Chapter 9: Of Free Will
1. 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.
(
Matthew 17:12;
James 1:14;
Deuteronomy 30:19
)
2. Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to will
and to do that which was good and well-pleasing to God, but yet was
unstable, so that he might fall from it.
(
Ecclesiastes 7:29;
Genesis 3:6
)
3. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all
ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as
a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in
sin, is not able by his own strength to convert himself, or to prepare
himself thereunto.
(
Romans 5:6;
Romans 8:7;
Ephesians 2:1, 5;
Titus 3:3-5;
John 6:44
)
4. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state
of grace, he freeth him from his natural bondage under sin, and by his
grace alone enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually
good; yet so as 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.
(
Colossians 1:13;
John 8:36;
Philippians 2:13;
Romans 7:15, 18, 19, 21, 23
)
5. This will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to good
alone in the state of glory only.
(
Ephesians 4:13
)
Back to the 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith
