Here is a fellow believer quoting some heretical notions of Edwards that represent what many Calvinists believe about "restraining grace" and their "god's" alleged "control." [Underlining emphasis mine]
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And finally
we come to Jonathan Edwards, whose words on restraining grace are often quoted
by others.
And now for
Edwards on common, restraining grace, from two of his sermons and one of his
discourses:
"There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles
reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire, if it were
not for God's restraints. There is laid in the very nature of carnal men, a
foundation for the torments of hell. There are those corrupt principles, in
reigning power in them, and in full possession of them, that are seeds of hell
fire. These principles are active and powerful, exceeding violent in their
nature, and if it were not for the restraining hand of God upon them, they
would soon break out, they would flame out after the same manner as the same
corruptions, the same enmity does in the hearts of damned souls, and would
beget the same torments as they do in them. The souls of the wicked are in
scripture compared to the troubled sea, Isaiah 57:20. For the present, God
restrains their wickedness by his mighty power, as he does the raging waves of
the troubled sea, saying, 'Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;' but if
God should withdraw that restraining power, it would soon carry all before it.
Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if
God should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make
the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is immoderate
and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men live here, it is like fire pent
up by God's restraints, whereas if it were let loose, it would set on fire the
course of nature; and as the heart is now a sink of sin, so if sin was not
restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into fiery oven, or a furnace of
fire and brimstone."
Does anyone
recognize that quote? It's from Edwards's most famous sermon, entitled
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Here's a quote
from a sermon entitled "True Grace as Distinguished from the Experience of
Devils":
"There are many in this world who are wholly destitute of
saving grace, who yet have common grace. They have no true holiness, but
nevertheless have something of that which is called moral virtue, and are the
subjects of some degree of the common influences of the Spirit of God. It is so
with those in general that live under the light of the gospel, and are not
given up to judicial blindness and hardness. Yea, those that are thus given up,
yet have some degree of restraining grace while they live in this world,
without which the earth could not bear them, and they would in no measure be
tolerable members of human society. But when any are damned, or cast into hell,
as the devils are, God wholly withdraws his restraining grace, and all merciful
influences of his Spirit whatsoever. They have neither saving grace nor common
grace, neither the Grace of the Spirit, nor any of the common gifts of the
Spirit, neither true holiness, nor moral virtue of any kind. Hence arises the
vast increase of the exercise of wickedness in the hearts of men when they are
damned. And herein is the chief difference between the damned in hell, and
unregenerate and graceless men in this world. Not that wicked men in this world
have any more holiness or true virtue than the damned, or have wicked men, when
they leave this world, any principles of wickedness infused into them: but when
men are cast into hell, God perfectly takes away his Spirit from them, as to
all its merciful common influences, and withdraws from them all restraints of
is Spirit and good providence."
And now here
is Edwards from his discourse entitled "Men Naturally Are God's
Enemies":
"Restraining grace a great privilege. If natural men are
God's enemies; then hence we may learn, how much we are indebted to God for his
restraining grace. If all natural men are God's enemies, what would they not
do, if they were not restrained! ... And hence natural men have nothing within
them, in their own nature, to restrain them from any thing that is but, and
therefore their restraint must not be owing to nature, but to restraining
grace. And therefore whatever wickedness we have been kept from, it is not
because we have not been bad enough to commit it; but it is God has restrained
us, and kept us back from sin. ... If we have seen others do things that we
never did; and if they have done worse than we, this is owing to restraining
grace. If we have not done as bad as Pharaoh, it is owing to divine restraints.
If we have not done as bad as Judas, or as the scribes and Pharisees, or as bad
as Herod, or Simon Magus, it is because God has restrained our corruption. If
we have ever heard or read of any that have done worse than he; if we have not
gone the length in sinning, that the most wicked pirates or carnal persecutors
have gone, this is owing to restraining grace. ... The world is full of
inhabitants; and almost all are God's enemies, his implacable and mortal
enemies. What therefore would they not do, what work would they not make, if
God did not restrain them? God's work in the restraint that he exercises over a
wicked world, is a glorious work. God's holding the reins upon the corruptions
of a wicked world, and setting bounds to their wickedness, is a more glorious
work, than his ruling the raving of the sea, and setting bounds to its proud
waves, and saying Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further. In hell, God lets
the wickedness of wicked spirits have the reins, to rage without restraint; and
it would be in a great measure upon earth as it is in hell, did not God
restrain the wickedness of the world. But in order to the better understanding
how it is owing to the restraining grace of God, that we are kept and withheld
from the highest acts of sin, I would here observe several things. 1. Whenever
men are withheld from sinning by the common influence of God's Spirit, they are
withheld by restraining grace. If sinners are awakened, and are made sensible
of the great guilt that sin brings, and that it exposes to a dreadful
punishment, under such circumstances they dare not allow themselves in wilful
sin: God restrains them by the convictions of his Spirit; and therein their
being kept from sin, is owing to restraining grace. And unawakened sinners that
live under the gospel, who are in a great measure secure, commonly have some
degrees of the influence of God's Spirit, with his ordinances influencing
natural conscience. And though they be not sufficient thoroughly to rouse them
out of security, or make them reform, yet they keep them from going such
lengths in sin, as otherwise they might do. And this is restraining grace. They
are indeed very stupid and sottish: yet they would be a great deal more so, if
God should let them wholly alone. 2. All the restraints that men are under from
the word and ordinances, is from grace. The word and ordinances of God might
have some degree of influence on men's natural principles of self-love, to
restrain them from sin, without any degree of the influence of God's Spirit:
but this would be the restraining grace of God; for God's goodness and mercy to
a sinful world appears in his giving his word to be a restraint on the
wickedness of the world. When men are restrained by fear of those punishments
that the word of God threatens; or by the warnings, the offers, and promises of
it; when the word of God works upon hope, or fear, or natural conscience, to
restrain men from sin, this is the restraining grace of God and is owing to his
mercy. It is an instance of God's mercy that he has revealed hell, to restrain
men's wickedness, and that he has revealed a way of salvation, and a
possibility of eternal life. This, which has great influence on men to keep
them from sin, is the restraining grace of God. 3. When men are restrained from
sin, by the light of nature, this also is of grace. ... In all these things,
the restraining grace of God appears. -- It is God's mercy to mankind, that he
has so ordered their state, that they should have so many things, by fear and a
regard to their own interest, to restrain their corruptions. It is God's mercy
to the world, that the state of mankind here differs from the state of the
damned in hell, where men will have none of these things to restrain them. The
wisdom of God, as well as the attributes of his grace, greatly appears in thus
disposing things for the restraining of the wickedness of men."
So there we
have some Calvinists on hardening, including how it ties in with common grace
and common operations of the Spirit. In any of these, did you find the truth
that God sovereignly, actively causes people to sin certain sins? No. Instead,
we found that they believe that God leaves men to their natural blindness, to
the hardness and unrestrained tendencies of their hearts, to the corruptions of
their nature, to their own wills and desires, by removing restraining grace,
withdrawing gracious influences, leaving them to themselves so they are free to
act according to their own depraved inclinations and the free exercise of their
evil dispositions. What does this all mean? You won't find any of these ideas
in the Bible, either expressed or implied. Well, for one thing, we can see that
these Calvinists only deny free will when it comes to a wicked person's
inability to do good. When their god removes some of his restraining grace, he
does not cause them to act in any particular way; instead, he just leaves them
to their own wills and desires so they are free to act according to their own
evil hearts.
