Calvin on the Will

Peter J. Leithart just posted this on his blog, which I thought was fortuitous. Echoing many of the things we've talked about, and also offering an outside perspective, I hope this helps in thinking through some of the issues involved.

Notable is the similarity of Calvin's arguments to Luther's. Calvin explains well the difference between necessity and compulsion, writing: "A distinction has been drawn between compulsion and necessity, making it clear that man, though he sins necessarily, nevertheless sins voluntarily." Though, ultimately, like Luther, I don't believe he is faithful to his own argument. Thus, the next sentence: "He is actuated more by the devil’s will than his own." And again, proudly declaring double-predestination: "Those whom the Lord favours not with the direction of his Spirit, he, by a righteous judgment, consigns to the agency of Satan."

“That man is so enslaved by the yoke of sin, that he cannot of his own nature aim at good either in wish or actual pursuit, has, I think, been sufficiently proved. Moreover, a distinction has been drawn between compulsion and necessity, making it clear that man, though he sins necessarily, nevertheless sins voluntarily. But since, from his being brought into bondage to the devil, it would seem that he is actuated more by the devil’s will than his own, it is necessary, first, to explain what the agency of each is, and then solve the question. Whether in bad actions anything is to be attributed to God, Scripture intimating that there is some way in which he interferes?

“Augustine compares the human will to a horse preparing to start, and God and the devil to riders. ‘If God mounts, he, like a temperate and skilful rider, guides it calmly, urges it when too slow, reins it in when too fast, curbs its forwardness and over-action, checks its bad temper, and keeps it on the proper course; but if the devil has seized the saddle, like an ignorant and rash rider, he hurries it over broken ground, drives it into ditches, dashes it over precipices, spurs it into obstinacy or fury.’ With this simile, since a better does not occur, we shall for the present be contented. When it is said, then, that the will of the natural man is subject to the power of the devil, and is actuated by him, the meaning is not that the wills while reluctant and resisting, is forced to submit (as masters oblige unwilling slaves to execute their orders), but that, fascinated by the impostures of Satan, it necessarily yields to his guidance, and does him homage. Those whom the Lord favours not with the direction of his Spirit, he, by a righteous judgment, consigns to the agency of Satan. Wherefore, the Apostle says, that ‘the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them.’ And, in another passage, he describes the devil as ‘the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.’ The blinding of the wicked, and all the iniquities consequent upon it, are called the works of Satan; works the cause of which is not to be Sought in anything external to the will of man, in which the root of the evil lies, and in which the foundation of Satan’s kingdom, in other words, sin, is fixed.”