become a new creature of the kingdom
of the Spirit, does nothing, endeavors nothing, toward preparing himself
for renewal and the kingdom; and afterwards, when he has been created
anew, he does nothing, endeavors nothing, toward preserving himself in
that kingdom; but the Spirit alone does each of these things in us, both
creating us anew without our cooperation and preserving us when
recreated,--even as Jas. 1, 18 says: 'Of His own will begat He us by the
Word of Truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures,'
He is speaking here of the renewed creature." (E. v. a. 7, 317; St. L.
18, 1909; compare here and in the following quotations Vaughan's _Martin
Luther on the Bondage of the Will_, London, 1823.)

Man lacks also the ability to do what is good before God. Luther: "I
reply: The words of the Prophet [Ps. 14, 2: "The Lord looketh down from
heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did
understand and seek God. They are all gone aside," etc.] include both
act and power; and it is the same thing to say, 'Man does not seek after
God,' as it would be to say, 'Man cannot seek after God.'" (E. 330; St.
L. 1923.) Again: "Since, therefore, men are flesh, as God Himself
testifies, they cannot but be carnally minded (_nihil sapere possunt
nisi carnem_); hence free will has power only to sin. And since they
grow worse even when the Spirit of God calls and teaches them, what
would they do if left to themselves, without the Spirit of God?" (E.
290; St. L. 1876.) "In brief, you will observe in Scripture that
wherever flesh is treated in opposition to the Spirit, you may
understand by flesh about everything that is contrary to the Spirit, as
in the passage [John 6, 63]: 'The flesh profiteth nothing.'" (E. 291; St.
L. 1877.) "Thus also Holy Scripture, by way of emphasis (_per
epitasin_), calls man 'flesh,' as though he were carnality itself,
because his mind is occupied with nothing but carnal things. _Quod nimio
ac nihil aliud sapit quam ea, quae carnis sunt_." (E. 302; St. L. 1890.)

According to Luther there is no such thing as a neutral willing in man.
He says: "It is a mere logical fiction to say that there is in man a
neutral and pure volition (_medium et purum velle_); nor can those prove
it who assert it. It was born of ignorance of things and servile regard
to words, as if something must straightway be such in substance as we
state it to be in words, which sort of figments are numberless