Sentences, Books I–II

Chapter 1.

1. All teaching concerns either things or signs. As we have considered again and again, with careful inquiry, the contents of the Old and New Law, with God's grace going before us, it has become clear that the treatment of sacred Scripture is chiefly concerned with things or signs. For, as the excellent teacher Augustine says in On Christian Teaching¹, “All teaching concerns either things or signs. But things too are learned through signs. Properly speaking, things are what are not employed to signify something; signs are those whose use consists in signifying.” Some things have no use except to signify, not to justify, that is, we use them only for the sake of signifying something, as with certain legal sacraments; others not only signify but also confer what inwardly assists us, as do the sacraments of the Gospel. “From this² it is plainly understood what are here called signs: namely, those things which are employed to signify something. Therefore every sign is also some thing: for, as Augustine says in the same place, what is no thing is absolutely nothing. But not conversely is every thing a sign,” since it is not employed to signify something.

2. When the diligent and modest speculation of theologians has attended to these matters, it will perceive that divine Scripture follows the prescribed form of teaching.

3. Therefore, as we wish, with God as our guide, to open a way for ourselves toward some understanding of divine things, we must discuss these matters; and “first³ we shall discuss things, then signs.”

⁴ Sententiarum Petri added by C, Sent. Mag. Petri Novariensis added in M, Sent. Magistri Petri; Cap. 1. Liber primus de trinitate added in X.]

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Chapter 2.

1. Treats things in general. “With regard to things, then, we must consider, as Augustine says in the same place, that some things are to be enjoyed, others to be used, and others both enjoy and use. Those things to be enjoyed make us blessed; by those to be used we are helped and, as it were, supported as we strive toward blessedness, so that by them we may reach and cling to those things which make us blessed.”

2. Things that both enjoy and use. “The things that both enjoy and use are we ourselves, as though placed between the other two kinds,” and the holy angels.

3. What it is to enjoy and to use. “To enjoy⁷ is to cling to something by love for its own sake; to use is to refer what has come into use toward attaining that which is to be enjoyed. Otherwise it is abuse, not use, for illicit use ought to be called abuse or misuse.”

4. Things to be enjoyed. “The things to be enjoyed, then, are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yet this same Trinity is a certain supreme thing, common to all who enjoy it—if indeed it ought to be called a thing, and not the cause of all things, if it is a cause. For it is not easy to find a name befitting such excellence, except that this is better called the Trinity, one God.”

5. Things to be used. The world and the things created in it are to be used. Hence Augustine says in the same place⁸: “This world is to be used, not enjoyed, so that the invisible things of God may be discerned, understood through the things that have been made,” that is, so that eternal things may be grasped from temporal ones. — Likewise, in the same place⁹: “Among all things, only those that are eternal and unchangeable are to be enjoyed; the rest are to be used, so that we may attain the enjoyment of those.” Hence Augustine, in Book X of On the Trinity¹⁰, says: “We enjoy things known, in which the will, delighted in them for their own sake, comes to rest; but we use those things which we refer to something else that is to be enjoyed.”

Chapter 3.

1. Again, the difference between enjoying and using, stated otherwise than above. We must note that Augustine, in Book X of On the Trinity¹¹, taking “use” and “enjoyment” in a sense different from the one above, says: “To use is to take something into the power of the will; to enjoy is to use it with delight, not in hope of it still to come, but in possession of it already. Therefore everyone who enjoys also uses: for he takes something into the power of his will with delight as his end. But not everyone who uses also enjoys, if he desires what he takes into the power of his will not for its own sake but for the sake of something else.” — Observe that Augustine seems to say that only those who rejoice in possession, not those who still hope, enjoy; and so in this life we seem to enjoy nothing, but only to use, since we rejoice in hope, whereas above it was said that enjoyment is “to cling to something by love for its own sake,” as many also cling to God here.

2. Resolution of what seem to conflict. We resolve these statements, which seem to contradict one another, by saying that we enjoy both here and in the future, but properly, perfectly, and fully there, where we shall see face to face what we enjoy; here, while we walk by hope¹², we do enjoy, but not so fully. Hence, in Book X of On the Trinity: “We enjoy things known, in which the will rests.” The same author says in On Christian Teaching¹³: “The angels, enjoying whom they are already blessed, are what we too desire to enjoy; and insofar as they are already blessed by enjoying him whom we desire to enjoy, and insofar as we already enjoy him in this life, either through a mirror or in a riddle, to that extent we both endure our pilgrimage more tolerably and desire more ardently to bring it to an end.”

— Another resolution. It may also be said that one who enjoys even in this life has not only the joy of hope, but also joy in possession, because he already takes delight in what he loves, and thus already possesses the thing to some degree.

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3. It is therefore established that we ought to enjoy God, not use him. “For you enjoy him,” as Augustine says²¹, “by whom you are made blessed and in whom you place your hope of attaining him.” On this same matter he says in On Christian Teaching: “We say that we enjoy a thing which we love for its own sake, and that we ought to enjoy only that thing by which we are made blessed, while the rest are to be used.” — Yet it is often said that one enjoys when one uses something with delight. For when what is loved is present, it brings delight with it. But if you pass through it and refer it to that in which one must remain, you use it, and are said to enjoy it abusively, not properly. But if you cling to it and remain in it, placing the end of your joy in it, then you are truly and properly said to enjoy it—which must be done only in that Trinity, that is, in the supreme and unchangeable Good.

4. Whether human beings are to be used or enjoyed. Since human beings, who enjoy and use other things, are themselves things, the question is raised “whether we ought to enjoy them, or use them, or both.” — Augustine answers this in On Christian Teaching: “If a human being is to be loved for his own sake, we enjoy him; if for the sake of something else, we use him. It seems to me, however, that he is to be loved for his own sake. For what is to be loved for its own sake is where the blessed life is established, the hope of which also consoles us at this time. But hope must not be placed in a human being, for ‘cursed is the one who does this’²². Therefore, if you reflect on it, no one ought to enjoy even himself, since he ought not to love himself for his own sake, but for the sake of that which is to be enjoyed.”

5. But this seems contrary to what the Apostle says when addressing Philemon: Yes, brother, may I enjoy you in the Lord. — Augustine²³ resolves this as follows: “Had he said only ‘may I enjoy you,’ and not added ‘in the Lord,’ he would seem to have set the end of his love and his hope in him; but by adding that phrase he showed that he had set his end in the Lord and enjoyed him there.” “For when,” as Augustine says²⁴, “you enjoy a human being in God, you enjoy God rather than the human being.”

6. Here it is asked whether God enjoys or uses us. But since God loves us, as Scripture often says²⁵, and thereby “greatly commends his love toward us,” Augustine asks how he loves us: whether by using us or enjoying us. — He proceeds thus: “If he enjoys us, he needs our good—which no sane person would say. For the Prophet says: ‘You have no need of my goods’; every good of ours is either himself or from him. Therefore he does not enjoy us, but uses us. For if he neither enjoys nor uses us, I cannot see how he loves us. Yet he does not use us as we use other things. We refer the things we use to this end, that we may enjoy God's goodness; God, however, refers our use to his own goodness. He has mercy on us for the sake of his goodness, while we have mercy on one another for the sake of his goodness. He has mercy on us so that we may enjoy him; we have mercy on one another so that we may enjoy him. For when we have mercy on someone and provide for his welfare, we act for his benefit; but our benefit too follows, since God does not leave without reward the mercy we show others. This reward is supreme: that we may enjoy him.”

7. Whether the virtues are to be enjoyed or used. Here we must consider whether the virtues are to be used or enjoyed. — Some think they are to be used, not enjoyed. They support this with Augustine's authority, for, as stated above, he says that only the Trinity, that is, the supreme and unchangeable Good, is to be enjoyed. — They also say that the virtues are not to be enjoyed because they are not to be loved for their own sake, but only for eternal blessedness; yet that which is to be enjoyed must be loved for its own sake. — They prove that the virtues are not to be loved for their own sake, but only for blessedness, by Augustine's authority. In On Christian Teaching he says: “Perhaps the virtues, which we love only for the sake of blessedness, may try to persuade us not to love blessedness itself; if they do, we shall certainly cease to love them too, since we loved them only for the sake of that which we do not love.”

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²⁷ MOP, omitted in the other manuscripts; 4 nos frui transposed in BCLT; 5 esse] est in OP; 8 eam omitted in OP; 13 utendum vel fruendum transposed in BCLNV; 15 se debeant transposed in OP.]

²⁸ alii in BNVW, alicui in X; 20 sit transposed in P; 27 sunt] sint in NRTWX; 34 sint] sunt in BCWX.]

8. To others, however, the opposite seems true: the virtues are to be enjoyed, since they are to be sought and loved for their own sake. They support this with the authority of Ambrose²⁹, who says on that passage of the Epistle to the Galatians, The fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, etc.: “He does not call these works, but fruit, because they are to be sought for their own sake.” But if they are to be sought for their own sake, then they are to be loved for their own sake.

9. Wishing to remove from our midst the apparent conflict between these authorities, we say that the virtues are to be sought and loved for their own sake, and yet only for blessedness. They are to be loved for their own sake because they delight their possessors with pure and holy delight, and bring spiritual joy forth in them. Nevertheless, we must not stop here, but proceed further. The end of love must not remain fixed here; rather, this must be referred to that supreme Good alone, to which one must cling completely, because it alone is to be loved for its own sake, and nothing beyond it is to be sought: for it is the highest end. — Augustine therefore says that we love the virtues only for the sake of blessedness, not because we do not love them for their own sake, but because we refer the very fact that we love them to that supreme Good alone, to which one must cling, in which one must remain, and in which the end of joy must be placed. Therefore the virtues are not to be enjoyed.

10. Someone may say: “To enjoy is to cling to something by love for its own sake,” as stated above; therefore, if the virtues are to be loved for their own sake, they are to be enjoyed. — We reply that in that definition, where it says “for its own sake,” we must understand “for its own sake alone”: that is, it is loved for its own sake alone, not referred to anything else, but made the end. Augustine showed this above, placing the end in joy and saying: “If you cling to it and remain in it, placing the end of your joy in it, then you are truly and properly said to enjoy it—which must be done only in that Trinity, that is, in the supreme and unchangeable Good.” The virtues, then, are to be used, and through them we enjoy the supreme Good. We say the same of a good will; hence Augustine says in Book X of On the Trinity: “The will is that by which we enjoy.”

11. Summary. “The summary, then, of all that has been said since we began to treat things in particular is this: some things are to be enjoyed, others used, and others both enjoy and use; among those to be used are some through which we enjoy, such as the virtues and powers of the soul, which are natural goods. Before treating signs, we must discuss all these things, and first those things to be enjoyed, namely the holy and undivided Trinity.”