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It is true that wicked men do many things contrary to God's will;
but so great is His wisdom and power, that all things which seem
adverse to His purpose do still tend towards those just and good ends
and issues which He Himself has foreknown. And consequently, when
God is said to change His will, as when, e.g., He becomes angry
with those to whom He was gentle, it is rather they than He who are
changed, and they find Him changed in so far as their experience of
suffering at His hand is new, as the sun is changed to injured eyes,
and becomes as it were fierce from being mild, and hurtful from being
delightful, though in itself it remains the same as it was. That also
is called the will of God which He does in the hearts of those who
obey His commandments; and of this the apostle says, "For it is
God that worketh in you both to will." As God's "righteousness"
is used not only of the righteousness wherewith He Himself is
righteous, but also of that which He produces in the man whom He
justifies, so also that is called His law, which, though given by
God, is rather the law of men. For certainly they were men to whom
Jesus said, "It is written in your law," though in another place
we read, "The law of Iris God is in his heart." According to
this will which God works in men, He is said also to will what He
Himself does not will, but causes His people to will; as He is said
to know what He has caused those to know who were ignorant of it. For
when the apostle says, "But now, after that ye have known God, or
rather are known of God," we cannot suppose that God there for the
first time knew those who were foreknown by Him before the foundation
of the world; but He is said to have known them then, because then
He caused them to know. But I remember that I discussed these modes
of expression in the preceding books. According to this will, then,
by which we say that God wills what He causes to be willed by others,
from whom the future is hidden, He wills many things which He does
not perform.
Thus His saints, inspired by His holy will, desire many things
which never happen. They pray, e.g., for certain individuals,
they pray in a pious and holy manner, but what they request He does
not perform, though He Himself by His own Holy Spirit has wrought
in them this will to pray. And consequently, when the saints, in
conformity with God's mind, will and pray that all men be saved, we
can use this mode of expression: God wills and does not perform,
meaning that He who causes them to will these things Himself wills
them. But if we speak of that will of His which is eternal as His
foreknowledge, certainly He has already done all things in heaven and
on earth that He has willed, not only past and present things, but
even things still future. But before the arrival of that time in which
He has willed the occurrence of what He foreknew and arranged before
all time, we say, It will happen when God wills. But if we are
ignorant not only of the time in which it is to be, but even whether it
shall be at all, we say, It will happen if God wills, not because
God will then have a new will which He had not before, but because
that event, which from eternity has been prepared in His unchangeable
will, shall then come to pass.
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