Reformed Sojourner
Puritan Board Freshman
Please dumb down the following:
“At this point readers should remember that man’s capacity for free will should not be judged by the way events turn out, as some ignorant folk believe. These think it possible to prove the bondage of will by pointing out that the most eminent princes on earth fail to get their way, and that their efforts very often come to nothing. By contrast, the power and freedom which concern us here have to do with man himself, not with external events. For in discussing free will, we are not arguing about whether it is possible for man to fulfill and realize his ambitions unimpeded. Instead, we are asking whether in everything his judgment is able freely to choose and discriminate between good and evil, and to approve one while rejecting the other; and, similarly, whether his will is freely disposed to desire, seek and follow good, and to hate and shun evil. If that indeed were true of man, supposing he were shut up in prison, he would be no less free than if he ruled the whole world.”
“At this point readers should remember that man’s capacity for free will should not be judged by the way events turn out, as some ignorant folk believe. These think it possible to prove the bondage of will by pointing out that the most eminent princes on earth fail to get their way, and that their efforts very often come to nothing. By contrast, the power and freedom which concern us here have to do with man himself, not with external events. For in discussing free will, we are not arguing about whether it is possible for man to fulfill and realize his ambitions unimpeded. Instead, we are asking whether in everything his judgment is able freely to choose and discriminate between good and evil, and to approve one while rejecting the other; and, similarly, whether his will is freely disposed to desire, seek and follow good, and to hate and shun evil. If that indeed were true of man, supposing he were shut up in prison, he would be no less free than if he ruled the whole world.”
