Chapter 4. How God Works in the Hearts of Men

It is sufficiently proved, as I think, that man is so held captive with the yoke of sin, that of his own nature he can neither aspire by desire, nor strive by endeavor to goodness, beside that, we have recounted a distinction between compulsion and necessity, whereby it might appear, that when he sins of necessity yet nevertheless he sins willingly. But forasmuch as while he is subject in bondage to the Devil, he seems rather to be led by the Devil's will than his own, it remains now to be declared of what sort are both kinds of working. And then is this question to be answered, whether in evil works there be anything to be attributed to God: in which the Scripture shows that there is used some working of his. In one place Augustine compares man's will to a horse, which is ready to be ruled by the will of his rider: and God and the Devil he compares to riders. If God (says he) sit upon it, he like a sober and cunning rider, governs it temperately, spurs it forward if it be too slow, pulls it back if it be too quick, restrains the wantonness and wildness of it, tames the stubbornness of it, and guides it into the right way. But if the Devil have possessed it, he like a foolish and wanton rider, violently carries it through places where no way is, drives it into ditches, rolls it down steep places, spurs it forward to stubbornness and fierceness: which similitude we will for this time be contented with, since there comes not a better in place. Where it is said that the will of a natural man is subject to the rule of the Devil, to be stirred by him, it is not meant thereby that man as it were striving against it, and resisting is compelled to obey, as we compel bondslaves against their will, by reason of being their lords, to do our commandments: but that being bewitched with the deceits of Satan, it of necessity yields itself obedient to every leading of him. For whom the Lord vouchsafes not to rule with his Spirit, them by just judgment he sends away to be moved of Satan. Therefore the Apostle says, that the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers ordained to destruction, that they should not see the light of the Gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4). And in another place: That he works in the disobedient children (Ephesians 2:2). The blinding of the wicked, and the wicked deeds that follow thereupon, are called the works of Satan, of which yet the cause is not to be sought elsewhere, than in the will of man, out of which arises the root of evil, wherein rests the foundation of the kingdom of Satan, which is sin.

But far other is the order of God's doing in such things. And that the same may appear more certainly to us: let the hurt done to the holy man Job by the Chaldeans, be an example (Job 1). The Chaldeans killed his herdsmen, and like enemies in war, drove away his cattle for plunder. Now is their wicked deed plainly seen, and in that work Satan is not idle, from whom the History says, that all this did proceed. But Job himself did acknowledge the work of the Lord in it, whom he says to have taken away from him those things, that were taken away by the Chaldeans. How can we refer the very same work to God, as author, to Satan as author, and to man as author of it, but that we must either excuse Satan by the company of God, or report God to be the author of evil. Very easily: if first we look upon the end, why it was done, and then the manner how. The purpose of the Lord is by calamity to exercise the patience of his servant: The Devil goes about to drive him to despair. The Chaldeans against right and law, seek gain of that which is another man's. Such diversity in purposes, makes great difference in the work. And in the manner of doing there is no less diversity. The Lord leaves his servant to Satan to be afflicted: and the Chaldeans, whom he did choose for ministers to execute it, he did leave and deliver to him to be driven to it. Satan with his venomous stings, pricked forward the minds of the Chaldeans, which otherwise were perverse of themselves to do that mischief: they furiously run to do wrong, and do bind and defile all their members with wicked doing. Therefore it is properly said, that Satan does work in the reprobate, in whom he exercises his kingdom: that is to say, the kingdom of wickedness. It is also said, that God works in them after his manner, because Satan himself, forasmuch as he is the instrument of his wrath, according to his bidding and commandment, turns himself here and there to execute his just judgments. I speak not here of God's universal moving, whereby as all creatures are sustained, so from there they take their effectual power of doing anything. I speak only of that special doing, which appears in every special act. We see therefore that it is no absurdity, that one and the same act be ascribed to God, to Satan, and to man: but the diversity in the end and manner of doing, causes that therein appears the justice of God to be without fault, and also the wickedness of Satan and man, reveals itself to their reproach.

The old writers in this point also, are sometimes too precisely afraid, simply to confess the truth, because they fear lest they should so open a window to wickedness, to speak irreverently of the works of God. Which sobriety as I embrace, so I think it nothing dangerous, if we simply hold what the Scripture teaches. Augustine himself sometimes was not free from that superstition, as where he says, that hardening and blinding, pertain not to the work of God, but to his foreknowledge. But the phrases of Scripture do not allow these subtleties, which phrases do plainly show that there is therein something else of God, besides his foreknowledge. And Augustine himself, in his fifth book against Julianus, goes earnestly about with a long process, to prove that sins are not only of the permission or sufferance of God, but also of his power, that so former sins might be punished. Likewise, that which they bring forth, concerning permission, is too weak to stand. It is oftentimes said, that God blinds and hardens the reprobate, that he turns, bows, and moves their hearts, as I have elsewhere taught more at large. But of what manner it is, it is never expressed, if we flee to free foreknowledge or sufferance. Therefore we answer that it is done after two manners. For first, whereas when his light is taken away, there remains nothing but darkness and blindness: whereas when his Spirit is taken away, our hearts grow hard and become stones: whereas when his direction ceases, they are twisted into crookedness, it is well said that he does blind, harden and bow them from whom he takes away the power to see, obey and do rightly. The second manner, which comes nearer to the property of the words, is that for the executing of his judgments by Satan the minister of his wrath, he both appoints their purposes to what end it pleases him, and stirs up their wills, and strengthens their endeavors. So when Moses rehearses that king Sihon did not give passage to the people, because God had hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, he by and by adjoins the end of his purpose: that he might (says he) give him into our hands. Therefore because it was God's will to have him destroyed, the making of his heart obstinate, was God's preparation to his destruction.

After the first manner this seems to be spoken. He takes away the lip from the speakers of truth, and takes away reason from the Elders. He takes the heart away from them that are set over the people, he makes them to wander where no way is. Again, Lord why have you made us mad, and hardened our heart, that we should not fear you? Because they judge rather of what sort God makes men by forsaking them, than how he performs his work in them. But there are other testimonies that go further: as are these of the hardening of Pharaoh. I will harden the heart of Pharaoh, that he does not hear you, and let the people go. Afterward he says, that he has made heavy and hardened his heart. Did he harden it, in not sustaining it? That is true indeed: but he did somewhat more that he committed his heart to Satan, to be confirmed with obstinacy. Whereupon he had before said: I will hold his heart. The people went out of Egypt, the inhabitants of that country came forth and met them like enemies. By whom were they stirred up? Truly Moses affirms to the people, that it was the Lord who had hardened their hearts. And the Prophet reciting the same history, says, that he turned their hearts, that they should hate his people. Now you cannot say, that they stumbled being left without the counsel of God. For if they be hardened and turned, then they are of purpose bowed to that self same thing. Moreover so often as it pleased him to punish the transgressors of the people, how did he perform his work in the reprobate? So as a man may see, that the effectiveness of working was in him, and they only did service as ministers. Therefore sometimes he threatened that he would call them out with his whistle, sometimes that they should be like a net for him to entangle them, and sometimes like a mallet, to strike the Israelites. But specially he then declared how he is not idle in them, when he called Sennacherib an [reconstructed: axe], which was both directed and driven by his hand to cut. Augustine in one place does not amiss, appoints it after this sort: that inasmuch as they sin, it is their own: inasmuch as in sinning they do this or that it is of the power of God, that divided the darkness as pleases him.

Now that the ministry of Satan is used to prod forward the reprobate, so often as the Lord by his providence appoints them to this or to that, may sufficiently be proved, though it were but by one place only. For it is oftentimes said in Samuel, that the evil spirit of the Lord, and an evil spirit from the Lord, did either violently carry or leave Saul. To say that this spirit was the Holy Spirit, is blasphemous. Therefore the unclean spirit is called the spirit of God, because it answers at his commandment and power, being rather his instrument in doing, than an author of itself. This is also to be added as well, which Paul teaches, that the efficacy of error and deceiving, is sent by God, that they which have not obeyed the truth, may believe lies. But there is always great difference in one self-same work, between that which the Lord does, and that which Satan and the wicked go about. He makes the evil instruments that he has under his hand, and may turn wherever he wishes, to serve his justice. They, inasmuch as they are evil, do bring forth in effect the wickedness that they have conceived by corruption of nature. The rest, of such things as serve to deliver the majesty of God from slander, and to cut off all evasion from the wicked, are already set forth in the chapter concerning Providence. For in this place my purpose was only to show how Satan reigns in the reprobate man, and how God works in them both.

Although we have before touched on this, yet it is not plainly declared what liberty man has in those doings which are neither just nor faulty of themselves, and belong rather to the bodily than the spiritual life. Some in such things have granted him free election, rather, as I think, because they would not strive about a matter of no great importance, than that they minded certainly to prove the same thing that they grant. As for me, although I confess that they who hold that they have no power to righteousness do hold the thing that is principally necessary to salvation: yet I do think that this point also is not to be neglected, that we may know that it is of the special grace of the Lord, so often as it comes into our mind to choose that which is for our profit, so often as our will inclines to it: again so often as our understanding shuns that which else would have hurt us. And the force of God's providence extends thus far, not only to make the outcomes of things come to pass, as he shall foresee to be expedient, but also to make the wills of men to tend to it. Truly if we consider in our understanding the administration of outward things, we shall think that they are so far under the will of man: but if we shall give credit to so many testimonies, which cry out that the Lord does in these things also rule the hearts of men, they shall compel us to yield our will subject to the special moving of God. Who did procure the good wills of the Egyptians toward the Israelites, to lend them all their most precious jewels? They would never have found in their hearts to have so done of their own accord. Therefore their hearts were more subject to the Lord, than ruled by themselves. And truly if Jacob had not been persuaded that God put into men diverse affections as pleases him, he would not have said of his son Joseph, whom he thought to be some Heathen Egyptian: God grant you to find mercy before this man. As also the whole Church confesses in the Psalm, that when it pleased God to have mercy upon it, he softened the hearts of the cruel nations. Again, when Saul so waxed on fire with anger, that he prepared himself for war, the cause is expressed, for that the Spirit of God did enforce him. Who turned away Absalom's mind from embracing the counsel of Ahithophel, which was wont to be held as an oracle? Who inclined Rehoboam to be persuaded with the young men's advice? Who made the nations that before were great, to be afraid at the coming of Israel? Truly the harlot Rahab confessed, that it was done by God. Again, who threw down the hearts of Israel with dread and fearfulness, but he that in the law threatened that he would give them a fearful heart?

Some man will take exception and say, that these are singular examples, to the rule of which all things universally ought not to be reduced. But I say, that by these is sufficiently proved that which I affirm, that God so often as he means to prepare the way for his providence, even in outward things does bow and turn the wills of men, and that their choice is not so free, but that God's will bears rule over the freedom thereof. That your mind hangs rather upon the moving of God, than upon the freedom of your own choice, this daily experience shall compel you to think whether you will or no: that is, for that in things of no perplexity your judgment and understanding often fails you, in things not hard to be done your courage faints: again in things most obscure, by and by present advice is offered you: in things great and perilous, you have a courage overcoming all difficulty. And so do I expound that which Solomon says: That the ear may hear, that the eye may see, the Lord works both. For I take it that he speaks not of the creation, but of the special grace of using them. And when he writes that the Lord holds in his hand and bows wherever he will the heart of the king as the streams of waters: truly under the example of one special sort, he comprehends the whole generality. For if the will of any man be free from subjection, that preeminence principally belongs to the will of a King, which uses as it were a kingdom upon the wills of others: but if the will of the King be ruled with the hand of God, no more shall our will be exempted from the same estate. Upon this point there is a notable saying of Augustine. The Scripture if it be diligently looked upon does show, that not only the good wills of men which he of evil makes good, and so being made by himself does direct to good doings and to eternal life, but also these wills that preserve the creature of the world, are so in the power of God, that he makes them to be inclined wherever he will and whenever he will, either to do benefits, or to execute punishments, by a judgment most secret indeed, but the same most righteous.

Here let the readers remember, that the power of man's will is not to be weighed by the outcome of things, which some unskillful men are improperly wont to do. For they seem to themselves to prove cleverly and wittily that man's will is in bondage, because even the highest monarchs have not all things flowing after their own desire. But this power of which we speak, is to be considered within man and not be measured by outward outcome. For in the disputation of free will, this is not the question, whether man may for outward impediments, perform and put in execution all those things that he has purposed in mind: but whether he have in every thing both a free election of judgment, and a free affection of will, which both if man have, then Attilius Regulus, enclosed in the narrowness of a barrel set full of sharp pricks, shall no less have free will than Augustus Caesar, governing a great part of the world with the nod of his countenance.

It has been sufficiently proved, I think, that man is held so captive under the yoke of sin that he can neither desire goodness nor strive for it on his own. We have also made the distinction between compulsion and necessity, showing that even when he sins necessarily, he still sins willingly. But since, while subject to the devil's bondage, he seems to be led more by the devil's will than his own, it remains now to describe the nature of both kinds of working. Then we must answer the question whether anything in evil actions can be attributed to God, in which Scripture indicates that His working is somehow involved. In one place Augustine compares man's will to a horse ready to obey its rider, and he compares God and the devil to the two riders. 'If God sits upon it,' he says, 'He governs it temperately, like a sober and skilled rider — spurring it forward when it is too slow, pulling it back when it is too fast, restraining its waywardness and wildness, taming its stubbornness, and guiding it in the right way.' 'But if the devil has taken possession of it, like a foolish and reckless rider he drives it violently through pathless places, throws it into ditches, rolls it down steep slopes, and spurs it onward into stubbornness and fury.' This comparison will serve for now, since nothing better comes to hand. When we say that the will of a natural man is subject to the devil's rule and stirred by him, we do not mean that the man strains against it and resists while being forced to obey, as slaves are sometimes compelled against their will by their masters. Rather, being deceived and bewitched by Satan's lies, the will yields obediently to his every leading. Those whom the Lord does not choose to govern with His Spirit, He by just judgment gives over to be moved by Satan. The apostle therefore says that the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers who are appointed for destruction, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4). And in another place: that he works in the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2). The blinding of the wicked and the wicked deeds that follow are called the works of Satan — and yet the cause is not to be sought anywhere else than in the will of man, from which the root of evil springs and in which the foundation of Satan's kingdom — namely, sin — rests.

But the order of God's working in such things is entirely different. The harm done to the holy man Job by the Chaldeans can serve as an example (Job 1). The Chaldeans killed his servants and, like enemies at war, drove away his cattle as plunder. Their wicked act is plain to see, and in it Satan is not idle — the narrative says that all of this proceeded from him. But Job himself acknowledged the work of the Lord in it, declaring that the One who allowed the Chaldeans to take his possessions was the Lord who had taken them away. How can we attribute the very same act to God as author, to Satan as author, and to man as author — without either excusing Satan by association with God, or making God the author of evil? Quite easily — if we first look at the end for which each acted, and then at the manner in which each acted. The Lord's purpose was to test and exercise His servant's patience through calamity. The devil's aim was to drive him to despair. The Chaldeans, in violation of all right and law, sought profit at another's expense. This great diversity of purposes produces a great difference in the moral quality of the act. There is no less diversity in the manner of doing. The Lord handed His servant over to Satan to be afflicted. The Chaldeans, whom He chose as instruments to carry it out, He left under Satan's direction and delivered them to be driven to it. Satan with his poisonous stings goaded the Chaldeans — already perverse of their own nature — to commit the harm. They rushed furiously to do wrong and defiled their entire members with wicked action. Therefore it is rightly said that Satan works in the reprobate, in whom he exercises his kingdom — the kingdom of wickedness. It is also said that God works in them in His own manner — because Satan himself, as an instrument of God's wrath, turns himself here and there at God's bidding and commandment to execute His just judgments. I am not speaking here of God's universal working by which all creatures are sustained and from which they receive the power to do anything at all. I speak only of that special working visible in each specific act. We see therefore that there is no absurdity in attributing one and the same act to God, to Satan, and to man. The diversity of ends and manners of acting makes God's justice in it appear blameless, while the wickedness of Satan and man stands fully exposed to their reproach.

On this point also the early writers are sometimes too cautious to confess the plain truth, fearing that they will open a window to wickedness by speaking too freely about the works of God. I respect that caution — and yet I think there is no danger in simply holding what Scripture teaches. Augustine himself was not entirely free from this kind of restraint, as when he says that hardening and blinding belong not to God's working but to His foreknowledge. But the plain language of Scripture does not allow such refinements, for it clearly indicates that something more than foreknowledge is involved on God's part. Augustine himself, in his fifth book against Julianus, labors at length to prove that sins are not merely permitted or suffered by God but are also subject to His power — so that former sins may be punished by means of later ones. Similarly, the appeal to mere permission is too weak to stand. Scripture frequently says that God blinds and hardens the reprobate, that He turns, bends, and moves their hearts, as I have explained more fully elsewhere. But how this happens can never be explained if we retreat to mere foreknowledge or permission. Therefore we answer that it happens in two ways. First, since when His light is withdrawn nothing but darkness and blindness remain, since when His Spirit is withdrawn our hearts grow hard as stone, and since when His direction ceases they twist into crookedness — it is rightly said that He blinds, hardens, and bends those from whom He withdraws the power to see, to obey, and to act rightly. The second way — which comes closer to the literal meaning of the language — is that for the execution of His judgments through Satan as the minister of His wrath, God both directs their purposes toward whatever end He pleases and stirs up their wills and strengthens their efforts. So when Moses recounts that King Sihon refused to grant the people passage because God had hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, he immediately adds the purpose behind it: 'that He might give him into our hands.' Because it was God's will to destroy Sihon, the hardening of his heart was God's preparation for that destruction.

According to the first manner these passages seem to be spoken: 'He takes away speech from those who speak the truth and takes away reason from the elders; He takes understanding away from those who lead the people and makes them wander where there is no path.' And again: 'Lord, why have You made us err and hardened our hearts so that we do not fear You?' These passages speak of what God produces in people by withdrawing His grace, rather than of how He actively works in them. But other texts go further — such as those concerning the hardening of Pharaoh. 'I will harden the heart of Pharaoh, so that he will not listen to you or let the people go.' Afterward it says that He made his heart heavy and hardened it. Did He harden it by simply withdrawing His support? That is true — but He did something more: He committed Pharaoh's heart to Satan to be confirmed in stubbornness. This is why He had earlier said: 'I will hold his heart.' When the people left Egypt, the inhabitants of the land came out and met them as enemies. Who stirred them up? Moses affirms to the people that it was the Lord who had hardened their hearts. And the prophet, recounting the same history, says that 'He turned their hearts to hate His people.' You cannot say they merely stumbled because God withdrew His counsel from them — for if they were hardened and turned, then they were purposely bent toward that very thing. Furthermore, when it pleased God to punish the transgressors among the people, how did He accomplish His work in the reprobate? In such a way that the effective power of the working was clearly His, and they served only as His instruments. At times He threatened to summon them with a whistle; at times He said they would be like a net to entangle His enemies, and at times like a hammer to strike the Israelites. But He showed most clearly that He is not idle in them when He called Sennacherib an axe, one that was both directed and driven by His own hand to cut. Augustine states it aptly in one place: insofar as they sin, it is their own doing; insofar as in sinning they carry out this or that particular thing, it is the power of God, who divides the darkness as He pleases.

That Satan's service is used to spur the reprobate forward whenever the Lord by His providence appoints them to this or that task can be sufficiently proved from a single passage alone. For it is frequently said in Samuel that an evil spirit from the Lord violently seized or left Saul. To call this spirit the Holy Spirit would be blasphemous. The unclean spirit is therefore called the spirit of God because it acts at His command and under His power, serving as His instrument rather than acting independently. To this must also be added what Paul teaches: that the powerful working of error and deception is sent by God, so that those who have not obeyed the truth may believe lies. Yet in one and the same action there is always a great difference between what the Lord does and what Satan and the wicked intend. He employs the evil instruments that are under His hand — instruments He can turn wherever He wishes — to serve His justice. They, being evil, produce in their actions the wickedness they have conceived through the corruption of their nature. The rest of what serves to defend God's majesty from slander and to cut off every excuse from the wicked has already been set out in the chapter on providence. Here my only aim was to show how Satan reigns in the reprobate person, and how God also works in them both.

Although we touched on this before, it has not been clearly stated what freedom man has in those actions that are neither righteous nor sinful in themselves — actions that belong more to the bodily than the spiritual life. Some have granted him free choice in such matters, I think, more because they did not want to argue over something of minor importance than because they were firmly convinced of what they conceded. As for me, while I agree that those who hold that man has no power toward righteousness have grasped what is chiefly necessary for salvation, I also think this other point must not be neglected: that whenever a thought comes to our minds to choose what is beneficial to us and our will inclines toward it — and whenever our understanding avoids what would otherwise harm us — this too is the work of God's special grace. The reach of God's providence extends this far: not only to bring about the outcomes He foresees as fitting, but also to incline the wills of people toward them. If we consider the management of outward affairs by our understanding alone, we might think they lie entirely under human will. But if we give credit to the many testimonies that cry out that the Lord governs the hearts of men in these things as well, they will compel us to acknowledge that our will is subject to God's special directing. Who moved the Egyptians to look favorably on the Israelites and lend them their most precious valuables? They would never have found it in their hearts to do so of their own accord. Their hearts, then, were more under the Lord's command than under their own governance. And truly, if Jacob had not been persuaded that God puts different affections into people as it pleases Him, he would not have said of his son Joseph — whom he took to be a pagan Egyptian — 'God grant you to find mercy before this man.' The whole church likewise confesses in the Psalms that when it pleased God to have mercy on them, He softened the hearts of cruel nations toward them. Again, when Saul became so inflamed with anger that he prepared for war, the cause is stated plainly: the Spirit of God compelled him. Who turned Absalom's mind away from following the counsel of Ahithophel, which had been treated as an oracle? Who inclined Rehoboam to accept the advice of the young men? Who caused the great nations to be struck with fear at the approach of Israel? The harlot Rahab herself confessed that it was done by God. And who threw down the hearts of Israel with dread and terror, if not the One who threatened in the law that He would give them a heart full of fear?

Someone will object that these are isolated examples and should not be made into a universal rule. But I say that they are sufficient to prove what I am affirming: that God, whenever He means to prepare the way for His providence, bends and turns the wills of people even in outward matters — and that human choice is not so free that God's will does not govern over it. That your mind depends more on God's directing than on your own free choice — daily experience itself will force you to think this, whether you wish to or not. In matters of no difficulty your judgment and understanding often fail you. In things not hard to accomplish, your courage gives out. And conversely, in the most obscure matters, ready advice suddenly presents itself. In great and dangerous affairs, a courage that overcomes all difficulty is given to you. So I understand Solomon's words: 'The Lord makes both the ear to hear and the eye to see.' I take him to be speaking not of their creation but of the special grace by which we use them. And when he writes that the Lord holds the heart of the king in His hand like a stream of water and turns it wherever He wills, he uses this particular example to cover the whole general case. For if any person's will were exempt from God's rule, that distinction would most belong to the will of a king, who exercises something like lordship over the wills of others. But if even the will of a king is governed by God's hand, then no one's will is exempt from the same condition. Augustine has a notable statement on this point: if Scripture is carefully read, it shows that not only the good wills of people — which God makes good out of evil, and which He Himself having made, He directs to good works and eternal life — but also those wills that preserve the created world are so in God's power that He turns them wherever and whenever He wills, to show kindness or to execute punishment, by a judgment most secret indeed, but most righteous.

Here readers must remember that the power of man's will is not to be measured by the outward outcome of things, as some unskilled thinkers improperly tend to do. They think they prove cleverly that man's will is in bondage by pointing out that even the greatest rulers do not always get what they desire. But the power of will we are speaking of is to be considered within the person, not measured by outward results. For in the debate about free will, the question is not whether a man can carry out in practice all the things he has planned in his mind — for outward obstacles may prevent that. The question is whether in every matter he has both a free judgment of mind and a free inclination of will. If a man has both of these, then Attilius Regulus, shut up in the narrowness of a barrel lined with sharp spikes, would possess free will no less than Augustus Caesar, ruling a large part of the world with a nod of his head.