De Libero Arbitrio
The Will's Civil Freedom
The human will retains a measure of freedom in civil and rational matters, as even Augustine acknowledged.
Regarding free will, they teach that the human will has some freedom to carry out civil justice and to choose things subject to reason. But it doesn't have the power, without the Holy Spirit, to bring about God's justice or spiritual justice, because the natural person doesn't perceive the things of God's Spirit. Rather, this happens in hearts when the Holy Spirit is conceived through the word.✦1 Augustine says these very things in book 3 of the Hypognosticon. 3. Hypognosticon.
Natural Goods Under God's Hand
Free will operates only in the present life's natural goods, all of which depend entirely on God's governance.
We confess that free will belongs to all people, having indeed the judgment of reason — but not through which it would be fit, without God, to begin or even to complete the things that pertain to God. Rather, only in the works of the present life, both good and evil.2 I mean good things that arise from the good of nature — that is, wanting to work in a field, wanting to eat and drink, wanting to have a friend, wanting to have clothing, wanting to build a house, wanting to marry a wife, raising livestock, learning an art of various good things, or wanting whatever good pertains to the present life. All of these things don't subsist without divine governance — indeed, they are from him and through him, and began to be.
The Reach of Evil Desire
Even evil natural acts like idolatry and murder fall within the scope of the will's natural power.
But by 'evil' I mean things like wanting to worship an idol, wanting to commit murder, and so on.3
Condemning Pelagian Presumption
The Pelagians are condemned for claiming natural powers can love God or produce inner spiritual obedience without the Holy Spirit.
They condemn the Pelagians and others who teach that, without the Holy Spirit, we can love God above all things by the powers of nature alone. Likewise, that we can keep God's commandments as to the substance of the acts. For although nature can in some way produce outward works — it can, after all, restrain hands from theft and murder — yet it cannot produce inner motions such as the fear of God, trust in God, chastity, patience, and so on.
Read the original Latin
De libero arbitrio docent, quod humana voluntas habeat aliquam libertatem ad efficiendam civilem iustitiam, et deligendas res rationi subiectas. Sed non habet vim sine Spiritu sancto efficiendae iustitiae Dei, seu iustitiae spiritualis, quia animalis homo non percipit ea quae sunt Spiritus Dei, sed haec fit in cordibus, cum per verbum Spiritus sanctus concipitur. Haec totidem verbis dicit Augustinus lib. 3. Hypognosticon. Esse fatemur liberum arbitrium omnibus hominibus, habens quidem iudicium rationis, non per quod sit idoneum in iis quae ad Deum pertinent, sine Deo aut inchoare aut certe peragere, sed tantum in operibus vitae praesentis tam bonis quam etiam malis. Bonis dico, quae de bono naturae oriuntur, id est, velle laborare in agro, velle manducare et bibere, velle habere amicum, velle habere indumenta, velle fabricare domum, uxorem velle ducere, pecora nutrire, artem discere diversarum rerum bonarum, velle quicquid bonum ad praesentem pertinet vitam. Quae omnia non sine divino gubernaculo subsistunt, immo ex ipso et per ipsum sunt, et esse coeperunt.
Malis vero dico, ut est velle Idolum colere, velle homicidium, etc.
Damnant Pelagianos, et alios qui docent, quod sine Spiritu sancto, solis naturae viribus possimus Deum super omnia diligere. Item praecepta Dei facere, quoad substantiam actuum. Quanquam enim externa opera aliquo modo efficere natura possit, potest enim continere manus a furto, a caede, tamen interiores motus non potest efficere, ut timorem Dei, fiduciam erga Deum, castitatem, patientiam, etc.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Cor.2.14 — But the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Notes
- 1 ↩The contrast between 'iustitia Dei' (God's justice) and 'iustitia spiritualis' (spiritual justice) is compressed; the Latin 'animalis homo' is rendered 'natural person' to capture the Pauline sense of the unregenerate person.
- 2 ↩The phrase 'liberum arbitrium' is rendered 'free will' in line with the chapter title and confessional usage. The scope of the will's capacity is carefully delimited: it operates in temporal matters but not toward God without grace.
- 3 ↩The adversative force of vero here contrasts with the preceding list of bona (good uses of free will); ut introduces an explanatory content clause listing examples of mala, not a purpose clause.
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