For when it
is granted and established, that "Free-will," having once lost its liberty, is
compulsively bound to the service of sin, and cannot will any thing good: I, from these
words, can understand nothing else than that "Free-will" is a mere empty term,
whose reality is lost. And a lost liberty, according to my grammar, is no liberty at all.
And to give the name of liberty to that which has no liberty, is to give it an empty term.
If I am wrong here, let him set me right who can. If these observations be obscure or
ambiguous, let him who can, illustrate and make them plain. I for my part, cannot call
that health which is lost, health; and if I were to ascribe it to one who was sick, I
should think I was giving him nothing else than an empty name.
... For
if a man, when he has lost his liberty, is compelled to serve sin, and cannot will good,
what conclusion concerning him can be more justly drawn, than that he can do nothing but
sin, and will evil?
- Martin Luther (The Bondage of the Will, Section 50)
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