A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion/Chapter 22
XXII. Free-Will.
IT is an important doctrine of the true christian religion, that man is gifted with, and continually preserved in, a state of freedom of determination in things spiritual, equally as well as in things natural; since without such freedom man would possess neither faith nor charity; nay, the Word itself, with all it's injunctions to repentance and amendment of life, would be of no use, and consequently no church could possibly exist. But by virtue of free-will in spiritual things, the conjunction of man with the Lord, and of the Lord with man, may be reciprocally effected; and thus he has the capacity of being reformed, regenerated, and finally saved.
This freedom of determination, which was originally granted to man, and without which he could not have been created a man, nor subsist a single moment as a man, but would be a kind of statue, or mere piece of machinery, consists in the faculty or capacity, continually given or rather lent to him, of willing and doing, of thinking and speaking, in all appearance as of himself. On this account it was, that two trees were placed in the garden of Eden, the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and that he was allowed to eat of the one, but cautioned against eating of the other; by which is signified, that he had the power of turning himself either to good, or to evil. Thus man, by the abuse of his best faculties, liberty and rationality, became himself the author of evil; which abuse therefore can never be chargeable upon the Giver of those faculties, as the contrary doctrine of absolute predestination and arbitrary pre-decision seems necessarily to imply. But we have already spoken on this subject in art. VI. entitled, The Origin of Evil, and the Fall of Man.
All liberty has relation to love, consequently to the will, and so to the life of man. Hence whoever acts from liberty, appears to act as from himself; and this appearance is equally the same, whether he do what is good, or what is evil. To do evil freely, is called liberty, but it is indeed no better than slavery, man being in such case a mere slave to his corrupt appetites and passions, that is, to self-love and the love of the world. But to do good freely, is true liberty, because it proceeds from love to the Lord. and love to our neighbour. This is what the Lord teaches, when he says, " Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin; and the servant abideth not in the house for ever; but the Son abideth for ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed," John viii. 34 to 36.
Whatever is done by man in freedom, becomes his own, and remains with him. But whatever he does by the compulsion of another, being in disagreement with his own will, cannot be said to be his own act, but the act of the person who compels him. Hence it is, that repentance, to be effectual, must be performed by man, while he is in a state of freedom, undisturbed by fear: and hence also a free service, proceeding from a willing heart, is acceptable to the Lord, but not a forced service: wherefore it is written of the children of Israel, that "they brought a willing offering unto Jehovah, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing," Exod. xxxv. 29. And the Psalmist David says, "I will freely sacrifice unto thee; I will praise thy name, O Jehovah, for it is good," Ps. liv. 6.
