Chapter 43.—God Operates on Men’s Hearts to Incline Their Wills Whithersoever He Pleases.

From these statements of the inspired word, and from similar passages which it would take too long to quote in full, it is, I think, sufficiently clear that God works in the hearts of men to incline their wills whithersoever He wills, whether to good deeds according to His mercy, or to evil after their own deserts; His own judgment being sometimes manifest, sometimes secret, but always righteous. This ought to be the fixed and immoveable conviction of your heart, that there is no unrighteousness with God. Therefore, whenever you read in the Scriptures of Truth, that men are led aside, or that their hearts are blunted and hardened by God, never doubt that some ill deserts of their own have first occurred, so that they justly suffer these things. Thus you will not run counter to that proverb of Solomon: “The foolishness of a man perverteth his ways, yet he blameth God in his heart.”298    Prov. xix. 3. Grace, however, is not bestowed according to men’s deserts; otherwise grace would be no longer grace.299    Rom. xi. 6. For grace is so designated because it is given gratuitously.300    Latin, gratis. Now if God is able, either through the agency of angels (whether good ones or evil), or in any other way whatever, to operate in the hearts even of the wicked, in return for their deserts,—whose wickedness was not made by Him, but was either derived originally from Adam, or increased by their own will,—what is there to wonder at if, through the Holy Spirit, He works good in the hearts of the elect, who has wrought it that their hearts become good instead of evil?

43. His et talibus testimoniis divinorum eloquiorum, quae omnia commemorare nimis longum est, satis, quantum existimo, manifestatur, operari Deum in cordibus hominum ad inclinandas eorum voluntates quocumque voluerit, sive ad bona pro sua misericordia, sive ad mala pro meritis eorum, judicio utique suo aliquando aperto, aliquando occulto, semper tamen justo. Fixum enim debet esse et immobile in corde vestro, quia non est iniquitas apud Deum (Rom. IX, 14). Ac per hoc quando legitis in Litteris veritatis, a Deo seduci homines, aut obtundi vel obdurari corda eorum, nolite dubitare praecessisse mala merita eorum, ut juste ista paterentur: ne incurratis in illud proverbium Salomonis, Insipientia viri violat vias ejus, Deum autem causatur in corde suo (Prov. XIX, 3). Gratia vero non secundum merita hominum datur, alioquin gratia jam non est gratia (Rom. XI, 6): quia ideo gratia vocatur, quia gratis datur. Si autem potens est, sive per Angelos, vel bonos vel malos, sive quocumque alio modo operari etiam in cordibus malorum, pro meritis eorum, quorum malitiam non ipse fecit, sed aut originaliter tracta est ab Adam, aut crevit per propriam voluntatem: quid mirum est, si per Spiritum sanctum operatur in cordibus electorum suorum bona, qui operatus est ut ipsa corda essent ex malis bona?