True Christian Religion#482
482. Man would have no free will in political, moral and natural matters, did he not have free will in spiritual ones. This is evident from the fact that spiritual matters, what is called theology, occupy the highest region in the human mind, like the soul in the body. The reason they occupy that place is that it contains the gateway through which the Lord enters a person. At a lower level are the political, moral and natural matters, which in a person take all their life from the spiritual ones which have their seat above them. And because life from the Lord flows in from the highest levels, and man's life consists in the ability freely to think, will and thus to speak and act, it follows that this and no other is the source of free will in political and natural matters. That spiritual freedom allows a person to perceive good and truth, justice and fairness in social matters; and that ability is what the understanding itself is in essence.
[2] A person's free will in spiritual matters is, to use a comparison, like the air in the lungs; it is drawn in, held and released as his thoughts constantly change. Without it he would be worse off than if he suffered from a nightmare, angina or asthma. Again it is like the blood in the heart; any failure of the blood would make the heart first palpitate, then after convulsions become totally still. Or it might be like a body in motion, which travels so long as it has any energy, and comes to rest when its energy is exhausted. So too it is with the freedom man's will enjoys; both of these, freedom of choice and will, can in man be called active energy, for if the will ceases to operate, so does the power to act, and if freedom of choice ceases to operate, so does the will.
[3] If man's spiritual freedom were taken away from him, it would be, to use a comparison, like taking the wheels away from a machine, the arms that catch the wind from a mill, or the sails from a ship. In fact, it would be like a man parting with his spirit when he dies; for the life of man's spirit consists in his free will in spiritual matters. The angels groan at the mere mention of the fact that this free will is denied by many ministers of the church at the present time; they call this denial madness on top of madness.
Matthew第21章:33-44
33
"Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household, who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country.
34
When the season for the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive his fruit.
35
The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another.
36
Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they treated them the same way.
37
But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, 'They will respect my son.'
38
But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and seize his inheritance.'
39
So they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
40
When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?"
41
They told him, "He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the fruit in its season."
42
Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, 'The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes?'
43
"Therefore I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation bringing forth its fruit.
44
He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whoever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust."
