Dist. 48, Art. 1, Q. 2
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/1/d/48/q/bon-sent-I-d48-a1-q2
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### Question II. *Whether the conformity of our will to the divine makes it just.*

Secondly it is asked whether the conformity of our will to the divine makes it just. And that it does, seems [to be the case]:

1. Because on that text of the Psalm, *Praise becomes the upright*, the Gloss [says]: « The upright are those who direct their heart according to the will of God, which is upright ».

2. Likewise, in the second [letter] to the *Corinthians*, sixth: *What participation has justice with iniquity? or what fellowship has light with darkness?* — as if to say: none. If, therefore, the divine will is justice and light, [and] if the human will be iniquitous, it cannot be conformed [to it]: therefore if it is conformed, it must necessarily be just.

3. Likewise, to be conformed to the rule of justice is nothing other than to be justified; but the divine will is the rule of justice, because it cannot be deflected toward anything iniquitous: therefore to be conformed to the divine will is to be justified.

4. Likewise, our intellect cannot be conformed to the divine without being made true: therefore neither can our affection be conformed to the divine without being made just; for as truth is the rectitude of the intellect, so justice is the rectitude of the affection.

**On the contrary:**

1. The Master says, and it is a saying of Augustine, that « the good will of God is fulfilled through the evil wills of men »; but one effect does not proceed from one cause through another, unless those causes are conformed to one another: therefore it happens that an evil will is conformed to the divine.

2. Likewise, conformity of wills consists in willing and not-willing the same thing; but the impious man can will and not-will what God wills and does not will, as Augustine sets forth in the example of the wicked son, who wishes his father to die, which God also wills: therefore conformity does not make the will just.

3. Likewise, although the will of God is blessed, nevertheless the will conformed to it is not on that account blessed: therefore, by like reasoning, although [the divine will] is just, the conformed will is not on that account just.

4. Likewise, if conformity makes the will just, since [God] wills that the man who suffers injury be avenged, [then] if the one who suffers injury wills to avenge himself, he wills justly: therefore it is just to exact vengeance. If you say that God wills the man to be avenged, but does not will that the man avenge himself; this does not solve [the difficulty], because at least it would then be permitted to the man to desire that God avenge him.

### Conclusion.

> **Conclusion.** The conformity of our will to the divine both according to act and according to the thing willed makes it just; but not the sole conformity in the thing willed.

**Respondeo:** It must be said that the conformity of our will to the divine is observed according to proportion, as has been said. There is, however, a twofold proportion of the will, namely to the act and to the thing willed. The like proportion to the act consists in this: that, as God wills what he wills out of charity and liberally, or justly and with a right end, so also man wills. The like proportion to the object is that what God wills, man also wills.

Conformity can therefore be observed according to this twofold likeness and comparison; and so it is sufficient and makes the will just. It can again be observed only according to one [of these], for example, according to the thing willed; and so it is deficient, since it lacks the like relation, and this does not suffice for justice.

From the first conformity proceed the first reasons; from the second, the second.

3. As for that which is objected in the third place, that conformity does not make the soul blessed, therefore neither just; it must be said that beatitude bespeaks consummate justice. Hence more is required for the will to be made blessed than to be made just; and therefore it does not follow that if it does not make [the will] blessed, it does not make it just. Yet, just as sufficient conformity, which is in the thing willed and in the manner of willing, makes the will just, so super-excelling conformity makes it blessed. That [conformity] is super-excelling when it is conformed to the divine in all things and is from no part difform, nor in anything, even in a little.

4. As for that which is objected last, the response is now plain; because the one desiring vengeance does not conform himself to God in the manner or in the manner of willing. For God, as a just judge, wills this with zeal for justice; but he who desires the avenging of himself, or of his own injury, for the most part wills [it] with the lust of vengeance. But if anyone desires [it] only with zeal for justice, as God [does], and out of charity, then I should say that he has a just will.