Sect. CLVI. — NOW let us come to JOHN, who is also a most copious and powerful subverter of “Free-will.”

He, at the very first outset, attributes to “Free-will” such blindness, that it cannot even see the light of the truth: so far is it from possibility, that it should endeavour after it. He speaks thus, “The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” (John i. 5). And directly afterwards, “He was in the world, and the world knew Him not; He came unto His own, and His own knew Him not.” (Verses 10-11).

What do you imagine he means by “world?” Will you attempt to separate any man from being included in this term, but him who is born again of the Holy Spirit? The term “world” is very particularly used by this apostle; by which he means, the whole race of men. Whatever, therefore, he says of the “world,” is to be understood of the whole race of men. And hence, whatever he says of the “world,” is to be understood also of “Free-will,” as that which is most excellent in man. According to this apostle, then, the “world” does not know the light of truth; the “world” hates Christ and His; the “world” neither knows nor sees the Holy Spirit; the whole “world” is settled in enmity; all that is in the “world,” is “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” “Love not the world.” “Ye (saith He) are not of the world.” “The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil.”

All these and many other like passages are proclamations of what “Free-will’ is — ‘the principal part’ of the world, ruling the empire of Satan! For John also himself speaks of the world by antithesis; making the “world” to be, every thing in the world which is not translated into the kingdom of the Spirit. So also Christ saith to the apostles, “I have chosen you out of the world, and ordained you,” &c, (John xv. 16). If therefore, there were any in the world, who, by the powers of “Free-will, “endeavoured so as to attain unto good, (which would be the case if “Free-will” could do any thing) John certainly ought, in reverence for these persons, to have softened down the term, lest, by a word of such general application, he should involve them in all those evils of which he condemns the world. But as he does not this, it is evident that he makes “Free-will” guilty of all that is laid to the charge of the world: because, whatever the world does, it does by the power of “Free-will”: that is, by its will and by its reason, which are its most exalted faculties. — He then goes on,

“But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God; even to them that believe on His Name. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John i. 12-13).

Having finished this distinctive division, he rejects from the kingdom of Christ, all that is “of blood,” “of the will of the flesh,” and “of the will of man.” By “blood,” I believe, he means the Jews; that is, those who wished to be the children of the kingdom, because they were the children of Abraham and of the Fathers; and hence, gloried in their “blood.” By “the will of the flesh,” I understand the devoted efforts of the people, which they exercised in the law and in works: for “flesh” here signifies the carnal without the Spirit, who had indeed a will, and an endeavour, but who, because the Spirit was not in them, were carnal. By “the will of man,” I understand the devoted efforts of all generally, that is, of the nations, or of any men whatever, whether exercised in the law, or without the law. So that the sense is — they become the sons of God, neither by the birth of the flesh, nor by a devoted observance of the law, nor by any devoted human effort whatever, but by a Divine birth only.

If therefore, they be neither born of the flesh, nor brought up by the law, nor prepared by any human discipline, but are born again of God, it is manifest, that “Free-will” here profits nothing. For I understand “man,” to signify here, according to the Hebrew manner of speech, any man, or all men; even as “flesh,” is understood to signify, by antithesis, the people without the Spirit: and “the will of man,” I understand to signify the greatest power in men, that is, that ‘principal part,’ “Free-will.”

But be it so, that we do not dwell thus upon the signification of the words, singly; yet, the sum and substance of the meaning is most clear; — that John, by this distinctive division, rejects every thing that is not of Divine generation; since he says, that men are made the sons of God none otherwise than by being born of God; which takes place, according to his own interpretation — by believing on His name! In this rejection therefore, “the will of man,” or “Free-will,” as it is not of divine generation, nor faith, is necessarily included. But if “Free-will” avail any thing, “the will of man” ought not to be rejected by John, nor ought men to be drawn away from it, and sent to faith and to the new birth only; lest that of Isaiah should be pronounced, against him, “Woe unto you that call good evil.” Whereas now, since he rejects alike all “blood,” “the will of the flesh,” and “the will of man,” it is evident, that “the will of man” avails nothing more towards making men the sons of God, than “blood” does, or the carnal birth. And no one doubts whether or not the carnal birth makes men the sons of God; for as Paul saith, “They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God;” (Rom. ix. 8), which he proves by the examples of Ishmael and Esau.