Chapter 9: Of Free Will
Scripture referenced in this chapter 33
- 1 Kings 8
- Psalms 14
- Psalms 51
- Ecclesiastes 7
- Ezekiel 11
- Ezekiel 36
- Matthew 6
- Matthew 11
- Matthew 22
- Luke 11
- John 3
- John 6
- John 15
- Romans 3
- Romans 5
- Romans 7
- Romans 8
- Romans 9
- Romans 11
- Romans 14
- 1 Corinthians 2
- 1 Corinthians 4
- 1 Corinthians 6
- 1 Corinthians 13
- Galatians 5
- Ephesians 2
- Colossians 2
- 2 Timothy 1
- Titus 1
- Titus 3
- Hebrews 11
- James 3
- 1 John 1
Question 1.
Has man by his fall into an estate of sin wholly lost all ability of will to any supernatural 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 to that?
Yes: (Romans 5:6; John 15:5; Romans 3:10, 12; John 6:44, 65).
Well then, do not the Pelagians and Socinians err, who maintain that the natural man, without supernatural and divine grace, is able to convert himself to God by his own strength?
Yes.
Do not likewise the Semipelagians, Papists, Arminians, and Lutherans err, who maintain that fallen man, corrupted with original sin, is partly able by his own strength (the grace of God assisting him) to prepare himself and turn himself to God?
Yes.
By what reasons are they confuted?
(1) Because the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14; Romans 8:7, 9). (2) Because all that the natural man does is sin, and cannot in any wise please God, because his works are not of faith, nor to the glory of God, as the law requires (Romans 14:23; Hebrews 11:6; Titus 1:15; Romans 3:10, 11, 12; Psalm 14:3; Romans 8:8). (3) Because a man has no good in himself whereby he may be differenced from the most flagitious, nor any good thing which he has not received (1 Corinthians 4:7). (4) Because conversion, grace, and salvation are not of him that runs or wills, but of God that shows mercy, and whom he will, he hardens (Romans 9:15, 16, 18; Romans 11:7, 8; Matthew 11:21, 22, 25). (5) Because the conversion of a natural man is the quickening of one dead (Ephesians 2:5; Colossians 2:13). It is a regeneration, or bearing again (John 3:5, 6). It is the creating of a new heart (Psalm 51:10). It is the taking away the heart of stone and the giving of a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 36:26). And therefore as God raised Christ from the dead, so also he raises us from the grave of sin by his own proper power (1 Corinthians 6:14). And (6) because God converts and calls men not by works of righteousness which they have done (Titus 3:4, 5), but according to his own purpose and grace which is given us in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 1:9).
Question 2.
Does a regenerate man, after his conversion, perfectly and only will that which is good?
No. (Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:15, 18, 19, 21, 23)
Well then, do not the Puritans (I do not mean the old Non-conformists), Antinomians, Anabaptists, and many Quakers err, who maintain that all the saints of God are free from every spot and blemish of sin?
Yes.
Do not likewise some of the Popish Church and Socinians err, who maintain that some Christians that are more advanced may come that length to be without any spot, blemish, and act of sin — or rather that some have really won that length?
Yes.
By what reasons are they confuted?
(1) Because in many things we offend all (James 3:2). (2) Because Christ commands us to seek daily remission of sins (Matthew 6:12; Luke 11:4). (3) Because there is not one just man upon the earth who does not sin (1 Kings 8:46; Ecclesiastes 7:20). (4) Because there is a continual war between the flesh and the Spirit, so that they (namely the regenerate) are not able to do that which they are willing and ought to do (Galatians 5:17). (5) Because the regenerate are not able to fulfill the first commandment, namely to love God with all their heart, with all their soul (Matthew 22:37, 38). For we know here but in part, and therefore we love but in part (1 Corinthians 13:9). Neither are the saints free of all those inordinate motions of concupiscence forbidden in the tenth commandment, as is evident from (Galatians 5:17) and from the experience of Paul and of all the other saints. (6) Because if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8, 9). But when that same Apostle says whoever is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God, he must mean in the first text of sin dwelling in the best of saints in this life, and therefore he expresses it by Hamartian Echein, peccatum habere, which signifies to have sin. In the second text he means of sin not only dwelling but reigning in us and made a trade of, and gone about with the full and hearty consent of the will, and is expressed by the words Hamartian poiein, to work sin and to make a trade of it, as men do in any employment they take delight in. (7) We see it from the grievous falls of the most eminent saints, as Noah, Lot, Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon, Asa, Jehoshaphat, and the [reconstructed: Disciples] of Christ.