Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The Savoy Declaration of Faith on Freewill

The Savoy Declaration of Faith is a reassertion of the Westminster Confession of Faith with some minor alterations pertaining to Congregational Churches.  Here is the section on Freewill:

9.1 God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, and power of acting upon choice, that it is neither forced, nor, by any absolute necessity of nature, determined to do good or evil.

9.2 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, mutably, so that he might fall from it.

9.3 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.

9.4 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.

9.5 The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to do good alone in the state of glory only.