CHAPTER V.

Shewing that thefe late notions, concerning the Liberty or rather Servitude of the Will of lapfed Man, were generally condemned by the Primitive Chriftians.

THIS will be evident from thefe following confidera

tions.

SECTION I.-ft. That they place the freedom of the will from neceffity amongst the doctrines, quæ per prædicationem apoftolicam manifeftè traduntur, which were manifeftly delivered to the church by the preaching of the apostles, and by ecclefiaftical tradition. Hes, we chriftians, faith (a) Juftin Martyr, do not think as do the Stoicks, that all things are done according to fate ; ἀλλὰ κατα μὲν προαίρεσιν ἑκατὸν και τορθόν, ἢ ἁμαρτάνειν ; but that every man doth well or ill accord ing to the freedom of his will or choice. (b) Origen speaks thus, Eft et illud definitum in Ecclefiaftica Prædicatione omnem animum effe rationabilem liberi arbitrii, et voluntatis ; this alfo is defined by ecclefiaftical tradition, that all fouls are rational, and have free will and choice. Whence we may gather, that they are not fubject to neceffity so as to be compelled to do good or evil; for we are under no neceffity to do well or ill. And though there is in the rational foul a power to do evil, it is not evil upon that account, faith (c) Didymus Alexandrinus; but becaufa he will freely ufe that power : καὶ ἐκ ἡμῶν μόνον ἡ δόξα αὐτὴ, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντων και ως περὶ τῶν λογικῶν ζώων φιλοσοφησάν των, and this is not only ours, but the opinion of all who Speak Orthodoxly of rational beings. (d) Theodoret having eftablifhed this doctrine of the liberty of man's will from neceffity, and his power to choose good or evil by reason, and by the fuffrage of the holy fcriptures, concludes thas; raula xedidax tomev, ni diddonoμev, thus have we (christians) been taught by qur ancestors, and thus we teach. St. Auftin lays down this as the true definition of fin, (e) peccatum eft voluntas retinendi, vel confequendi id, quod juftitia vetat, et unde liberum eft

(a) Apol. 1. p. 45;

(b) De princip. in Proem.- (c) Ed. Combef. p. 28. (d) Adv. Græcos, Serm. 5. p. 542, 543, 548.-(e) Lib, de Duab. Animab, 11, 12,

abftinere; fin is the will to obtain or retain that which justice forbids, and from which it is free for us to abftain. Whence he concludes, that no man is worthy of difpraife or punishment, qui id non faciat quod facere non poteft, for not doing that which he hath no power to do; and that if fin be worthy of difpraife and punishment, it is not to be doubted, tunc effe peccatum cum et liberum eft nolle. These things, faith he, the Shepherds fing upon the mountains, and the poets in the theatres, and the unlearned in their affemblies, and the learned in the libraries, and the doctors in the schools, et Antiftites, in facris locis, et in orbe terrarum genus humanum, (f) and the bishops in the churches, and mankind throughout the whole earth.Yea this, faith he, is fo manifeft, nulla hinc doctorum paucitas, nulla indoctorum turba diffentiat, that it hath the univerfal confent of the learned and unlearned. (g) Gennadius, in his account of ecclefiaftical doctrines, lays down.this.for one, that no man perisheth by the will of God; fed per feipfum electione Arbitrii, ne ingenuitatis libertas atque poteftas femel homini attributa, ad fervilem cogatur neceffitatem, but only by himself; and his own free choice, left the free choice, liberty and power once granted to man, should be reduced to a fervile neceffity.

SECTION II-2dly. This will be ftill more evident from what St. Auftin, with the concurrence of all the ancient fathers, have faid in confutation of the Manichees who taught these three things.

1. That there were two principles, the one good, and the author of good, the other evil, and the author of evil.

2dly. That the God of the law was not the true God, and that therefore the Old Teftament was to be rejected.

3dly. That fin arofe not from the free will of man, but from the fubftance of matter, and fo fome fouls were wicked not by choice, but by nature. Now against this wicked herefy St. Auftin urgeth many arguments, in which he hath the fuffrage of the ancient fathers.

And (ft) he lays down these as certain and adifputable (h) rules, viz. de quo refiftere non valente quifquam quidpiam mali fecit juftè damnari nullo modo poteft, that no man can jufly be condemned for doing that evil which he was not able to refift; for all men, faith he, will pronounce without any hesitation, nihil iftos omninò peccaffe, that these men have done no evil. For if fouls be fo compelled to act, ut refiftendi poteftas nulla fit, non peccant, that they have no power to refift, they fin not. If therefore, as Le Blanc faith, the reformed teach

(f) De Vera Rel. c. 14.(g) Cap. lvi.- (b) Lib. de Duab. Anim. c. 10.

fulfil the law, and not fin, which is beyond our ftrength, could punish men for tranfgreffing it; it being manifeft, that & τὰ ὑπερ δύναμιν μὴ ποιήσας ἐπεί εἰσιν αδύνατα ὑπάρχει ἀνεύθυνα, that no man is criminal for not doing that which is beyond his pow er, and therefore is to him impoffible) anfwers, that God condemns us not for not doing what is impoffible, but for not will ing to do what is poffible ; τοῖς γὰρ δυνατοῖς, καὶ ἐφ' ἡμῖν ἔσιν ἡ ἔπαινα, ἤ ὁ ψόπο γίνεται, for praife or difpraife belongs only to things poffible, and which are in our power to do or not; and that we all offend, διὰ τὸ μὴ μίρεσθαι, καὶ ἡ διὰ τὸ μὴ δύνασ Dai, not because we cannot, but because we will not do what we ought to do. Add to this what hath been before cited from Irenæus, declaring, that our Lord and his apoftles could have no reafon to require us to do good, if it were not in our power to do what they exhort us to: From Tertullian, faying, that God would not have given a law to him who had it not in his power to obey it: From Origen, inquiring, how could God require that of man which he had not in his power to offer to him? and that of Theodoret, that God cannot justly punish a nature which hath it not in his power to do good, but is boundin the bonds of wickedness.

2dly. St. Auftin lays down this as the true definition of fin, (e) That it is the will to do that from which we have the liberty to abftain; for, faith he, (f) if men, libero ad faciendum, et non faciendum, motu animi careant, fi denique his abftinendi ab opere fuo poteftas nulla conceditur, peccato teneri non poffunt, want the free motion of the will to do, or.not to do, or if they have not the power to abftain from what they do, they cannot be guilty of fin; for if a man cannot do otherwise, he finneth not. (g) Acknowledge, faith he, that fin must be free from neceffity, non quia homines non poffunt, fed quia nolunt fervare legem, and must be done, not becaufe men cannot, but be caufe they will not obferue the law; and hence thou wilt dif cern the rife of all fin, and the diftribution of punishments. Accordingly we have learned from Origen, that the foul doth not incline to either part out of neceffity, because then neither vice nor virtue could be afcribed to it. God, faith (h) Hilary, hath permitted to every man, libertatem vitæ fenfüfque the liberty of life and judgment, non neceffitatem in alterutrum affigens, laying them under no neceffity of doing good or evil, ut præmium fibi voluntatis bonitatis acquireret, that he might be rewarded for the goodness of his will.

And again, (i) God, faith he, hath permitted to every man the liberty of choofing and doing what he will, et ob id unius

(e) L. cont. Fortun. Man. p. 165.(f) L. de fide contr. Man. c. 44. -(g) De Actis cum Felice Man. 1. 2. c. 5. (b) In Pf ̊ 21. P In Pf. 119. p. 968, 969.

662,

-

be wor

cujufque aut pœna, aut præmiis afficietur electio, and for this reafon fhall every man be punished, or rewarded for his choice. God, faith (k) St. Bafit, loves them who do what is right, not from neceffity but virtue. Now virtue, faith he, arifeth, in poaspéσews, a in i avlums, from choice, and not from neceffity. For this caufe, faith (1) Chryfoftom, hath God given thee free will, ἵνα μὴ ἕτερον ἐκαλῆς τῷ θεῷ, ὡς ἀνάγκη δηθείς, that men may not accufe God as being bound under a neceffity of doing uil. Man, faith (m) St. Cyril Alexandria hath a free inclination to what he will choofe to do, x) àváluns éλEúDEPOV TÙY ¿Q éxase fónny, and a freedom from neceffity in what he will turn himfelf unto; that jo, and not otherwife the good may thy of praife and reward, and the wicked may be justly punished. The devil faith (n) Cyril of Jerufalem, fuggefts to thee a thought of fornication, if thou wilt, thou admitteft of it, if thou wilt, thou rejedef it ; εἰ γὰρ κατ' ανάγκην ἐπορνύεις, καὶ τίνα ἕνεκα τὴν γέενναν ετοίμαζεν ὁ Θεὸς; for if thou didft lie under a neceffity of whoring, why hath God prepared hell? If faith (0) Macarius, the bodies of chriftians fhould have been made immortal, the world beholding rò raρádožov To wspálual the frangeness of the thing, would have been converted to good, ἀνάγκῃ τινὶ, ἀλλ ̓ ἐκ ἐκεσίᾳ γνώμῃ, not by their own free will, but by a kind of neceffity, and therefore God to preferve the liberty of man's will, fuffered their bodies to die, that it might be in their choice to turn to good or evil; for man is not bound to do evil, áváług rivì, by any neceffity, but hath a liberty, të véve̟olaı oneû© ixλoys, to become a veffel of election and life, and they who are acled by the holy Spirit, in dválun Tivi nɛngáTalai, are not held under any neceffity, but have a liberty to turn themfelves, and do what they will in this life.

3dly. St. Auftin offers to prove to Felix the Manichee, è divinis Scripturis, from the divine fcriptures, that man hath the freedom of his will; atque inde peccare quemque fi velit, non peccare fi nolit, and therefore that every man fins if he will, and fins not if he will not. Now that all the fathers accord with him in this, that the holy fcriptures do afcribe to man this freedom of the will, hath been largely proved; and to the paffages already cited from them, may be added a large difcourfe of Origen, in his Philocalia, where he confirms this from variety of demonftrative arguments from the holy fcriptures. (p) St. Bafil faith, there is a manifeft demonftration of the free will of man in thofe words of Ifaiah, if you will, and if you will not, &c. whence it is manifeft that all his hap

(k) Tom. 1. Quod Deus non eft Auth mali, p. 362. D.(1) Hom 14. in Cor. p. 330.(m) Contr. Jul. 1. 8. p. 285. (n) Catech. 4. p. 31. D.- (0) Hom. 15. p. 96. B. C. D. —

Tom 2. p. 259.