CHAPTER IX.
Of Free Will.
I. God hath
endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that is neither forced,
nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined to good or evil.
II. Man,
in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to will and to do that which
is good and well-pleasing to God; but yet mutably, so that he might fall from
it.
III. 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.
IV. 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 corruption, he doth not perfectly, nor only, will
that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil.
V. The will
of man is made perfectly and immutable free to good alone, in the state of
glory only.
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