(First
objection: the doctrine of election makes God a tyrant, 2-3)
2. God's will is
the rule of righteousness
Foolish men
contend with God in many ways, as though they held him liable to their
accusations. They first ask, therefore, by what right the Lord becomes angry at
his creatures who have not provoked him by any previous offense; for to devote
to destruction whomever he pleases is more like the caprice of a tyrant than
the lawful sentence of a judge. It therefore seems to them that men have reason
to expostulate with God if they are predestined to eternal death solely by his
decision, apart from their own merit. If thoughts of this sort ever occur to
pious men, they will be sufficiently armed to break their force even by the one
consideration that it is very wicked merely to investigate the causes of God's
will. For his will is, and rightly ought to be, the cause of all things that
are. For if it has any cause, something must precede it, to which it is, as it
were, bound; this is unlawful to imagine. For God's will is so much the highest
rule of righteousness that whatever he wills, by the very fact that he wills
it, must be considered righteous. When, therefore, one asks why God has so
done, we must reply: because he has willed it. But if you proceed
further to ask why he so willed, you are seeking something greater and higher
than God's will, which cannot be found. Let men's rashness, then, restrain
itself, and not seek what does not exist, lest perhaps it fail to find what
does exist. This bridal, I say, will effectively restrain anyone who wants to
ponder in reverence the secrets of his God. Against the boldness of the wicked
who are not afraid to curse God openly, the Lord himself will sufficiently
defend himself by his righteousness, without our help, when, by depriving their
consciences of all evasion, he will convict them and condemn them.
And we do not
advocate the fiction of "absolute might"; because this is profane, it
ought rightly to be hateful to us. We fancy no lawless god who is a law unto
himself. For, as Plato says, men who are troubled with lusts are in need of
law; but the will of God is not only free of all fault but is the highest rule
of perfection, and even the law of all laws.* But we deny that he is liable to
render an account; we also deny that we are competent judges to pronounce
judgments in this cause according to our own understanding. Accordingly, if we
attempt more than is permitted, let that threat of the psalm strike us with
fear: God will be the victor whenever he is judged by mortal man [Ps. 51:4; cf.
50:6, Vg.].
* "Therefore,
with reference to the sentiments of the Schoolmen concerning the absolute or
tyrannical will of God, I not only repudiate, but abhor them all, because they
separate the justice of God from his ruling power."
John Calvin
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