7.

But, since certain declarations of the Old Testament and of the New lead to the opposite conclusion--namely, that it does not depend on ourselves to keep the commandments and to be saved, or to transgress them and to be lost--let us adduce them one by one, and see the explanations of them, in order that from those which we adduce, any one selecting in a similar way all the passages that seem to nullify free-will, may consider what is said about them by way of explanation. And now, the statements regarding Pharaoh have troubled many, respecting whom God declared several times, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart." ¹ For if he is hardened by God, and commits sin in consequence of being hardened, he is not the cause of sin to himself; and if so, then neither does Pharaoh possess free-will. And some one will say that, in a similar way, they who perish have not free-will, and will not perish of themselves. The declaration also in Ezekiel, "I will take away their stony hearts, and will put in them hearts of flesh, that they may walk in My precepts, and keep My commandments," ² might lead one to think that it was God who gave the power to walk in His commandments, and to keep His precepts, by His withdrawing the hindrance--the stony heart, and implanting a better--a heart of flesh. And let us look also at the passage in the Gospel--the answer which the Saviour returns to those who inquired why He spake to the multitude in parables. His words are: "That seeing they might not see; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest they should be converted, and their sins be forgiven them." ³ The passage also in Paul: "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." ⁴ The declarations, too, in other places, that "both to will and to do are of God;" ⁵ "that God hath mercy upon whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth. Thou wilt say then, Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will?" "The persuasion is of Him that calleth, and not of us." ⁶ "Nay, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that hath formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" ⁷ Now these passages are sufficient of themselves to trouble the multitude, as if man were not possessed of free-will, but as if it were God who saves and destroys whom He will.