Westminster 1647

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Of Free Will

Of Free Will

Of Free Will - Chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith

  1. God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that it is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined to good or evil.206

    • 206. 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 is good and well-pleasing to God;207 but yet mutably, so that he might fall from it.208

    • 207. Ecclesiastes 7:29.
    • Genesis 1:26.
    • 208. Genesis 2:16,17.
    • 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;209 so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good,210 and dead in sin,211 is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.212

    • 209. Romans 5:6.
    • Romans 8:7.
    • John 15:5.
    • 210. Romans 3:10,12.
    • 211. Colossians 2:13.
    • Ephesians 2:1,5.
    • 212. John 6:44,45.
    • Ephesians 2:2-5.

  4. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, he freeth him from his natural bondage under sin,213 and, by his grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good;214 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.215

    • 213. Colossians 1:13.
    • John 8:34,36.
    • 214. Philippians 2:13.
    • Romans 6:18,22.
    • 215. Galatians 5:17.
    • Romans 7:15,18,19,21,23.

  5. The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone, in the state of glory only.216

    • 216. Ephesians 4:13.
    • Hebrews 12:23.
    • 1 John 3:2.
    • Jude 1:24.