(note: This node is 9th in a series of 33 nodes. for the entire series, please see the metanode
Westminster Confession of Faith.)
CHAPTER 9 - 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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Westminster Confession of Faith - Chapter 8 | on to
Westminster Confession of Faith - Chapter 10