- libertas naturae: the freedom or liberty of nature; viz., the liberty that is proper to a being given its particular nature. No being, not even omnipotent God, can act contrary to its nature. In human beings, this libertas naturae can be distinguished into four distinct categories or states:
- (1) the libertas Adami, or freedom of Adam, before the fall — this is the ability or power not to sin, potentia non peccandi, and Adam and Eve are described, in the traditional Augustinian terminology, as posse non peccare (q.v.), able not to sin;
- (2) the libertas peccatorum, or freedom of sinners, a freedom that is proper to and confined within the limits of fallen nature and is therefore an absolute impotentia bene agendi, inability to do good or to act for the good, with the sinner described as non posse non peccare (q.v.), not able not to sin;
- (3) the libertas fidelium, or freedom of the faithful, a freedom of those regenerated by the Holy Spirit that is proper to the regenerate nature and is characterized by the potentia peccandi et bene agendi, the ability to sin and to do good; the regenerate, because of grace, can be described as posse peccare et non peccare, able to sin and not to sin;
- (4) the libertas gloriae, or liberty of glory, a freedom proper to the fully redeemed nature of the beati (q.v.), who as residents of the heavenly kingdom, as in patria (q.v.), are now characterized by impotentia peccare, inability to sin, and as non posse peccare, unable to sin. See homo; libertas a coactione; necessitas naturae.
- - Richard A. Muller, Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms: Drawn Principally from Protestant Scholastic Theology (Baker Academic, 2nd edition, Ebook edition created 2017), p. 176, emphases added
- "God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established." - Westminster Confession of Faith (Original Edition), 3:1, "Of God's Eternal Decree", on the Puritan Hard Drive
- "The Papists' hold that man, through his own free will, returns to God; and on this point is our greatest contest with them at this day." - John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:19)
- "I will go as far as Martin Luther, where he says, 'If any man ascribes anything of salvation, even the very least thing, to the free will of man, he knows nothing of grace, and he has not learned Jesus Christ rightly.'" - Charles Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol. 1, p. 395, on the Puritan Hard Drive
- "To the predestined ones before all ages, that is, before the world began, united and elect in a true passion, by the eternal will of the Father." - Ignatius (a student of John the Apostle)
- "CANON V. If any one saith, that, since Adam's sin, the free will of man is lost and extinguished; or, that it is a thing with only a name, yea a name without a reality, a figment, in fine, introduced into the Church by Satan; let him be anathema." - The (Roman Catholic) Council of Trent: Canons on Justification; Acts of the Council of Trent: With the Antidote, by John Calvin, is on the Puritan Hard Drive
- For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. - Rom. 9:15-16, KJV, emphases added
- A Jesuit: "Now we have planted the Sovereign Drug Arminianism, OUR FOUNDATION IS ARMINIANISM." - Arminianism Another Gospel (Free MP3 & PDF)
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- How Election Encourages Evangelism, With Information On Double Predestination, Reprobation, Calvinism, Arminianism, God's Sovereignty, the Will, Human Responsibility and Sanctification (Holiness) and by Dr. Joel Beeke, John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, Greg Price, John Owen, Dr. R.C. Sproul, Arthur Pink, Dr. Steven Dilday, Dr. Thomas Watson, Paul Washer, Jerome Zanchius, and Others (Free MP3s)
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- Postmillennialism: God's Sovereignty, Supremacy, and Victory In History and Prophecy (Free Reformation MP3s, Puritan Books and Calvinist Quotes), by Jonathan Edwards, John Murray, Samuel Rutherford, Dr. Steven Dilday, Iain Murray, Thomas Brooks, Greg Price, Pastor Jim Dodson, Dr. F.N. Lee, David Silversides and Others
- Arminianism In Worship Is Idolatry and Will Worship, and Leads To the Papal Antichrist, by Greg Price, Jim Dodson, Dr. Steven Dilday, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, W.J. Mencarow, John Owen, Greg Price, John Calvin, George Gillespie (Westminster Divine), J.A. Wylie, Richard Bennett, John Foxe, David Steele and Others (Free Reformed MP3s, Videos and Books
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- "Regarded by many as Jonathan Edwards' greatest work, The Freedom of the Will examines the nature and state of man's will, explaining that man's will is fallen and in need of God's grace for salvation. In 1754 Edwards published The Freedom of the Will, which although it was written long before the modern debate over Open Theism, thoroughly answers and demolishes the errors of this view. The full title of Edwards' great philosophical work is, "An Inquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of the Freedom of the Will which is Supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency, Virtue and Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise and Blame." His text was Romans 9:16, "It is not of him that willeth." One of the authors that he was refuting was Daniel Whitby, an Arminian minister in the Church of England. Whitby was known for being strongly anti-Calvinistic, and later gave evidence of strong Arian and Unitarian tendencies. In 1710 he had written his Discourse on the Five Points [of Calvinism]. What Edwards interacted with most was the fourth discourse on "The Liberty of the Will of Man in a State of Trial and Probation." Whitby's statement, "It is better to deny prescience [foreknowledge] than liberty." Is from that section. He also said that it is better to say that God does not know the future, or that God both does and doesn't know the future. One can see the "Openness of God" theology in these statements three hundred years ago. Edwards responded in The Freedom of the Will that man freely chooses whatever seems good to him, but that what seems good to him is always based on an inherent predisposition. That inherent predisposition has been foreordained and predestined by a sovereign God who does not inhibit man's ability to freely choose from a limited menu. For Edwards the issue regarding a totally free will is a simple one: either contingency and the liberty of self-determination must be run out of this world, or God will be shut out." (from Monergism Books)
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The Infinity of God, and the Beauty and Depth of Reformed Theology, by Stephen Charnock, Dr. R.C. Sproul, Charles Hodge, Joseph Pipa, Arthur Pink, Greg Price, John Gill, Dr. Curt Daniel, and Others (Free MP3s, Books, Etc.)
There Can Be No Compromise Between Calvinism & Arminianism, Refuting the Arminian Heresy, by Dr. Steven Dilday, A.W. Pink, Calvin, McMahon, Boston, Flavel, Martin, Charnock, Price, Schwertley, et al. (Free Reformed MP3s, Books, etc.)
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- John Calvin wrote, "If it be asked, then, by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing amongst us, and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them all the other parts, and consequently the whole substance of Christianity, viz., a knowledge first, of the right way to worship God; and secondly of the source from which salvation is to be sought. When these are kept out of view, though we may glory in the name of Christians, our profession is empty and vain." - Cited in, Carlos, Eire, War Against the Idols: The Reformation of Worship, p. 198, citing from Calvin's On the Necessity of Reforming the Church (free book online).
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- "Another instance in which posterity is recognized in covenant obligation is found in Joshua 9:15. This covenant was made between the children of Israel and the Gibeonites. Between four and five hundred years after that time, the children of Israel are visited with a very severe famine, in the days of David. 2 Sam. 21:1. And it is expressly declared by the Lord that, 'It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.' And at the same time, v. 2, that very covenant is recognized, and the breach of it is stated, as being the formal reason of the divine displeasure. Now, had it not been for this covenant, the extirpation of the Gibeonites would not have been imputed to Israel as a thing criminal; for they were comprehended in Canaanitish nations, which God had commanded them to root out." - William L. Roberts, The Reformed Presbyterian Catechism (1853, emphases added), pp. 139-140, on the Puritan Hard Drive.
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Providence, Fear & The Anxiety Of Unbelief by Charles Spurgeon, A.W. Pink, John Owen, David Silversides, Thomas Watson, John Flavel, Al Martin, Greg Price & Others (Free MP3s, Videos, etc.)
How To Have Zero Tolerance For Lust By Dr. Joel Beeke, John Calvin, Paul Washer, Arthur Pink, Greg Price, Matthew Henry, Dr. Michael Wagner, Dr. F.N. Lee, W.J. Mencarow, Dr. C. Matthew McMahon, Jeff Pollard, Josh Harris (Free MP3s)
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