which I am able to do or not do a thing, just as I please. I can even
sin and refuse to obey God. God Himself--while He leaves me my free
will--could not oblige me to do anything, unless I wished to do it;
neither could the devil. I am free therefore, and I may use this great
gift either to benefit or injure myself. If I were not free I would not
deserve reward or punishment for my actions, for no one is or should be
punished for doing what he cannot help. God would not punish us for sin
if we were not free to commit or avoid it. I turn this freedom to my
benefit if I do what God wishes when I could do the opposite; for He
will be more pleased with my conduct, and grant a greater reward than He
would bestow if I obeyed simply because obliged to do so. Animals have
no free will. If, for example, they suffer from hunger and you place
food before them, they will eat; but man can starve, if he wills to do
so, with a feast before him. For the same reason man can endure more
fatigue than any other animal of the same bodily strength. In traveling,
for instance, animals give up when exhausted, but man may be dying as he
walks, and still, by his strong will-power, force his wearied limbs to
move. But you will say, did not the lions in the den into which Daniel
was cast because he would not act against his conscience, obey the
wicked king and offend God--as we read in Holy Scripture (Dan.
6:16)--refrain from eating him, even when they were starving with
hunger? Yes; but they did not do so of themselves, but by the power of
God preventing them: and that is why the delivery of Daniel from their
mouths was a miracle. It is clear, because the same lions immediately
tore in pieces Daniel's enemies when they were cast into the den.

6 Q. Why did God make you?
A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world,
and to be happy with Him forever in the next.