Chapter IXOf Free-Will
Text of the 1646 manuscript
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Text public domain · U.S.
1946 transcription of the 1646 manuscript; the copyrighted editorial note is omitted. Source: Wikisource scan transcription.
The 1646 text is public domain; Wikisource omits the 1946 editorial note and identifies the remaining transcription as insufficiently transformative for a new copyright. Rights evidence. Verified 2026-07-14.
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.
Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom, and power to will and to do that which was good and well pleasing to God; but yet, mutably, so that he might fall from it.
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.
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.
The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone in the state of glory only.