Chapter 9
Of Free Will
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God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty and power of acting
upon choice, that it is neither forced, nor by any necessity of nature determined
to do good or evil.1
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Man, in his state of innocency had freedom, and power, to will, and to do,
that which was good, and well-pleasing to God;2 but yet
was mutable, so that he might fall from it.3
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Man, by his fall unto a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will
to any spiritual good accompanying salvation;4 so as a
natural man, being altogether averse from that good and dead in
sin,5 is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself
or to prepare himself thereunto.6
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When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, He
freeth him from his natural bondage under sin,7 and by
His grace alone, enables him freely to will, and do that which is spiritually
good;8 yet so that, by reason of his remaining corruptions,
he doth not perfectly nor only will that which is good, but doth also will
that which is evil.9
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The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone in the
state of glory only.10
Footnotes:
1. Mt 17:12; Jas 1:14; Dt 30:19.
2. Ecc 7:29.
3. Ge 3:6.
4. Ro 5:6; 8:7.
5. Eph 2:1,5.
6. Tit 3:3-5; Jn 6:44.
7. Col 1:13; Jn 8:36.
8. Php 2:13.
9. Ro 7:15,18-19,21,23.
10. Eph 4:13.
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Free Baptist Church of Limerick