The Institution of Christian Religion

also I say that it is created new, not that will then beginneth to be, but that it be turned from an evil will into a good. And this I affirm to be wholly done by God, because we are not able so much as to think,¹ as the same Apostle witnesseth: therefore in an other place he sayeth, that God doth not only help our weak will, or amend our perverse will, but that he worketh in us to will. Whereupon is easily gathered, that which I said before, that what so ever good is in will, it is the work of only grace. In which sense in an other place he sayeth,² that it is God that worketh all in all. Neither doth he there entreat of the universal government, but giveth unto God alone the praise of all good things that the faithful have. And in saying, all▪ truly he maketh God the author of spiritual life, even from the beginning to the end. Which self same thing he had taught before in other words,³ saying that the faithful are of God in Christ. where he plainly maketh mention of the new creation, wherein that ⟨image 100⟩which was of common nature before, is destroyed. For there is to be understanded a comparison between Adam and Christ, which in an other place he more plainly expresseth, where he teacheth that we are the work of God created in Christ to good works, which he hath prepared that we should walk in them. For he goeth about by this reason to prove, that our salvation is of free gift, because the beginning of all goodness, is at the second creation, which we obtain in Christ. But if there were any power of our selves, were it never so small, we should have also some portion of merit. But he to prove us altogether nothing worth, reasoneth that we have deserved nothing, because we are create in Christ to good works, which God hath prepared. In which words he signifieth again, that all parts of good works, even from the first motion, are proper to God only. For this reason, the Prophet after he had said in the Psalm that we are the workmanship of God, that there should be no partition, addeth by and by, We made not our selves. That he speaketh there of regeneration, which is the beginning of spiritual life, appeareth by the tenor of the text, where it by & by after followeth that we are his people & the flock of his pastures: