[The Whole Body of Christian Religion, by Hieron Zanchius; Translated out of Latin by D. Ralph Winterton]
Girolamo Zanchi (Hieronymus Zanchius), that eminent Italian divine and confessor of the Reformed faith, was born in Alzano Lombardo in 1516, of noble descent, but soon orphaned and raised in the Augustinian order. Early trained in Aristotle and the sacred tongues, he was drawn to the Reformation under the ministry of Peter Martyr Vermigli, whose lectures on Romans especially wrought upon his soul. Zanchi diligently studied the writings of Calvin, Melanchthon, Bucer, and Luther, yet chiefly revered Calvin as the prince of exegetes. When persecution scattered the Italian Reformers, Zanchi fled to Strasbourg, where he became professor of Old Testament, noted for his rigorous, legal method and profound learning. His Calvinistic doctrine of predestination and irenic spirit in the Eucharistic controversies soon drew him into conflict with the Lutheran establishment, resulting in the Strasbourg Consensus. Yet, finding the compromise unsatisfactory and conscience bound, he departed, serving as pastor to Italian exiles in Chiavenna. In 1568, Zanchi was called to Heidelberg to succeed Ursinus as professor of theology. There he produced numerous scholastic works—most notably his Confession of the Christian Religion and De Natura Legis—defending Reformed doctrine with uncommon acumen. When the Palatinate turned Lutheran, he, with other faithful brethren, repaired to Neustadt, continuing his labors till his death in 1590. Zanchi’s scholarship, piety, and steadfastness rendered him a chief ornament of the Reformed churches—a “burning and shining light,” whose legacy endures in his writings and the testimony of those who heard and read him.
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Seeing that all men since the Fall and by reason of the Fall of Adam are conceived in sin, and are by nature the children of wrath, having no inclination at all to that which is good, but altogether prone to that which is evil: This is our belief and confession concerning the free-will of a man not regenerate. By the name of free-will, we understand the will of man so to be free, that from it we do not separate the faculty of understanding, by which we judge what is good and what bad; what to be chosen, and what to be refused.
In the question concerning free-will we distinguish between the power and strength of free-will, and the nature of man's will. The nature we call the natural and essential property thereof created in it by God, that whatsoever it willeth, whether it be good or bad, it willeth freely, voluntarily, willingly, and free from all manner of coaction. By the name of power we understand a power or faculty either innate, that is by nature; or else conferred, that is of grace, by which we are enabled by our understanding to know what is good and what evil; and by our will to choose the good and refuse the evil.
As therefore the substance of free-will perished not by reason of sin (for the understanding, and will, and the whole substance of the soul remained), so neither do we believe that the nature thereof perished; that whatsoever it willeth, as well evil as good, it willeth it freely, and without all manner of coaction. Thus it is true which Augustine saith, That free-will is always free (that is, from coaction), but yet that it is not always good.
Concerning our power in choosing of good, and refusing evil, we are of this opinion. We distinguish good and evil into three kinds: those which pertain to the animal or natural life, the rational or human life, the divine or Christian life. Of the first kind are those which are common to us almost with beasts, and belong to the soul by which we live and increase, and have sense and motion. Of the second kind are those which are proper to man, and belong to man's understanding; as arts as well mechanical as liberal, virtues moral and political, and last of all sciences of all sorts, and all philosophy. The third kind contains only those things which are good, and good actions, which are ordained for the kingdom of God, and a Christian life; as the true knowledge of God, faith, and the effects thereof, regeneration, obedience, charity, and others of the like kind.
To say nothing then of the power and strength of man since the Fall, in knowing and desiring such things as make for the preservation of this present life, and living here happily, as also in making choice of them and pursuing after them, if they be offered unto him; and in eschewing and avoiding the contrary: to say nothing, I say, of this; because it nothing belongs to religion and manners (although as concerning even this, daily experience teacheth us how great a depravation of judgment and appetite is in man, following as a punishment upon the Fall)—We believe, that, although by the mercy of God there is yet left some light in man's understanding, partly in discerning between right and wrong, good and bad in human affairs, and partly in acquiring the knowledge of many things, arts, sciences, and divers other virtues: Yet the lightthat is in the understanding, is so little, and the will so depraved, that unless the one be enlightened from above, and the other be inclined by God's special grace to choose the good propounded and to refuse the bad, he cannot acquire the knowledge of arts and sciences, and other virtues, which may be in men even unregenerate. And not without cause saith St. Augustine, That all the arts, sciences, and other virtues, or rather shadows and resemblances of virtues, which were in the Romans, and others not converted unto the faith, were in them the singular gifts of God.
For all infidels or unbelievers are not endued with the same or alike equal virtues and sciences: that even from thence it may manifestly appear that they are not the gifts of nature, but the gifts of God added unto nature.