Of Free Will

67] The Eighteenth Article, Of Free Will, the adversaries receive, although they add some testimonies not

at all adapted to this case. They add also a declamation that neither, with the Pelagians, is too much to be

granted to the free will, nor, with the Manicheans, is all freedom to be denied it. 68] Very well; but what

difference is there between the Pelagians and our adversaries, since both hold that without the Holy

Ghost men can love God and perform God’s commandments with respect to the substance of the acts,

and can merit grace and justification by works which reason performs by itself, without the Holy Ghost?

69] How many absurdities follow from these Pelagian opinions, which are taught with great authority in

the schools! These Augustine, following Paul, refutes with great emphasis, whose judgment we have

recounted above in the article Of Justification. (see 119, 1 and 153, 106.) 70] Nor, indeed, do we deny

liberty to the human will. The human will has liberty in the choice of works and things which reason

comprehends by itself. It can to a certain extent render civil righteousness or the righteousness of works;

it can speak of God, offer to God a certain service by an outward work, obey magistrates, parents; in the

choice of an outward work it can restrain the bands from murder, from adultery, from theft. Since there is

left in human nature reason and judgment concerning objects subjected to the senses, choice between

these things, the liberty and power to render civil righteousness, are also left. For Scripture calls this the

righteousness of the flesh which the carnal nature, i.e., reason, renders by itself, 71] without the Holy

Ghost. Although the power of concupiscence is such that men more frequently obey evil dispositions

than sound judgment. And the devil, who is efficacious in the godless, as Paul says, Eph. 2, 2, does not

cease to incite this feeble nature to various offenses. These are the reasons why even civil righteousness

is rare among men, as we see that not even the philosophers themselves, who seem 72] to have aspired

after this righteousness, attained it. But it is false to say that he who performs the works of the

commandments without grace does not sin. And they add further that such, works also merit de congruo

the remission of sins and justification. For human hearts without the Holy Ghost are without the fear of

God; without trust toward God, they do not believe that they are heard, forgiven, helped, and preserved

by God. Therefore they are godless. For neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit, Matt. 7, 18.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, Heb. 11, 6.

73] Therefore, although we concede to free will the liberty and power to perform the outward works of

the Law, yet we do not ascribe to free will these spiritual matters, namely, truly to fear God, truly to

believe God, truly to be confident and hold that God regards us, hears us, forgives us, etc. These are the

true works of the First Table, which the heart cannot render without the Holy Ghost, as Paul says, 1 Cor.

2, 14: The natural man, i.e., man using only natural strength, receiveth not the things 74] of the Spirit of

God. (That is, a person who is not enlightened by the Spirit of God does not, by his natural reason,

receive any thing of God’s will and divine matters.] And this can be decided if men consider what their

hearts believe concerning God’s will, whether they are truly confident that they are regarded and heard

by God. Even for saints to retain this faith [and, as Peter says (1 Pet. 1, 8), to risk and commit himself

entirely to God, whom he does not see, to love Christ, and esteem Him highly, whom he does not see] is

difficult, so far is it from existing in the godless. But it is conceived, as we have said above, when

terrified hearts hear the Gospel and receive consolation [when we are born anew of the Holy Ghost].

75] Therefore such a distribution is of advantage in which civil righteousness is ascribed to the free will

and spiritual righteousness to the governing of the Holy Ghost in the regenerate. For thus the outward

discipline is retained, because all men ought to know equally, both that God requires this civil

righteousness [God will not tolerate indecent wild, reckless conduct], and that, in a measure, we can

afford it. And yet a distinction is shown between human and spiritual righteousness, between

philosophical doctrine and the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, and it can be understood for what there is need

of the Holy Ghost. 76] Nor has this distribution been invented by us, but Scripture most clearly teaches

it. Augustine also treats of it, and recently it has been well treated of by William of Paris, but it has been

wickedly suppressed by those who have dreamt that men can obey God’s Law without the Holy Ghost,

but that the Holy Ghost is given in order that, in addition, it may be considered meritorious.