Sentences, Books I–II

Chapter 1 (245).

1. On the will and the end by which it is also judged. After the foregoing, we must discuss the will and its end. It must therefore be known that, as Augustine says, the will is known from its end, whether it is right or wrong. The end of a good will is blessedness, eternal life, God himself; the end of an evil will is something else, namely an evil pleasure, or something else in which the will ought not to rest.

2. What the good end is, namely charity. The Prophet intimates the good end by saying: I have seen the end of all perfection, etc. Charity, therefore, whose commandment is broad, is the end of all perfection, that is, of every good will and action. Every precept must be referred to it. Hence Augustine in the Enchiridion¹ says: «All the divine precepts are referred to charity, of which the Apostle² says: The end of the commandment is charity from a pure heart and a good conscience and an unfeigned faith. The end of every precept is therefore charity, that is, every precept is referred to charity. Whatever is done in such a way, whether from fear of punishment or from some carnal intention, that it is not referred to charity—which is the love of God and neighbor—is not yet done as it ought to be, although it may seem to be done. For those things God commands and those he counsels are rightly done when they are referred to love of God and neighbor». These words plainly show what the right end of the will or action is, namely charity, which is also God, as we showed above³.

¹ quia added in LR, and added in V. 9 is not transposed before Iniquity (S) in OP. 11 hymn] telu LMNTVW, added interlinearly in R. 12 creeping things] repetitia M, repentia LNRTVW. 14 carefully transposed in P. 20 not] ut BCX. 21 to be] est B. 24 he himself through the Prophet transposed in BC. 30–31 That...from God omitted in MNRVW.] ^{2 3 4 5} penam, MNV. 7 the Lord] God added in LR. 9 therefore is transposed before Iniquity (8) in OP. 10 hymn] triumphal added in LMNTVW (Augustine). 14 carefully is transposed before words in LMNRTV. 20 not] as BCX. 21 to be] is BNW, corrected to is in V. 22 namely that is transposed in LMRT. 24 he himself through the Prophet] the Prophet, LMRV. 28 is] to be BPTVWX. 30 That...God omitted in MNRVW. 30–31 How...made omitted in RVW.] ⁶

Chapter 2 (246).

That God is the end of every good action because he is charity; and that the end is not only the Holy Spirit but also Christ and the Father, and these are not three ends but one. Whoever therefore sets charity as his end sets God as his end. Hence the Apostle says⁴ that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes. Christ is rightly called the end of the law for righteousness, because, as Augustine says in the book Sentences of Prosper⁵, «in Christ the law of righteousness is not ended but fulfilled. For all perfection is from him, beyond whom hope has nowhere to extend». «Christ⁶ is the end of the faithful; when the intention of one who runs reaches him, it has nowhere further to go, but has that in which it must remain». The right and highest end is therefore God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; these are not three ends but one end, because there are not three gods but one God.

Chapter 3 (247).

1. That all good wills have one end, although some good wills acquire different ends. But it is asked whether all good wills have only one end. — Augustine says about this in Book XI of On the Trinity¹ as follows: «Different wills have their own proper ends, which are nevertheless referred to the end of that will by which we wish to live happily and to reach a life that is not referred to anything else, but is sufficient in itself to the one who loves it. Thus the will to see has vision as its end, and the will to see a window has seeing the window as its end; but there is also the will to see passersby through the window, whose end is likewise seeing the passersby; the preceding wills too are referred to this». — Likewise: «Wills are right, and all are bound together, if the will to which they are all referred is good; but if it is wrong, they are all wrong. Therefore the connection of right wills is a kind of road by which those ascending to blessedness proceed, as it were, by definite steps; but the entanglement of wrong and distorted wills is a chain by which the one who does this will be bound, so that he may be cast into the outer darkness²». — These testimonies of authorities clearly show that among the faithful there are several right wills, having their own different ends, and yet one and the same end, because all are referred to one, which is the end of ends, about which we spoke shortly before³. Perhaps the contrary is also the case among the wicked.

2. Certain things seem opposed to this opinion. Nevertheless, the opinion that some right wills of the faithful acquire different ends and yet are referred to one seems to be opposed by Augustine’s warning elsewhere that we should not establish two ends for ourselves. He says in the book On the Sermon on the Mount: «We should not evangelize in order to eat, but eat in order to evangelize: so that food is not the good that is sought, but the necessity that is added; so that this may be fulfilled: Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.» «He did not say, “First seek the kingdom of God and then seek these things,” although they are necessary, but said, “All these things will be added to you,” that is, these things will follow if you seek that kingdom: lest, while you seek these things, you turn away from it; or lest you establish two ends, desiring the kingdom for its own sake and these necessities for the sake of the kingdom. Therefore, we should do everything only for the kingdom of God, not seek temporal reward either alone or together with the kingdom of God.» — Here he clearly says that we should not establish two ends for ourselves, but only one, namely the kingdom of God, although above he said that different good wills have their own ends.

Apparatus (printed pp. 548–549): 18 is] et in ipso (est added in V) added in BC, added in the margin in T. 20 which] quo quod NR (Prosper), vel quod added in the margin in T. 21 find] venire BC, pervenire X, vel venire added interlinearly in T. 22 Father] || haec omitted in BCL. 1 says as follows transposed in NRVX. 4 itself] ipsa NPTVW. 15 wills to be transposed in OP. 21 warns] ammonet OP. 25 Seek first transposed in LRV. 27 to you omitted in BCOPX.

Citations (printed p. 548): 1 Chap. 121 (PL 40, 288; CCL 46, 113s). 2 I Tim. 1:5. 3 Book I, Dist. 17 (pp. 141–152). 4 Rom. 10:4. 5 Prosper of Aquitaine, Sentences Drawn from Augustine, no. 190 (PL 45, 1875; 51, 454 B); from Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 45, 1 (PL 36, 514s; CCL 38, 518). 6 Ibid., no. 206 (PL 45, 1876; 51, 456 B); from Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 56, 1 (PL 36, 662; CCL 39, 695).

Chapter 2. Gloss on Rom. 10:4 (PL 191, 1473 C).

1 Chap. 6, no. 10 (PL 42, 992; CCL 50, 346), whence also the text that follows. 2 Referring to Matt. 22:13. 3 In chap. 2. 4 Book II, chap. 16, no. 54 (PL 34, 1202; CCL 35, 144). 5 Matt. 6:33. 6 Ibid., chap. 17, no. 56 (PL 34, 1204; CCL 35, 148s).

No. 2. Gloss on I Cor. 9:17 (PL 191, 1612 A–B).

3. He shows here how the foregoing, although it seems to, does not conflict. Anyone who attends carefully to the foregoing words with a simple eye notices that these statements do not conflict. For the one who said that we should not establish two ends for ourselves, but do everything for the kingdom, first said that we should eat in order to evangelize. When we do this, we make the Gospel the end of that action, but we also refer this end to the kingdom of God. We eat for the Gospel, and we both eat and evangelize for the kingdom. We therefore establish two ends for ourselves in eating, but do we sin by doing this? Certainly not. For he himself advises us to do this, if we carefully consider his words.

4. How the statement “we should not establish two ends for ourselves” should be understood. When he says, “we should not establish two ends for ourselves,” he intends ends tending in different directions to be understood, namely ends of which one is not referred to the other. Likewise, when he says that everything must be done only for the kingdom of God, and that a temporal reward must not be contemplated together with it, this should be understood to mean that we must not desire and contemplate a temporal reward together with the kingdom in such a way that we seek it not for the kingdom but for itself—so that we desire the kingdom for itself and these things for the sake of the kingdom, as he himself teaches. For if we ask God for eternal life and also ask him for temporal things, but ask for the latter for the sake of eternal life, we do not offend, nor does the left hand then know what the right hand is doing, because we do not contemplate the temporal reward for its own sake but for the kingdom of God, so that the left may be under the head and the right in the embrace. Otherwise, if we seek temporal things for their own sake as though they were eternal things, the left is mixed with the right. Therefore, when the Lord said, “Take care not to do your righteousness before human beings in order to be seen by them,” he said elsewhere, “Let your good works shine before human beings, so that they may glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Everything must therefore be done for God, so that we refer all that we do and all its ends to him.

Apparatus (printed p. 550): 8 haec] hoc LMRT. 9 et omitted by BCVW. 11 regnum] dei added by LMT. 13 inspiciamus] inspiciantur LMNRTVW. 14 fines nobis transposed by OP. 19 appetendo meditemur transposed by OP. 22 sed] si in TV, corrected interlinearly to si in C. 22–23 aeternam vitam transposed by NRTWX.

1 Chap. 6, no. 10 (PL 42, 992; CCL 50, 346). 2 See Matt. 22:13. 3 In chap. 2. 4 Book II, chap. 16, no. 54 (PL 34, 1202; CCL 35, 144). 5 Matt. 6:33. 6 Ibid., chap. 17, no. 56 (PL 34, 1204; CCL 35, 148ff.).

Chapter 4 (248).

1. On the difference between will, intention, and end. It is also commonly asked what difference there is between will, intention, and end.

2. What will is, and what the end is. To this it can be said that will and end are distinguished in a certain clear and evident way, because will is that by which we will something; but the end of the will is either the thing that we will, through which the will itself is fulfilled, or rather another thing for the sake of which we will that thing. — How intention is understood. Intention, however, is sometimes taken for the will and sometimes for the end of the will. The careful and pious reader should strive to distinguish these in Scripture wherever they occur.

3. What the end is. The end of the will is a good or evil pleasure, which each person strives to attain. Hence Augustine, on the passage of the Psalm, Searching hearts and kidneys, says: “God alone searches hearts, that is, what each person thinks; and kidneys, that is, what delights each person, because the end of care and thought is pleasure, which each person strives to reach through care and thought.” A little later: “Human beings can see our works, which are in words and deeds; but God alone sees with what mind they are done and what they desire to reach. When he sees that the heart is in heaven and that we do not delight in the flesh but in the Lord—that is, when thoughts and their ends are good—he directs the righteous.” — The same author, on another Psalm passage, namely Their foot was caught in the snare they hid, says: “The foot of the soul is love; if it is wrong, it is called desire or lust; if right, it is called charity. By it the soul is moved as toward the place toward which it tends, that is, toward good or evil pleasure; it rejoices through love that it has reached it.”

4. He repeats the foregoing and adds an example. The end of the will, therefore, as was stated above, is called both what we will and that for the sake of which we will; intention looks toward that for the sake of which we will, and will toward what we will.

Apparatus (printed p. 551): 26 Rubrica omitted in MRVW.

1 Expositions on the Psalms 7:10, no. 9 (PL 36, 103; CCL 38, 42). 2 Ps. 7:10. 3 Ibid., partly after and partly before the foregoing (PL 36, 103ff.; CCL 38, 42ff.). 4 “And you will direct the righteous, searching hearts and kidneys, O God.” 5 Expositions on the Psalms 9:16, no. 15 (PL 36, 124; CCL 38, 66). 6 Ps. 9:16. 7 In no. 2.

Chapter 4. Cf. O. Lottin, The Moral Intention, ibid., 317ff. — No. 3. Lombard’s Gloss on Ps. 7:10 and 9:16 (PL 191, 116 B–C, 136 B). For example, if I want to feed a hungry person in order to have eternal life, the will is that by which I want to feed the hungry person, whose end is feeding the hungry person; intention is that by which I thus want to reach life; but the supreme end is life itself, to which the other end is also referred.

5. Whether that intention is a will. It is asked whether such intention is also a will; and, if it is a will, whether in this work there is one and the same will by which I want to have eternal life and by which I want to feed the hungry person.

6. Here it is said that that intention is a will. Such intention seems to be a will: just as there is a will by which I want to feed a poor person, so there is a will by which through this I want to have life.

7. Whether this will is different from that one. It does seem that the will by which I want to have life is one will and the will by which I want to help the poor person another; but the latter is referred to the former. — Augustine, On the Trinity: “Although this is pleasing in such a way that the will rests in it with some delight, it is not yet that toward which one tends; rather, this is referred to that, so that the former may be counted as the fatherland of a citizen, and the latter as the refreshment or lodging of a traveler.” These wills are affections or movements of the mind, by which one tends toward the fatherland as by steps or strides. Therefore, just as the will to see a window is one, as we learned above from Augustine’s teaching, and another will is joined to it, namely the will to see passersby through the window, so the will to give alms to a poor person is one and the will to have life another. — Others, however, think that the will is one here and there, but that a diversity of wills is mentioned because of the multiplicity of subjects. — In any case, whichever of these is true, no one doubts that the will is measured by its end, whether it is right or wrong, sin or grace; nor that by the name intention sometimes the end and sometimes the will is understood.

⁷ quem in MT; omitted in BCW. 10 rubric omitted in RVW; dicitur] esse added in BCX. 11 et added interlinearly in NTV. 13 rubric omitted in RVW. 22 nectitur] nascitur in W, or nascitur added interlinearly in NTV. 27–28 recta... prava transposed in OP.]

1 Book XI, chap. 6, no. 10 (PL 42, 992; CCL 50, 347). 2 Chapter 3, no. 1 (p. 549, lines 4ff.).