The Institution of Christian Religion

And now I have showed plainly enough that God is the author of all those things which these judges would have to happen only by his idle sufferance. He testifieth that he createth light and darkness,¹ that he formeth good and evil, that no evil happeneth which he himself hath not made. Let them tell me, I beseech them, whether he do willingly or against his will execute his own judgements? But as Moses teacheth, that he which is slain by the falling of an axe by chance, is delivered by God into the hand of the striker: so the whole church sayeth in Luke, that Herod and Pilate conspired to do those things, which the hand and purpose of God had decreed.² And truly if Christ were not crucified with the will of God, whence cam redemption to us? And yet the will of God neither doeth strive with it self, nor is changed, nor feigneth that he willeth not the thing that he will:³ but where it is but one and simple in him, it seemeth to us manifold, because according to the weakness of our wit we conceive not how God in divers manner willeth and willeth not one self thing. Paul, after that he hath said, that the calling of the Gentiles is a hidden mystery, within a little after sayeth further, that it was manifestly showed the manifold wisdom of God: because for the dullness of our wit the wisdom of God seemeth to us manifold, or (as the old interpreter hath translated it) of many fashions: shall we therefore dream that there is any variety in God himself, as though he either changeth his purpose, or dissenteth from himself? Rather when we conceive not how God will have the thing to be done, which he forbiddeth to do, let us call to mind our own weakness, and therewithal consider that the light wherein he dwelleth, is not without cause called Inaccessible,⁴ because it is covered with darkness. Therefore all godly and sober men will easily agree to this sentence of Augustine, that sometime man with good will willeth that which God willeth not. As if a good son willeth to have his father to live, whom God will have to dye. Again, it may come to pass, that man may will the same thing with an evil will, which God willeth with a good will. As if an evil son willeth to have his father to die, and God also willeth the same.