_The Confession of Faith:
             Which Was Submitted to His Imperial Majesty Charles V
                  At the Diet of Augsburg in the Year 1530_.
                        by Philip Melanchthon, 1497-1560
                   Translated by F. Bente and  W. H. T. Dau
                                 Published in:
                   _Triglot Concordia: The Symbolical Books
                         of the Ev. Lutheran Church_.
           (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921), pp. 37-95.


        Article XVIII: Of Free Will. 
         
        Of Free Will they teach that man's will has some liberty to 
        choose civil righteousness, and to work things subject to 
        reason. But it has no power, without the Holy Ghost, to work 
        the righteousness of God, that is, spiritual righteousness; 
        since the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit 
        of God, 1 Cor. 2,14; but this righteousness is wrought in the 
        heart when the Holy Ghost is received through the Word. These 
        things are said in as many words by Augustine in his 
        Hypognosticon, Book III: We grant that all men have a free 
        will, free, inasmuch as it has the judgment of reason; not 
        that it is thereby capable, without God, either to begin, or, 
        at least, to complete aught in things pertaining to God, but 
        only in works of this life, whether good or evil. "Good" I 
        call those works which spring from the good in nature, such 
        as, willing to labor in the field, to eat and drink, to have a 
        friend, to clothe oneself, to build a house, to marry a wife, 
        to raise cattle, to learn divers useful arts, or whatsoever 
        good pertains to this life. For all of these things are not 
        without dependence on the providence of God; yea, of Him and 
        through Him they are and have their being. "Evil" I call such 
        works as willing to worship an idol, to commit murder, etc.  
         
        They condemn the Pelagians and others, who teach that without 
        the Holy Ghost, by the power of nature alone, we are able to 
        love God above all things; also to do the commandments of God 
        as touching "the substance of the act." For, although nature 
        is able in a manner to do the outward work, (for it is able to 
        keep the hands from theft and murder,) yet it cannot produce 
        the inward motions, such as the fear of God, trust in God, 
        chastity, patience, etc.  
         
        

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