Chapter II.—The Blame of Our Misdeeds Not to Be Cast Upon God.  The One Power Which Rests with Man is the Power of Volition.

What moderation, in short, is there in that utterance, “The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as seemed (good) to the Lord, so hath it been done!”9    Job i. 21 (in LXX. and Vulg.).  And accordingly, if we renew nuptials which have been taken away, doubtless we strive against the will of God, willing to have over again a thing which He has not willed us to have.  For had He willed (that we should), He would not have taken it away; unless we interpret this, too, to be the will of God, as if He again willed us to have what He just now did not will.  It is not the part of good and solid faith to refer all things to the will of God in such a manner as that; and that each individual should so flatter10    Adulari.  Comp. de Pæn., c. vi. sub init.; ad Ux., b. i. c. iv. ad init. himself by saying that “nothing is done without His permission,” as to make us fail to understand that there is a something in our own power.  Else every sin will be excused if we persist in contending that nothing is done by us without the will of God; and that definition will go to the destruction of (our) whole discipline, (nay), even of God Himself; if either He produce by11    Or, “from”—de. His own will things which He wills not, or else (if) there is nothing which God wills not.  But as there are some things which He forbids, against which He denounces even eternal punishment—for, of course, things which He forbids, and by which withal He is offended, He does not will—so too, on the contrary, what He does will, He enjoins and sets down as acceptable, and repays with the reward of eternity.12    i.e., eternal life:  as in de Bapt., c. ii.; ad Ux., b. i. c. vii. ad init.  And so, when we have learnt from His precepts each (class of actions), what He does not will and what He does, we still have a volition and an arbitrating power of electing the one; just as it is written, “Behold, I have set before thee good and evil:  for thou hast tasted of the tree of knowledge.”  And accordingly we ought not to lay to the account of the Lord’s will that which lies subject to our own choice; (on the hypothesis) that He does not will, or else (positively) nills what is good, who does nill what is evil.  Thus, it is a volition of our own when we will what is evil, in antagonism to God’s will, who wills what is good.  Further, if you inquire whence comes that volition whereby we will anything in antagonism to the will of God, I shall say, It has its source in ourselves.  And I shall not make the assertion rashly—for you must needs correspond to the seed whence you spring—if indeed it be true, (as it is), that the originator of our race and our sin, Adam,13    De Pæn., c. xii. ad fin. willed the sin which he committed.  For the devil did not impose upon him the volition to sin, but subministered material to the volition.  On the other hand, the will of God had come to be a question of obedience.14    In obaudientiam venerat.  In like manner you, too, if you fail to obey God, who has trained you by setting before you the precept of free action, will, through the liberty of your will, willingly turn into the downward course of doing what God nills:  and thus you think yourself to have been subverted by the devil; who, albeit he does will that you should will something which God nills still does not make you will it, inasmuch as he did not reduce those our protoplasts to the volition of sin; nay, nor (did reduce them at all) against their will, or in ignorance as to what God nilled.  For, of course, He nilled (a thing) to be done when He made death the destined consequence of its commission.  Thus the work of the devil is one:  to make trial whether you do will that which it rests with you to will.  But when you have willed, it follows that he subjects you to himself; not by having wrought volition in you, but by having found a favourable opportunity in your volition.  Therefore, since the only thing which is in our power is volition—and it is herein that our mind toward God is put to proof, whether we will the things which coincide with His will—deeply and anxiously must the will of God be pondered again and again, I say, (to see) what even in secret He may will.

CAPUT II.

Quam denique modesta illa vox est: Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit (Job, I, 21), ut Domino visum est, ita factum est: et ideo si nuptias sublatas restauremus, sine dubio contra voluntatem Dei nitimur, volentes habere rursus, quod habere nos noluit. Si enim voluisset, non abstulisset. Nisi si et hoc voluntatem Dei interpretamur, quasi et rursus nos voluerit habere quod jam noluit . Non est bonae et solidae fidei, sic omnia ad voluntatem Dei referre, et ita adulari sibi unumquemque, dicendo nihil fieri sine nutu ejus, ut non intelligamus esse aliquid in nobis 0915C ipsis. Caeterum, excusabitur omne delictum, si contenderimus nihil fieri in nobis sine Dei voluntate; et ibit definitio ista in destructionem totius disciplinae, etiam ipsius Dei, si aut quae non vult de sua voluntate producit , aut nihil est quod Deus non vult. Sed quomodo vetat quaedam, quibus 0916A etiam supplicium aeternum comminatur? utique enim quae vetat non vult, a quibus et offenditur: sicut et quae vult, praecipit, et accipit , et aeternitatis mercede dispungit. Itaque cum utrumque ex praeceptis ejus didicerimus, quid velit, et quid nolit; tamen nobis est voluntas et arbitrium eligendi alterum, sicut scriptum est: Ecce posui ante te bonum et malum (Eccles., XV, 18), gustasti enim de arbore agnitionis. Et ideo non debemus quod nostro expositum est arbitrio, in Dei referre voluntatem , quos vult ipse et velle , qui malum non vult. Ita nostra est voluntas, cum malum volumus adversus Dei voluntatem, qui bonum vult. Porro, si quaeris unde venit ea voluntas, qua quid volumus adversus Dei voluntatem, dicam : ex nobis ipsis. Nec temere; semini enim tuo respondeas necesse est: siquidem ille princeps et generis et delicti, 0916B Adam, voluit quod deliquit. Neque enim diabolus voluntatem ei imposuit deliquendi, sed materiam voluntati subministravit. Caeterum, voluntas Dei in obaudientiam venerat. Proinde et tu, si non obaudieris Deo, qui te, proposito praecepto, liberae potestatis instituit, per voluntatis libertatem volens deverges in id quod Deus non vult, et ita te putas a diabolo subversum, qui etsi quid vult te velle quod Deus non vult, non tamen facit ut et velis; quia nec tunc istos protoplastos ad voluntatem delicti subegit; imo neque invitos, neque ignorantes quid Deus nollet; utique enim nolebat fieri, cum admisso mortem destinabat. Ita diaboli opus unum est, tentare quod in te est, an velis. At ubi voluisti, sequitur ut te sibi subigat , non operatus in te voluntatem, sed nactus occasionem voluntatis. Igitur 0916C cum solum sit in nobis velle, et in hoc probetur nostra erga Deum mens, an ea velimus quae cum voluntate ipsius faciant .