Leighton thinks the LBCF teaches that man has or had libertarian freedom. That is because the first two statements can be misinterpreted to state such:
1. God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty and power of acting upon choice, that it is neither forced, nor by any necessity of nature determined to do good or evil.
( Matthew 17:12; James 1:14; Deuteronomy 30:19 )
2. Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to will and to do that which was good and well-pleasing to God, but yet was unstable, so that he might fall from it.
( Ecclesiastes 7:29; Genesis 3:6 )
Leighton takes “nor by any necessity of nature determined to do good or evil ” to refer to the nature of man and a denial that all things have been determined by God(ignoring Chapter 3). But Leighton clearly isn’t informed about what commentators on the confession have to say that means:
The Confession explains that God hath endued the will of man. Endued is not a word often used today, but it means “to give a quality or characteristic.” A modern synonym is “endow.”[1] What quality or property did God endow man’s will with? God endowed the will of man with that natural liberty and power of acting upon choice. Sproul states: “Here the confession speaks of natural liberty, a liberty that is part and parcel of our nature as human beings.”[2] Man’s will is also endued with natural… power. The word “natural” also applies to the word “power,” and so should read: “natural liberty and [natural] power.” The will of man has the natural power or ability to act upon choice; that power is “part and parcel” of what it means to be a human being. Thus, God made man with free agency, that is, the natural liberty and power of the will to make choices. Reformed theology does not deny man’s free agency; it thoroughly embraces it. Man’s free agency is not a defeater of God’s sovereign decree, but is compatible with it. God often uses man’s free agency to bring about his decree (see 5:2 the nature of second causes, particularly “freely”), and yet without coercing man’s will.
The will of man, so endowed with natural liberty and power to choose, is neither forced… to do good or evil. The will of man is not “forced” (i.e. coerced) to choose good or evil. If the will was forced, it would not be at liberty or have power to act upon choice. Adam and Eve were not forced to obey or disobey God’s special command in the garden. Rather, Adam and Eve freely chose to disobey. The disobedience was their choice, and they chose based on their desire: “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate” (Gen. 3:6 ESV). There is no hint in the text that the will was forced; rather, we see the natural liberty and power of the will freely acting upon that choice they desired. Man chooses good or evil according to that which he desires. Scripture says: “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (James 1:14 ESV; see also Gen. 3:6; Matt. 17:12; James 1:14). No one can say, “The devil made me do it.” The devil may tempt, and sinful desires may overcome us, but each person choses to sin because that is what he or she desires to do. Man freely chooses sin because that is what he wants. Thus, mankind is responsible for his choices, whether good or evil (1 Cor. 5:10).
As well, the will of man is not by any necessity of nature determined to do good or evil. Sproul states: “Here the Confession distances itself from every form of moral determinism, which would subject human choices to fixed, mechanical, or physical forces, or even to arbitrary influences of fate. In a word, Reformed theology categorically rejects fatalism and any determinism based upon the forces of nature. We are not coerced or forced by natural causes, or by our environment, either to do good or to do evil.”[3] On the contrary, the Confession teaches that man as a free agent chooses as each person’s nature inclines them to choose. A.A. Hodge states:
“A man freely chooses what he wants to choose. He would not choose freely if he chose in any other way. But his desire in the premises is determined by his whole intellectual and emotional state at the time…. It is plain that if the human will is decided in any given case in opposition to all the views of the reason and all the desires of the heart, however free the will might be, the man would be a most pitiful slave to a mere irrational and immoral power of willing…. All men judge that the rational and moral character of any act results from the purpose or desire, the internal state of mind or heart, which prompted the act. If man wills in any given case in opposition to all his judgments and to all his inclinations of every kind, his act in that case would obviously be neither rational nor moral; and the man himself, in respect to that act, would be neither free nor responsible…. “Christ taught…that human action is determined by the character of the agent as certainly as the nature of the fruit is determined by the nature of the tree from which it springs; and that the only way to change the character of the action is to change the permanent character or moral tendency and habit of the heart of the agent. Matt. Vii. 16-20; xii. 33-35.”[4]
In the remaining paragraphs, the Confession will address the various “states” of mankind which affect his will. First, the Confession will address man’s “state of innocency” before the fall. Secondly, it will show man’s “state in sin” after the fall. Thirdly, it will explain man’s “state of grace” after conversion, and lastly, it will address the converted man’s “state in glory.” Let’s end with two more citations from Hodge to ensure we have grasped the material as we head into these four states: “In all these estates man is unchangeably a free, responsible agent, and in all these cases choosing or refusing as, upon the whole, he prefers to do. A man’s volition is as his desires are in any given case. His desires in any given case are as they are determined to be by the general or permanent tastes, tendencies, and habitudes of his character. He is responsible for his desires, because they are determined by the nature and permanent characteristics of his own soul. He is responsible for these, because they are the tendencies and qualities of his own nature. If these are immoral, he and his actions are immoral. If these are holy, he and his actions are holy.”[5] Or simply put, as Hodge states a few pages later: “The moral condition of the heart determines the act of the will, but the act of the will cannot change the moral condition of the heart.”[6] With this in mind, we now turn to these “states.”
https://1689commentary.org/2018/03/09/the-1689-confession-chapter-9-of-free-will-section-1-of-5/
Leighton simply equivocating on the term freewill because he tries to establish a usage but he ends up defining it as the ability to make a choice and the ability to do otherwise. The problem with Leighton’s definition is that they are consistent with determinism. This has been explained to Leighton on previous occasions:
In addition, Robert Kane, a preeminent libertarian philosopher, defines choice in these terms:
A choice is the formation of an intention or purpose to do something. It resolves uncertainty and indecision in the mind about what to do. Four Views on Free Will (Blackwell 2007), 33.
On that view, it’s meaningful to say an agent chose God even if he was unable not to choose God.
https://triablogue.blogspot.com/2018/10/calvinism-meets-street-epistemology.html
What in those statements does the confession say that they have ultimate sourcehood of their choices or that in any given circumstances they can choose otherwise? Leighton doesn’t mention that Libertarians don’t have an agreed view of the will. Of course Calvinist recognize that man’s will before the fall was free from sin, but not God’s determination. Here is a video in which someone following Sam Waldron’s commentary on the confession speaks about its chapter on Free Will:
Further Suggestions:
The Council 