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.a
(a 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,b but yet was unstable, so that he might
fall from it.c
(b Ecclesiastes 7:29;
c 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;d so as a natural man, being
altogether averse from that good, and dead in
sin,e is not able by his own strength to
convert himself, or to prepare himself
thereunto.f
(d Romans
5:6, Romans
8:7; e Ephesians
2:1,5; f 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,g and by his grace alone enables him freely
to will and to do that which is spiritually
good;h 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.i
(g Colossians 1:13, John
8:36; h Philippians 2:13;
i 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.j
(j Ephesians 4:13)