The doctrine of the will of fallen man — that the natural man, though acting voluntarily (with genuine willing), is in bondage to sin and unable of himself to will spiritual good or to turn to God in saving faith. The doctrine distinguishes the freedom of the will in different states of man (Westminster Confession IX): (1) in the state of innocence (before the fall), man had freedom and power to will and do that which is good and well-pleasing to God, yet mutably (he could fall); (2) in the state of sin (fallen man), man has wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; the natural man is dead in sin, unable by his own strength to convert himself or to prepare himself for conversion; (3) in the state of grace (the regenerate), God in conversion frees the sinner from his natural bondage under sin and enables him freely to will and do that which is spiritually good (though not perfectly, because of remaining corruption); (4) in the state of glory, the will is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone. The key point regarding fallen man: the bondage of the will means not that fallen man lacks a will or acts involuntarily (he wills genuinely and is responsible for his choices), but that his will is in bondage to sin — he wills according to his fallen, corrupt nature, and is unable of himself to will the spiritual good of turning to God; he is free to do as he pleases, but he pleases only what his fallen nature inclines him to (he is free from external compulsion but in bondage to his own corrupt nature). The biblical foundation: fallen man is dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1); the carnal mind is enmity against God, not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be (Romans 8:7); the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:14); no man can come to Christ except the Father draw him (John 6:44); men are by nature the children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Luther's The Bondage of the Will (1525, against Erasmus's Diatribe on Free Will) is the classic Reformation statement of the doctrine. The patriarchal-Reformed reader holds the substantive doctrine against the Pelagian and Arminian over-estimates of free will: fallen man has a will (he acts voluntarily and is responsible) but his will is in bondage to sin; he cannot of himself will spiritual good or turn to God; only the regenerating grace of God frees the will to will the good; salvation is therefore monergistic, the sovereign work of God liberating the enslaved will.