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244 THE HISTORY OF HERESIES,
shall hear my voice, and open to me the door,
I will come in to
him" (Apoc. iii, 20). There are many other texts of a like
nature, but these are sufficient to prove that man has preserved
his free will after the fall. Luther objects that text of Isaias,
(xli, 23) :
" Do also good or evil, if you can," but he ought to
remember that in the text the Prophet is
speaking not of man,
but of idols, which, as David said, could do nothing :
"
They
have mouths and speak not, they have eyes and see not" (Psalms,
cxiii, 5).
3. That being the case, it is not enough, as Luther, Calvin,
and the Jansenists say, to have the liberty coactionis, that is,
freedom from restraint, that our actions may be meritorious or
otherwise. This is exactly the third Proposition of Jansenius,
" condemned as heretical : Ad merendum, et dcmerendum in
statu naturae lapsas non requitur in homine libertas a necessitate,
sed sufficit libertas a coactione." In this manner we might say
that even the beasts have free will, since, without any violence,
they are carried on spontaneously (after their way) to seek the
pleasures of sense. It is necessary, however, for the true liberty
of man, that he should have the liberty necessitate, so that he
may choose whatever he pleases, as St. Paul (I. Cor. vii, 37)
of his own
says, "having no necessity, but having the power
will," and it is this will that is required both for merit and
demerit. St. Augustin, speaking of sin (2), says :
"
Pcccatum
usque adeo voluntarium (that is free, as he afterwards explains it)
malum est, ut nullo modo sit peccatum si non sit voluntarium."
And the reason is, says the Saint, that God judged that his ser
vants would be better if they served him freely :
"
Servos suos
meliores esse Deus judicavit, si ei servirent liberaliter, quod nullo
modo fieri posset, si non voluntate, sed necessitate servirent."
4. They say that it is God who operates in us all the good
which we perform, as the Scriptures teach (I. Cor. xii, 6) :
same God who worketh all in all ;"
works for us" (Isaias, xxvi, 12) ;
" And
" The
" Thou hast wrought all our
I will cause you to walk
in my commandments" (Ezechiel, xxxvi, 27). We answer, that
there is no doubt but that free will after the fall was not, indeed,
extinguished, but still was weakened, and inclined to evil, as the
(2) St. Aug.
/. de Ver. Rcl. c. 14.