Commentary on Romans, Biblical exegesis 1 · Chapter 9 · Section 3 · Subsection 16
Quest. 16. How it is said, It is not in him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but in God that sheweth merciemercy.
1. Origen and Heirom. ad Hedib. qu. 10. thinke that the Apostle speaketh here in the person of one that contradicteth and obiecteth against that which he had said: and Chrysostome saith, that the Apostle hero aliam obiectionem inducit, bringeth in an other obiection: But it is euident by this note of illation (so then) that the Apostle thus inferreth and includeth out of the former places of Scripture alleadged.
2. Origen and Photius, with other Greeke expositors, supplie here the word solum (onelyonly) as if the Apostle should meane, It is not (onelyonly) in him that runneth, or in him that willeth, but in God that sheweth merciemercy: and Origen will hauehave this sentence to be vnderstood comparatiuely, as those two other places, Psal. 127. Except the Lord build the house, they labour but in vaine, that build it: and 1. Cor. 3. Neither be that planteth is any thing, nor he that watereth, but God that giueth increase: But these places are not like: for the first is a ciuill action to build an house, wherein the will of man hath some libertie, though it cannot prosper without the blessing of God: and like as the outward ministerie of man is nothing auailable vntounto saluation, without the assistance and concurrence of the spirit, so neither can the will or endeauour of man doe any thing of it selfe toward the attaining of saluation, but all must be ascribed to Gods merciemercy: Martyr: and beside the antithesis or opposition, but in God that sheweth merciemercy, excludeth that glosse, onelyonly: for Gods merciemercy and mans will cannot in this opposition be ioyned as workers together, seeing the one is excluded, and the other admitted: Pareus: Calvin here also presseth Augustines reason, that if the Apostles words admitted any such sense, then they might as well be inuerted to say, It is not in God, that sheweth merciemercy, but in him that willeth and runneth, that is, it is not onelyonly in the one, no more then in the other.
3. Some of the Romanists, that will not hauehave mans free will vtterly excluded in the worke of saluation, hauehave this deuise: that although there be somewhat in him, that willeth and runneth, yet all is ascribed to Gods merciemercy: because miserecordia Dei praeuenit voluntarem hominis, &c. the merciemercy of God preuenteth the will of man, &c. and mans will beeing thus prepared, then worketh together with grace: Pererius numer. 46. taking vponupon him herein to confute Calvin: Thomas Aquine in his Commentarie here moouing this question, why, seeing that as free will is not sufficient without grace, so neither grace sufficeth without freewill, yet all is ascribed to Gods merciemercy, answeareth by a distinction; because the grace of God is agens principale, the principall agent, mans will, secundum & instrumentale, is the second agent, and the instrument, to the which the worke is not ascribed, but to the principall agent: as the axe is not said to make a chest, but the artificer that worketh with it. Contra. Pet. Martyr vseth the same similitude, but to a diuers ende: mans will indeede God vseth as an instrument, but not any goodnes in mans will, which it should of it selfe without grace: the will of man concurreth as a naturall instrument, in respect of the naturall facultie of calling: but it hath no inclination to that which is good, but as it pleaseth God to mooue it. Mans will then, is a naturall instrument of the action, but not a morall instrument of the goodnes of the action: this is wrought wholly by the merciemercy and grace of God: therefore the ordinarie glosse here concludeth well out of Augustine, restat vt totum Deo datur, it remaineth, that the whole be giuen vntounto God: volentem praevenit vt velit, & subsequitur …e frustra velit, he preuenteth man to make him will, and followeth him with his grace, that he doe not will in vaine, &c. And I preferre here the iudgement of Tolet and Bellarmine before other Romanists; the first inferreth out of this place, non fuit nisi ex sola voluntate Dei, the calling of the Gentiles was onelyonly of the will of God: annot. 23. the other likewise so expoundeth this place, that it is onelyonly the merciemercy of God, nothing at all in the will of man, that he perseuereth to the ende: lib. 2. de grat. c. 12.
4. Ambrose by merciemercy vnderstandeth the discerning iudgement of God, as he giueth instance in Dauid and Saul, how both of them asked pardon of God: but God discerned vter bono animo peteret, which of them asked of a good minde: and so he will hauehave the meaning to be, that it was not enough for a man to will and endeauour, vnlesse God did confirme and allow of his endeauour: But there is great difference betweene the merciemercy of God, and the iudgement and approbation of God: for but part of the worke is ascribed to the one, whereas the whole is due to the other: ex Mart.
5. Now touching the true meaning of the words: 1. neither with Anastasius qu. 59. are they to be restrained to Esaus running and coursing in the field to hunt for venison for his father. 2. nor yet with Tolet to Iacobs running to the flocke to fetch a kid, Gen. 27. the Apostles doctrine is more generall. 3. nor yet, as the same Tolet annot. 23. is this sentence onelyonly to be applied in generall to the calling of the Gentiles, and the reiection of the Iewes: but with August. epist. 101. doe we interpret this place of the particular predestination of eueryevery one, that it dependeth not vponupon the foresight of the will and works of men, but onelyonly on the merciemercy of God. 4. Osiander vnderstandeth it of the willing and running of naturall and vnregenerate men among the heathen; that they were not called in respect of any such will or endeauour: but as well the calling and running of regenerate, as vnregenerate men, are here excluded from beeing any cause of election. 5. Neither are those words to be deuided, as though the willer were one, and the runner an other: but the things onelyonly are discerned, by willing, is vnderstood the inclination and endeauour of the minde, by running the externall workes and labour, Gryneus. 6. And here the nominative case must be supplied, which Beza will hauehave to be election: that it is not in the willer or runner: and so Pareus: Haymo supplieth, the will is not of the willer, nor cursus, the running of the runner: Pet. Martyr better vnderstandeth both; that two things are here implied: that neither election is in respect of any thing in man, neither that he hath power to will or runne of himselfe. 7. And Beza well interpreteth, foreign, of him that willeth, not volentis, of the willing, to take away all ambiguitie: least the word foreign, God, might be thought to be supplied, in the two first, as well as in the last: as though the sense should be this, It is not of God that willeth or runneth, but that sheweth merciemercy.