Call it no more free-will, but slavish lust; free to evil, but free from good, till regenerating grace loosens the bands of wickedness.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that true freedom is often confused with the ability to choose evil over good, which is not genuine freedom but a form of bondage to one's desires.
In this quote, Thomas Boston emphasizes the concept of free will as it relates to moral choice, arguing that what many regard as freedom is actually a form of enslavement to selfish desires. He asserts that without the transformative power of grace, individuals remain bound to their vices, losing the true capacity for goodness, which is not simply the absence of restriction but a positive alignment towards moral actions and virtues.
In practice
During a philosophical debate on morality, one could use this quote to illustrate the importance of understanding true freedom.
Sinners in their natural state lie dead, lifeless, and moveless; they can no more believe in Christ, nor repent, than a dead man can speak or walk: but, in virtue of the promise, the Spirit of life from Christ Jesus, at the time appointed, enters into the dead soul, and quickens it; so that it is no more morally dead, but alive, having new spiritual powers put into it, that were lost by Adam's fall.
Free grace will fix those whom free will shook down into a gulf of misery.
Whoever be the instruments of any good to us, of whatever sort, we must look above them, and eye the hand and counsel of God in it, which is the first spring, and be duly thankful to God for it. And whatever evil of crosses or afflictions befalls us, we must look above the instruments of it to God.
No work nor deed of ours whatsoever, no not faith itself, can be the condition of the covenant of grace properly so called; but only Christ's fulfilling all righteousness.
The law discovers the disease, and the gospel the physician.
Has God decreed all things that come to pass? Then there is nothing that falls out by chance, nor are we to ascribe what we meet with either to good or ill luck and fortune. There are many events in the world which men look upon as mere accidents, yet all these come by the counsel and appointment of Heaven.
Despair is perfectly compatible with a good dinner, I promise you.
If the Savior has not sanctified you, renewed you, given you a hatred of sin and a love of holiness, He has nothing in you of a saving character.
The conservatives who say, "Let us not move so fast," and the extremists who say, "Let us go out and whip the world ," would tell you that they are as far apart as the poles. But there is a striking parallel: They accomplish nothing; for they do not reach the people who have a crying need to be free.
Death is not a tragedy to the one who dies; to have wasted the life before that death, that is the tragedy.
It is brought home to you...that it is only because miners sweat their guts out that superior persons can remain superior.
Crime is contagious....if the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law.
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