Please Help

[Ryan&Amber2013]

There is a phrase from the confession under free will that I just can't comprehend, and I've spent a few nights dwelling on it. I understand what is being said, I just can't understand the terms and what they actually mean. Please help me.

I. God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined to good or evil.

What do the words "absolute necessity of nature" mean?

I know it is saying the will is not influence by anything which will cause it to either sin or not, but what does "absolute", "necessity", and "nature" mean? Is there an example of what this could be?

Thank you so much. This has been making me crazy.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

It is speaking of the ontology, the be-ing of the thing, here: the soul. It is not in the created quality, by which it exists instead of not, that it should be determined from within to be good or evil. Adam was created in an upright condition, wherein by nature he had the ability to remain; but mutable, so that he might fall.

This statement does not touch the question of God's divine decree, by which he foreordains whatsoever comes to pass. Nor is it addressing the condition of sin, which now prevents man from ever fulfilling true good. In that case, there is a consequent necessity that he sins.

The Confession's statement is also contrary to the Romish doctrine, that man by created nature is concupiscent, that is inclined to sin; unless he is granted grace and kept by grace (donum superadditum) so as not to fall.

Remember also, to read the whole chapter together, so that the sweeping context evidently draws the full doctrine from Scripture together, but logically presented.

 

[Ryan&Amber2013]

It is speaking of the ontology, the be-ing of the thing, here: the soul. It is not in the created quality, by which it exists instead of not, that it should be determined from within to be good or evil. Adam was created in an upright condition, wherein by nature he had the ability to remain; but mutable, so that he might fall.

This statement does not touch the question of God's divine decree, by which he foreordains whatsoever comes to pass. Nor is it addressing the condition of sin, which now prevents man from ever fulfilling true good. In that case, there is a consequent necessity that he sins.

The Confession's statement is also contrary to the Romish doctrine, that man by created nature is concupiscent, that is inclined to sin; unless he is granted grace and kept by grace (donum superadditum) so as not to fall.

Remember also, to read the whole chapter together, so that the sweeping context evidently draws the full doctrine from Scripture together, but logically presented.

Thank you for the explanation. Can you please give me definitions or synonyms for these three words so I can better understand them:
Absolute =
Necessity =
Nature =

When looking at them on Webster, it is hard to tell exactly what the most accurate meaning of them is that the assembly had in mind. Thanks!

 

[MW]

William Cunningham, The Reformers, 499:

on investigating the usus loquendi upon this point of the Calvinistic divines of the seventeenth century, — which must be the standard for the interpretation of the Westminster Confession, — we find that by necessity of nature, as applied to this matter of the will, they meant a necessity arising from, or connected with, those essential qualities of the will, in virtue of which it becomes one of the main things that distinguish men from mere material objects, and from the irrational animals. It is the nature of the will of man, that it implies the possession and exercise of a rational, deliberate, unconstrained, spontaneous choice. Without this, will would be no will; and without will, in this sense, man would not be a responsible being, and would sink to the level of mere matter, or of the beasts that perish.

 

[Ryan&Amber2013]

Thank you very much. I think that brings more clarity to the subject. I'm glad to see I wasn't alone in thinking this way.