, and has the same
force as if he had said, that whatever we conceive in our minds is
directed to its end by the secret inspiration of God. And certainly,
did he not work internally in the minds of men, it could not have
been properly said, that he takes away the lip from the true, and
prudence from the aged - takes away the heart from the princes of
the earth, that they wander through devious paths. To the same
effect, we often read that men are intimidated when He fills their
hearts with terror. Thus David left the camp of Saul while none knew
of its because a sleep from God had fallen upon all. But nothing can
be clearer than the many passages which declare, that he blinds the
minds of men, and smites them with giddiness, intoxicates them with
a spirit of stupor, renders them infatuated, and hardens their
hearts. Even these expressions many would confine to permissions as
if, by deserting the reprobate, he allowed them to be blinded by
Satan. But since the Holy Spirit distinctly says, that the blindness
and infatuation are inflicted by the just judgement of God, the
solution is altogether inadmissible. He is said to have hardened the
heart of Pharaoh, to have hardened it yet more, and confirmed it.
Some evade these forms of expression by a silly cavil, because
Pharaoh is elsewhere said to have hardened his own heart, thus
making his will the cause of hardening it; as if the two things did
not perfectly agree with each other, though in different senses
viz., that man, though acted upon by God, at the same time also
acts. But I retort the objection on those who make it. If to harden
means only bare permission, the contumacy will not properly belong
to Pharaoh. Now, could any thing be more feeble and insipid than to
interpret as if Pharaoh had only allowed himself to be hardened? We
may add, that Scripture cuts off all handle for such cavils: "I,"
saith the Lord, "will harden his heart," (Exod. 4: 21.) So also,
Moses says of the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, that they went
forth to battle because the Lord had hardened their hearts, (Josh.
11: 20.) The same thing is repeated by another prophet, "He turned
their hearts to hate his people," (Psalm 105: 25.) In like manner,
in Isaiah, he says of the Assyrian, "I will send him against a
hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give
him a charge to take the spoil, and to take the prey," (Isaiah 10:
6;) not that he intends to teach wicked and obstinate man to obey
spontaneously, but because he bends them to execute his judgements,
just as if they carried their orders engraven on their minds. And
hence it appears that they are impelled by the sure appointment of
God. I admit, indeed, that God often acts in the reprobate by
interposing the agency of Satan; but in such a manner, that Satan
himself performs his part, just as he is impelled, and succeeds only
in so far as he is permitted. The evil spirit that troubled Saul is
said to be from the Lord, (1 Sam. 16: 14,) to intimate that Saul's
madness was a just punishment from God. Satan is also said to blind
the minds of those who believe not, (2 Cor. 4: 4.) But how so,
unless that a spirit of error is sent from God himself, making those
who refuse to obey the truth to believe a lie? According to the
former view, it is said, "If the prophet be deceived when he has
spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet," (Ezek. 14:
9.) According to the latter view, he is said to have given men over
to a reprobate mind, (Rom. 1: 28,) because he is the special author
of his own just vengeance; whereas Satan is only his minister, (see
Calv. in Ps. 141: 4.) But as in the Second Book, (Chap. 4: sec. 3,
4,) in discussing the question of man's freedom, this subject will
again be considered, the little that has now been said seems to be
all that the occasion requires. The sum of the whole is this, -
since the will of God is said to be the cause of all things, all the
counsels and actions of men must be held to be governed by his
providence; so that he not only exerts his power in the elect, who
are guided by the Holy Spirit, but also forces the reprobate to do
him service.
3. As I have hitherto stated only what is plainly and
unambiguously taught in Scripture, those who hesitate not to
stigmatise what is thus taught by the sacred oracles, had better
beware what kind of censure they employ. If, under a pretence of
ignorance, they seek the praise of modesty, what greater arrogance
can be imagined than to utter one word in opposition to the
authority of God - to say, for instance, "I think otherwise," - "I
would not have this subject touched?" But if they openly blaspheme,
what will they gain by assaulting heaven? Such petulance, indeed, is
not new. In all ages there have been wicked and profane men, who
rabidly assailed this branch of doctrine. But what the Spirit
declared of old by the mouth of David, (Ps. 51: 6,) they will feel
by experience to be true - God will overcome when he is judged.
David indirectly rebukes the infatuation of those whose license is
so unbridled, that from their grovelling spot of earth they not only
plead against God, but arrogate to themselves the right of censuring
him. At the same time, he briefly intimates that the blasphemies
which they belch forth against heaven, instead of reaching God, only
illustrate his justice, when the mists of their calumnies are
dispersed. Even our faith, because founded on the sacred word of
God, is superior to the whole world, and is able from its height to
look down upon such mists.
Their first objection - that if nothing happens without the
will of God, he must have two contrary wills, decreeing by a secret
counsel what he has openly forbidden in his law - is easily disposed
of. But before I reply to it, I would again remind my readers, that
this cavil is directed not against me, but against the Holy Spirit,
who certainly dictated this confession to that holy man Job, "The
Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away," when, after being plundered
by robbers, he acknowledges that their injustice and mischief was a
just chastisement from God. And what says the Scripture elsewhere?
The sons of Eli "hearkened not unto the voice of their father,
because the Lord would slay them," (1 Sam. 2: 25.) Another prophet
also exclaims, "Our God is in the heavens: he has done whatsoever he
has pleased," (Ps. 115: 3.) I have already shown clearly enough that
God is the author of all those things which, according to these
objectors, happen only by his inactive permission. He testifies that
he creates light and darkness, forms good and evil, (Is. 45: 7;)
that no evil happens which he has not done, (Amos 3: 6.) Let them
tell me whether God exercises his judgements willingly or
unwillingly. As Moses teaches that he who is accidentally killed by
the blow of an axe, is delivered by God into the hand of him who
smites him, (Deut. 19: 5,) so the Gospel, by the mouth of Luke,
declares, that Herod and Pontius Pilate conspired "to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done," (Acts 4:
28.) And, in truth, if Christ was not crucified by the will of God,
where is our redemption? Still, however, the will of God is not at
variance with itself. It undergoes no change. He makes no pretence
of not willing what he wills, but while in himself the will is one
and undivided, to us it appears manifold, because, from the
feebleness of our intellect, we cannot comprehend how, though after
a different manner, he wills and wills not the very same thing. Paul
terms the calling of the Gentiles a hidden mystery, and shortly
after adds, that therein was manifested the manifold wisdom of God,
(Eph. 3: 10.) Since, on account of the dullness of our sense, the
wisdom of God seems manifold, (or, as an old interpreter rendered
it, multiform,) are we, therefore, to dream of some variation in
God, as if he either changed his counsel, or disagreed with himself?
Nay, when we cannot comprehend how God can will that to be done
which he forbids us to do, let us call to mind our imbecility, and
remember that the light in which he dwells is not without cause
termed inaccessible, (1 Tim. 6: 16,) because shrouded in darkness.
Hence, all pious and modest men will readily acquiesce in the
sentiment of Augustine: "Man sometimes with a good will wishes
something which God does not will, as when a good son wishes his
father to live, while God wills him to die. Again, it may happen
that man with a bad will wishes what God wills righteously, as when
a bad son wishes his father to die, and God also wills it. The
former wishes what God wills not, the latter wishes what God also
wills. And yet the filial affection of the former is more consonant
to the good will of God, though willing differently, than the
unnatural affection of the latter, though willing the same thing; so
much does approbation or condemnation depend on what it is befitting
in man, and what in God to will, and to what end the will of each
has respect. For the things which God rightly wills, he accomplishes
by the evil wills of bad men," - (August. Enchirid. ad Laurent. cap.
101.) He had said a little before, (cap. 100,) that the apostate
angels, by their revolt, and all the reprobate, as far as they
themselves were concerned, did what God willed not; but, in regard
to his omnipotence, it was impossible for them to do so: for, while
they act against the will of God, his will is accomplished in them.
Hence he exclaims, "Great is the work of God, exquisite in all he
wills! so that, in a manner wondrous and ineffable, that is not done
without his will which is done contrary to it, because it could not
be done if he did not permit; nor does he permit it unwillingly, but
willingly; nor would He who is good permit evil to be done, were he
not omnipotent to bring good out of evil," (Augustin. in Ps. 111:
2.)
4. In the same way is solved, or rather spontaneously vanishes,
another objection, viz., If God not only uses the agency of the
wicked, but also governs their counsels and affections, he is the
author of all their sins; and, therefore, men, in executing what God
has decreed, are unjustly condemned, because they are obeying his
will. Here "will" is improperly confounded with precept, though it
is obvious, from innumerable examples, that there is the greatest
difference between them. When Absalom defiled his father's bed,
though God was pleased thus to avenge the adultery of David, he did
not therefore enjoin an abandoned son to commit incest, unless,
perhaps, in respect of David, as David himself says of Shimei's
curses. For, while he confesses that Shimei acts by the order of
God, he by no means commends the obedience, as if that petulant dog
had been yielding obedience to a divine command; but, recognising in
his tongue the scourge of God, he submits patiently to be chastised.
Thus we must hold, that while by means of the wicked God performs
what he had secretly decreed, they are not excusable as if they were
obeying his precept, which of set purpose they violate according to
their lust.
How these things, which men do perversely, are of God, and are
ruled by his secret providence, is strikingly shown in the election
of King Jeroboam, (1 Kings 12: 20,) in which the rashness and
infatuation of the people are severely condemned for perverting the
order sanctioned by God, and perfidiously revolting from the family
of David. And yet we know it was God's will that Jeroboam should be
anointed. Hence the apparent contradiction in the words of Hosea,
(Hosea 8: 4; 13: 11,) because, while God complained that that
kingdom was erected without his knowledge, and against his will, he
elsewhere declares, that he had given King Jeroboam in his anger.
How shall we reconcile the two things, - that Jeroboam's reign was
not of God, and yet God appointed him king? In this way: The people
could not revolt from the family of David without shaking off a yoke
divinely imposed on them, and yet God himself was not deprived of
the power of thus punishing the ingratitude of Solomon. We,
therefore, see how God, while not willing treachery, with another
view justly wills the revolt; and hence Jeroboam, by unexpectedly
receiving the sacred unction, is urged to aspire to the kingdom. For
this reason, the sacred history says, that God stirred up an enemy
to deprive the son of Solomon of part of the kingdom, (1 Kings 11:
23.) Let the reader diligently ponder both points: how, as it was
the will of God that the people should be ruled by the hand of one
king, their being rent into two parties was contrary to his will;
and yet how this same will originated the revolt. For certainly,
when Jeroboam, who had no such thought, is urged by the prophet
verbally, and by the oil of unction, to hope for the kingdom, the
thing was not done without the knowledge or against the will of God,
who had expressly commanded it; and yet the rebellion of the people
is justly condemned, because it was against the will of God that
they revolted from the posterity of David. For this reason, it is
afterwards added, that when Rehoboam haughtily spurned the prayers
of the people, "the cause was from the Lord, that he might perform
his saying, which the Lord spake by Ahijah," (I Kings 12: 15.) See
how sacred unity was violated against the will of God, while, at the
same time, with his will the ten tribes were alienated from the son
of Solomon. To this might be added another similar example, viz.,
the murder of the sons of Ahab, and the extermination of his whole
progeny by the consent, or rather the active agency, of the people.
Jehu says truly "There shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word
of the Lord, which the Lord spake concerning the house of Ahab: for
the Lord has done that which he spake by his servant Elijah," (2
Kings 10: 10.) And yet, with good reason, he upbraids the citizens
of Samaria for having lent their assistance. "Ye be righteous:
behold, I conspired against my master, and slew him, but who slew
all these?"
If I mistake not, I have already shown clearly how the same act
at once betrays the guilt of man, and manifests the righteousness of
God. Modest minds will always be satisfied with Augustine's answer,
"Since the Father delivered up the Son, Christ his own body, and
Judas his Master, how in such a case is God just, and man guilty,
but just because in the one act which they did, the reasons for
which they did it are different?" (August. Ep. 48, ad Vincentium.)
If any are not perfectly satisfied with this explanation, viz., that
there is no concurrence between God and man, when by His righteous
impulse man does what he ought not to do, let them give heed to what
Augustine elsewhere observes: "Who can refrain from trembling at
those judgements when God does according to his pleasure even in the
hearts of the wicked, at the same time rendering to them according
to their deeds?" (De Grat. et lib. Orbit. ad Valent. c. 20.) And
certainly, in regard to the treachery of Judas, there is just as
little ground to throw the blame of the crime upon God, because He
was both pleased that his Son should be delivered up to death, and
did deliver him, as to ascribe to Judas the praise of our
redemption. Hence Augustine, in another place, truly observes, that
when God makes his scrutiny, he looks not to what men could do, or
to what they did, but to what they wished to do, thus taking account
of their will and purpose. Those to whom this seems harsh had better
consider how far their captiousness is entitled to any toleration,
while, on the ground of its exceeding their capacity, they reject a
matter which is clearly taught by Scripture, and complain of the
enunciation of truths, which, if they were not useful to be known,
God never would have ordered his prophets and apostles to teach. Our
true wisdom is to embrace with meek docility, and without
reservation, whatever the Holy Scriptures, have delivered. Those who
indulge their petulance, a petulance manifestly directed against
God, are undeserving of a longer refutation.
Calvin, Institutes on the Christian Religion, Volume 1
(... conclusion)
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