First, I answer that this was said before the fall of man, when the things which God had made were very good. But it quickly follows in the third chapter, how man was made evil, deserted by God, and left to himself. All men are born from this man, so corrupted, and thus are born wicked — Pharaoh among the rest.
As Paul says, “We were all by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” God therefore made Pharaoh wicked; that is, out of a wicked and corrupted seed. As he says in the Proverbs of Solomon, “The Lord has made all things for himself, yes, even the wicked man for the day of evil” (not indeed by creating wickedness in him, but by forming him out of an evil seed and ruling him.) It is not a just conclusion therefore, that ‘God formed the wicked man, therefore he is not wicked,’ For how can it be that he is not wicked, springing as he does from a wicked seed? As he says in Psalm 51, “Behold I was conceived in sins.” And Job says, “Who can make clean that which has been conceived of unclean seed?” For although God does not make sin, still he does not cease to form and to multiply a nature which has been corrupted by sin, through the withdrawal of the Spirit — as if a carpenter made statues out of rotten wood. Thus, men are made just such as their nature is, through God’s creating and forming them of that nature. 498
Secondly, I answer that if you would have those words, ” very good,” understood of the works of God after the fall, then observe that they are not spoken of us, but of God. He does not say, man saw the things which God had made, and they were very good.
Many things seem very good to God, and are so, which appear to us to be very bad, and are so. Thus, afflictions, calamities, errors, hell — indeed all the best works of God — are very bad and damnable in the sight of the world. What is better than Christ and the Gospel? But what more hateful to the world? How those things are then good in the sight of God, which are evil in our eyes, is a mystery known to God only, and to those who see with God’s eyes; that is, those who have the Spirit. But there is no need of so subtle a strain of argumentation just yet. 499 The former answer is sufficient for the present.
SECT. 11. How God works evil in us, considered.
Perhaps it is asked, how God can be said to work evil in us; for example, to harden us, to give men up to their lusts, to tempt, and the like? Truly, we should be contented with the words of God and simply believe 500 what they affirm, since the works of God quite surpass all description. But in order to humour reason, which is another name for human folly, I am content to be silly and foolish, and if I can, try to move her at all by turning babbler.501
In the first place, even reason and Diatribe concede that God works all things in all things; and that nothing is effected or efficacious without him. He is omnipotent; and this pertains to his omnipotence, as Paul says to the Ephesians (Eph 1.21).
Satan, then, and man having fallen from God, and being deserted by Him, cannot will good; that is, he cannot will those things which please God, or which God wills. Men are turned perpetually towards their own desires, so that they can only seek what is their own, and not His. 502 This will and nature of theirs, therefore, which is thus averse to God, still remains a something. Satan and the wicked man are not a nothing, having no nature or will, even though they have a nature which is corrupt and averse to God. This remainder of nature of which we speak, therefore, in the wicked man and in Satan — seeing it is the creation and work of God — is not less subject to omnipotence and to divine actings, than all the other creations and works of God.
Since then God moves and actuates all things in all things, it can only be that He also moves and acts in Satan and in the wicked. But He acts in them according to what they are, and what he finds them to be. That is, since they are averse to Him and wicked, and are hurried along by this impulse of the divine omnipotence, they do only those things which are averse to him and wicked. Just as a horseman, driving a horse which is lame in one or two of his feet, drives him according to his make and power. And so the horse goes awry. But what can the horseman do? He drives the horse, such as he is, in a drove of sound horses; he makes him go awry, and the others go well; 503 it cannot be otherwise, unless the horse is cured. You see by this illustration, how it is that when God works in bad men and by bad men, evil is the result; but it cannot be that God does wickedly, even though he works evil by the agency of evil men. This is because, being good himself, He cannot do wickedly. 504
But still, he uses evil instruments which cannot escape the seizure and impulse of his power. The fault that evil is done, therefore, is in the instruments, which God does not allow to remain idle; meanwhile, God himself is the impeller of them. It is just as if a carpenter were to cut badly by cutting with an axe that is ‘toothed and sawed.’ Hence it arises that the wicked man cannot help but go astray and commit sin continually; for being seized and urged by the power of God, he is not allowed to remain idle; but he wills, desires, and acts according to what he is. 505
SECT. 12. How God hardens.
These are sure and settled verities if, in the first place, we believe that God is omnipotent; and in the second place, that the wicked man is the creature of God. But being averse to God, and left to himself without the Spirit of God, man cannot will or do good. God’s omnipotence makes the wicked man unable to escape the moving and driving of God; but being necessarily subjected to God, he obeys him. Still, his corruption or aversion to God, makes him unable to be moved and dragged along according to good.
God cannot relinquish the exercise of his omnipotence just because of the wicked man’s aversion to Him; nor can the wicked man change his aversion into good will. Thus it comes to pass that, of necessity, the man errs and sins perpetually, until he is rectified by the Spirit of God. However, in all these things, Satan yet reigns in peace and keeps his palace in quietness, in subordination to this impulse of the divine omnipotence. 506
After this follows the business of hardening; which is done in the following way. The wicked man is altogether occupied with himself and his own matters, as I have said (and the same is also true of Satan, his prince). He does not inquire after God, nor care for those things which are God’s; but he seeks his own wealth, his own glory, his own works, his own wisdom, his own power — in short, a kingdom, of his own. And what he wants is to enjoy these things in peace. Now, if anyone resists him, or has a mind to diminish anything from these possessions, then his aversion, indignation, and rage with which he is stirred up against his adversary, are no less vehement than his desire with which he pursues these possessions. And he is just as incapable of restraining his rage, as he is of restraining his desire and pursuit; and he is just as incapable of restraining his desire, as he is of putting an end to his existence. He is incapable of these, inasmuch as he is the creature of God, even though a vitiated 507 one.
This is the history of that rage of the world against God’s Gospel. That which is stronger than the creature, to conquer this quiet possessor of the palace, comes by the Gospel. It condemns those desires for glory and riches, and for his own wisdom and righteousness — in short, everything in which he confides. This same provoking of the wicked — effected by God’s saying or doing something contrary to their wishes — is their hardening and burdening.
For, though they are averse of themselves, through the very corruption of their nature, they are also turned still more out of the way, and made even worse, by being resisted and robbed under their averseness. Thus, when God was proceeding to snatch his usurped dominion out of the hands of wicked Pharaoh, He provoked him, and still more hardened and weighed down his heart. God did this by assailing him with the words of Moses, who threatened to take away his kingdom, and to withdraw the people from his dominion. Meanwhile, God did not give him the Spirit within, but allowed his own wicked and corrupt nature, in which Satan was reigning, to grow red hot — to boil over, to rage, and to attain its height, accompanied with
