Chapter X: The Use of this Doctrine of Free Choice, § 119.
CHAPTER X: THE USE OF THIS DOCTRINE OF FREE CHOICE
The use of the doctrine of the impediments of freedom.
§ 119. This doctrine of the impediments of freedom even in external actions is given for this end, so that when we see external discipline so mutilated, weak, and infirm, we might bemoan the corruption of our nature and not dare set any external obedience against the judgment of God after the example of the Jews, about whom the apostle says that “they sought to establish their own righteousness” (Rom. 10:3). With the word “establish” here, he indicates its weakness, for that which vacillates and totters in itself is in need of establishing. But this vain effort is expressed with another word, for this establishing is sought for but is not obtained.
Then also [its use is] that we might be the more diligent in controlling our behavior, and that we might the more ardently implore divine help by which our actions not only in spiritual but also in the external matters which are subject to sense and reason are directed by God so that we do not fall by mistake into tragic and inextricable evils, and that we seek to be healed if any such mistakes should befall us.
The use of the doctrine of the powerlessness of our powers in spiritual matters.
§ 120. Furthermore, the things we have said in reference to our lack of power in causing or beginning spiritual impulses in our conversion are focused on this: First, that in some way we acknowledge the greatness of the benefits of the Mediator, the Son of God, whose grace is most necessary for us not only in merit but also in the application of the heavenly treasures. Although the heavenly treasures obtained by the death of our Mediator are offered to us in the Word, we cannot extend the hand of faith toward them unless God works this in us. Augustine (Letter 107): “To be sure, we are not praying to God but [only] imagining that we pray if we think that we ourselves are doing what we pray for and not He. Certainly we are not thanking God but are imagining we are thanking Him if we do not think that He is doing that for which we are thanking Him.”
§ 121. Second, this awareness leads us to humility so that when we feel any such impulses, holy thoughts, good intent, pious desire, etc., we do not boast of our powers and efforts but acknowledge that this is the free gift of the Holy Spirit who works this; so that we thank Him by whom we are made “suitable to think anything” (2 Cor. 3:5) and “who works in us to will” (Phil. 2:13). “What do you have that you have not received? But if you have received it, why do you boast as if you do not receive it?” (1 Cor. 4:7). Cyprian (Ad Quirin., bk. 3): “We must boast of nothing, because nothing is of us,” a statement which Augustine repeats often.
§ 122. Furthermore, it contributes to an increase in faith. For by this comfort we can rouse ourselves in the weakness of our flesh and, in fact, in rebellion against the law of sin which is in our members, because it is not our flesh but the Holy Spirit who begins that good work and therefore will also finish it (Phil. 1:6). Augustine (or whoever authored it) (De dogm. eccles., ch. 6): “We live more safely if we attribute everything to God, but not if we commit ourselves partly to God and partly to ourselves.”
§ 123. In addition, it contributes to destroying our security, lest we become secure when we have the beginnings of faith, love, repentance, etc., as if we could not lose them but could protect and increase them by our own powers. Instead, let us cling even more tenaciously to invocation because “we cannot elicit from our own powers what we lack in spiritual goods or protect what we have received, but we can do it through Him without whom we can do nothing [John 15:5]” (Augustine, De dogm. eccles., ch. 17).
§ 124. Finally, it contributes to stirring up our diligence in guarding the divine gifts so that we realize that, if we pour away such gifts or dump them onto the ground, we are doing wrong not to our own nature but to the Holy Spirit Himself, who works conversion in us. Augustine (De dogm. eccles., ch. 32): “God acts in us so that we will and do what He wills. He does not allow that to be idle which He has given for the purpose of being exercised and not neglected, so that we may be workers together with the grace of God. And if we see anything languishing in us because of our laxity, let us anxiously run to Him who heals all our weaknesses and who commands us to pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation’ [Matt. 6:13].”
Abuses of this doctrine.
§ 125. But we should not abuse this doctrine to encourage our idleness so that we think: “I shall wait with a secure and idle will until absolute conversion and renovation occurs in me on every level through the operation of the Holy Spirit,” because the Holy Spirit works in us to will without us, but when we will and will in such a way that we do, He cooperates with us. But it cannot be shown at what mathematical point the will begins to act. But when prevenient grace produces the first beginnings of faith and conversion in man, the wrestling of flesh and Spirit begins immediately, and the wrestling does not occur without the movement of our will. And the freed will is not idle but is effectual with the newly given powers.
Conversion does not occur at a mathematical point.
§ 126. Obviously conversion and renewal is not the sort of change which is completed and accomplished in every detail immediately in one moment. Rather, it has its beginnings and its progress in which it is perfected in great weakness. Augustine (Ad Simpl., 1, q. 2): “In conversion there occur beginnings similar to conception, but there is need not only for conception but also for being born; yet none of these happens without the free mercy of God.”
§ 127. In the beginning the desire is more clouded, the assent more languid, the obedience less intense, and these gifts must increase. But they grow in us not like lilies of the field but by trying, wrestling, seeking, asking, knocking, and “this is not of ourselves; it is the gift of God” [Eph. 2:8]. The Savior says, “To the one who has, it will be given” (Matt. 13:12). Whoever has received very small spiritual gifts from God should acknowledge them with a grateful mind, ask that they be increased, and neglect no opportunities to advance in piety. To him it will be given that he may be the richer. But from him who does not have—that is, from him who behaves as if he had received nothing from God—even what he has will be taken away. Chemnitz (Judicium de controv. quibusdam q., p. 63) writes about this:
Because conversion according to all its parts is not completed immediately or at a single moment, it should not be said that the will must be idle and purely passive until it feels as if conversion has been finished; or because conversion and renewal is the work of God, [it should not be said] that faith should not care whether [conversion] might or has occurred, but ought to commit this to God, who will be able to complete His work, etc. Rather, when the first beginnings of conversion are given to us through the Holy Spirit, the wrestling of flesh and Spirit begins right away. Obviously this does not occur without any movement of our will, and this cooperation [συνεργία] of the will is not of the old will but of the one which has begun to be renewed, and these beginnings grow in great weakness and are increased not without the movement of our will. Furthermore, the cooperation always depends upon the grace of God, etc.