Sentences, Books I–II

Chapter 1 (190).

On the will of God, which is called God's essence, one and eternal, and on its signs. We must now say something about God's will, as far as our feeble understanding allows. We must know, then, that “will” or “willing” is said of God according to his essence. For in him willing is not one thing and being another, but they are wholly the same. And just as being good is the same for him as being God, so being willing is the same for him as being God. For the will by which he is always willing is not an affection or motion, which cannot befall God, but the divine substance by which he is willing: he is God, and so forth.

Chapter 2 (191).

1. Although willing is the same as being for God, it cannot be said that God is everything he wills. Although willing is the same as being for God, it must not be said that God is everything he wills.

2. Objection of certain people *. Some who do not think rightly about God's will object to us, saying: If willing is the same as being for God, then when we say that God wills everything he does, we say that he is everything he does; otherwise the word “willing” would not signify the same there as the word “being” signifies when said of God. And if this is so, “willing” is not always said of God according to his essence. But if it is sometimes not said according to his essence, how is it said of God? For it is never said of him relatively.

3. Reply containing the full solution *. We reply that, although willing is wholly the same as being for God, it still cannot be said that he is everything he wills; just as being is the same as knowing for God, yet just as he is said to know all things, he cannot also be said to be all things.

Chapter 3 (192).

What is the sense of these expressions: “God knows” or “God wills”; likewise “God knows all things” or “wills something,” and what is predicated of God in these statements. Wherever God is said to know or be knowing, and to will or be willing, these are said of him according to his essence. For when it is said, “God knows” or “God wills,” or “God is knowing or willing,” the divine essence is predicated and God is declared to be. But when “all things,” “something,” or “some things” is added and it is said, “God knows all things” or “wills something or some things,” the divine essence is indeed predicated, but not simply and absolutely; rather, all things are shown to be subject to the knowledge that is itself God, and something or some things are said to be subject to the will that is likewise himself. The sense is therefore this: “God knows all things,” that is, God is he to whose knowledge, which is his essence, all things are subject. Similarly, “God wills these or those things,” that is, God is he to whose will, which is himself, these or those things are subject. God is therefore called willing, or said to will, according to his essence, whose will is eternal and immutable essence, although the things subject to it vary and pass away; it cannot be unjust or evil, because it is God.

¹ enim add. BCLMOP, quod exp. O. 21 dicitur] dicatur BCENVWX.]

² At BR, Ut O. 20 eo] Deo LRTV. 23 aliqua] facere add. P, add. interl. O. 23–24 et... aliqua om. COPX, add. mg. V.]

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Chapter 4 (193).

1. God's supremely good will is the cause of all things that exist naturally; its cause is not to be sought, since it is eternal. This supremely good will is the cause of all things that come about naturally, whether they have come about or are going to come about; it has no prior cause, since it is eternal. Therefore its cause is not to be sought.

2. He explains here why its cause is not to be sought. Whoever seeks its cause seeks something greater than it, although nothing is greater than it. Hence Augustine says in Eighty-Three Questions¹: “Whoever asks why God willed to make the world is seeking the cause of God's will. But every efficient cause is greater than what it produces; nothing, however, is greater than God's will. Therefore its cause is not to be sought.” The same author says in Against the Manichaeans²: “If some people say, ‘What pleased God to make heaven and earth?’, those who desire to know God's will and seek the reasons for God's will must be answered that God's will itself is the cause of all things that exist. For if the will has a cause, there is something that precedes God's will, which it is impious to believe. Whoever therefore says, ‘Why did God make heaven and earth?’ must be answered: ‘Because he willed to.’ For God's will is the cause of heaven and earth, and therefore God's will is greater than heaven and earth. But whoever says, ‘Why did he will to make heaven and earth?’ seeks something greater than God's will; nothing greater can be found. Let human presumption therefore restrain itself, and not seek what does not exist, lest it fail to find what does exist.” These authorities plainly indicate that God's will has no cause, and therefore its cause is not to be sought.

3. God's will is the first and supreme cause of all things. “God's will,” Augustine says in book III of On the Trinity³, “is the first and supreme cause of all forms and motions. For nothing happens that does not proceed from the inner and intelligible court of the supreme Emperor, according to ineffable justice.” “For where does the wisdom of almighty God fail to work what he wills, wisdom that reaches mightily from end to end and orders all things sweetly⁴?” Not only things that do not admit “the persistence of regular custom,” but also those that seem marvelous because of their rarity and unusual occurrence—“such as eclipses of the heavenly bodies, earthquakes, monstrous births among animals, and similar things”—come about only by God's will, though this is not apparent to most people. Therefore the vanity of the philosophers chose to attribute these things to other causes, since they could not see the cause above all others, namely God's will. Thus “God's will alone is the first cause of health, sickness, rewards and punishments, graces and recompenses.” It alone is therefore the source from which everything that exists has arisen, while it itself has not arisen but is eternal.

Chapter 5 (194).

1. The senses in which God's will is understood in Scripture. We must not pass over the fact that sacred Scripture is accustomed to speak of God's will in various ways. God's will is not diverse; rather, the language about his will varies, because the name “will” is used for different things.

2. What is truly and properly called God's will, also called his good pleasure *. For God's will is truly and properly what is in him and is his essence; it is one, admits neither multiplicity nor change, and cannot be unfulfilled. Of it the Prophet says⁵: “The Lord has done all that he willed.” And the Apostle⁶: “Who will resist his will?” And elsewhere⁷: “That you may prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.” This will is rightly called God's good pleasure or disposition.

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⁵ essentia OP. 8 ea] maius trp. LRTVX. 9 84] LNTW, 85 BCMOPR. 22 se ergo trp. BCRTX. 24 voluntatis corr. ex voluntas MOTV.]

⁶

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Chapter 6 (195).

1. By a figure of speech, God's command, prohibition, counsel, permission, and operation are called God's will; hence Scripture uses the plural “wills.” Sometimes, by a certain figure of speech, what is not properly God's will is called his will: for example, command, prohibition, counsel, as well as permission and operation. Therefore Scripture sometimes speaks in the plural of “God's wills.” Hence the Prophet¹ says: “Great are the works of the Lord, sought out in all his wills.” Although there is only one will of God, who is himself, the Prophet nevertheless uses the plural “wills,” because “God's will” is understood in various ways and with respect to different things, as was said above². The same Prophet also uses the plural because of the many effects of mercy and justice, saying³: “I will sing the mercies of the Lord forever,” and elsewhere⁴: “The judgments of the Lord are right, gladdening hearts”; yet in God there is one mercy and one justice, and mercy is the same as justice, namely the divine substance.

2. Why command, prohibition, and counsel are called God's will. Command, prohibition, and counsel, though three things, are each called “God's will” because they are signs of the divine will. In the same way, signs of anger are called anger, and signs of love are called love. God is said to be angry, though there is no anger in him; only the signs that occur outwardly, by which he is shown to be angry, are called his anger. This is a figure of speech in which what is said is not false, but the truth of what is said is veiled beneath a cloud of trope. God's diverse wills are spoken of according to these tropes, because the things called “God's wills” figuratively are diverse.

3. Where God's will is understood as command and counsel. God's will can be understood as command and counsel in the words⁵: “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” and in the words⁶: “Whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Many things are done against this will. Hence Augustine says in On the Spirit and the Letter⁷: “Unbelievers act against the will of God when they do not believe his Gospel.”

Chapter 7 (196).

1. God does not will that people do everything he commands, or refrain from everything he prohibits. Although those three things are called God's will because they are signs of the divine will, we must not understand that God wills everything to be done that he has commanded anyone, or wills not to be done everything he has prohibited. For he commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son¹, yet he did not will it; he commanded it not so that it would be done, but so that Abraham's faith would be tested. In the Gospel he commanded a man who had been healed not to tell anyone², but the man preached everywhere. He understood that God had not prohibited it because he wanted his work to go unproclaimed, but to give people an example of avoiding human praise.

2. Permission and operation are called God's will. God's permission and operation too are called God's will, as Augustine understands it in the Enchiridion³, saying: “Nothing happens unless the Almighty wills it to happen, either by permitting it to happen or by doing it himself. We must not doubt that God does good even by permitting whatever is done badly to happen: for he permits this only by a just judgment, and everything just is surely good.” — Here you plainly have God's operation or permission called his will, when Augustine says “nothing happens unless the Almighty wills it to happen,” including all good and evil things that happen. Therefore he plainly distinguishes the sense in which he said God wills, lest we understand that he wills good and evil in the same way, adding: “either by permitting it to happen”—he says this with respect to evils—“or by doing it himself”—this with respect to good things. For he permits evils to happen but does not do them; good things he himself does. He therefore said that God “wills” because he willingly permits evils and willingly does good things; for this reason permission and operation are called “God's will.”

3. The five things listed above are called God's will figuratively; therefore let the reader distinguish which one is meant wherever the word “will” is used for one of them. Five things listed above are therefore called “God's will” figuratively, because they are signs of the divine will, which is one and immutable. …ble, namely God's good pleasure. Therefore let the reader carefully distinguish, whenever Scripture mentions God's will, in which sense it should be understood: as God's good pleasure or as one of its signs. Great discernment must be exercised in understanding the divine will, because God's good pleasure is his will, and the sign of his good pleasure is also called his will. But his good pleasure is eternal, whereas the sign of his good pleasure is not. His good pleasure accords with the effects of things, and those effects do not diverge from it: everything he wills to come about by his good pleasure does come about, and everything he wills not to come about never does. It is not so with the signs, because God commands many things that people do not do, prohibits things they do not avoid, and counsels things they do not fulfill.

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⁹ Et sicut BCLOPX. 11 dicantur] dicuntur BCLMOPX. 11 dicatur] dicantur BCNTV. 12 accipit] accepit BCL. 23 quia] et add. LRTVW. 26 secundum tropum] signa NRTW.]

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