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1. |
God has 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, (set and fixed) to do good or evil. This does not mean that the will of any man is neutral; to the contrary the will of righteous men by God's regenerating power and grace is set upon good, and the will of the wicked men by virtue of the fall into sin and their corrupted nature is set upon evil.
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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, but yet was unstable, so that he might fall from it.
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3. |
Man, by his fall into a state of sin, has 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.
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When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, he frees 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 corruptions, he does not perfectly, nor only will, that which is good, but does also will that which is evil.
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5. |
This will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone in the state of glory only.
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