Pars 1, Cap. 9
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/5/d/1/q/bon-brev-p1-c9
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### Chapter IX. *On the will of God and providence.*

Concerning the *will* of God these things are to be held: that it is so *right* that it can in no way be bent aside; so *efficacious* that it can in no way be impeded; so *one* that it nevertheless has to be signified in many ways.

For the divine will, which is the will of *good pleasure*, is signified through the will of the *sign* according to five differences of signs, which are *precept, prohibition, counsel, fulfilment*, and *permission*; and according to these, whatever comes to be in the universe is disposed by the will of *good pleasure*. « For the will of God is the first and highest cause of all species and motions. For nothing comes to be visibly and sensibly in this vast and immense commonwealth of the whole creation which is not either commanded or permitted from the interior, invisible, and intelligible hall of the highest Emperor, according to the ineffable justice of rewards and punishments, of graces and retributions ».

And because this will, regulated by reason, is called *providence*, hence it is that all things which come to be in the universe are done and governed by divine providence, which is in all things beyond reproach, because it *commands, prohibits*, and *counsels* nothing except justly; it *does* nothing except well; it *permits* nothing unjustly.

Now the understanding and the reason for the aforesaid is this. The first principle, since it is supremely noble, both has *will* and has it *in a noble manner*. Since, therefore, the will of itself says that in which — as is observed in *agents acting from purpose* — there is a rule of rightness and an efficacy of operation; it must be that the will in God is *most right* and *most efficacious*: *most right*, because in God will and truth are the same; *most efficacious*, because in God *will* and *power* or might are altogether the same. — And because the divine will cannot lack *truth*, therefore it is not only *right*, but also the *rule of rightness*. But because it can in no way lack *power*, therefore it is not only *efficacious*, but also the *font and origin of all efficacy*; so that nothing can be effected without it, nothing can be done against it, nor is there anything by which it can be impeded.

And because it is *most right*, no one can be right unless he be conformed to it; but no one can be conformed to it unless that will become known to him: it was therefore fitting that the divine will, as the rule of rightness, be made known to us. Now one kind of rightness is that of *necessity*, and this lies in doing the necessary good and turning away from evil; another is that of *perfection*, and this lies in going beyond what is owed; and according to this it becomes known to us through a threefold sign, namely *precept, prohibition*, and *counsel* — which indeed signifies that the divine good pleasure accepts as just what is done according to the divine *precept*, what is turned away from according to the divine *prohibition*, and what is fulfilled according to the divine *counsel*. And these signs are infallible signs of the divine will as it is the rule of rightness.

Again, because it is *most efficacious*, no one can in any way *effect* anything except by its operating and co-effecting; no one can *fail* or sin except by its justly deserting. And according to this there are two signs of it: namely *fulfilment*, which is the sign of the will as effecting; and *permission*, which is the sign of the will justly deserting. And it deserts justly, because it is just that it should so administer the things which it founded as not to infringe the laws which it implanted in them; and thus that it should cooperate « with the things which it created, so as to let them exercise their own motions »: and therefore, if it lets free choice, changeable to either side by the law of nature, fall into evil, it does not *permit* this except justly.

Again, if it goes before and sustains by grace, it does injury to no one; therefore it acts neither *unjustly* nor *altogether justly* according to the exigency of merits, since merits do not suffice for this; but *freely and mercifully* and *in a certain way justly*, so far as befits its own goodness. When, therefore, it condemns and reprobates, it works according to *justice*; but when it predestines, according to *grace and mercy*, which does not exclude justice. Since therefore all, according as they were of the mass of perdition, deserved to be condemned, therefore more are reprobated than are chosen, so that it may be shown that *salvation* is according to special grace, but *damnation* according to common justice. No one, therefore, can complain of the divine will, since it does all things most rightly; rather, in all things we ought to give thanks and honor the governance of divine providence. — But if anyone should ask why the gift of grace is bestowed on one sinner rather than on another, here silence must be imposed upon human garrulity, and we must cry out with the Apostle: *O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and recompense shall be made him? For of him, and by him, and in him, are all things. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.*

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