Dist. 48, Art. 2, Q. 1
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-a2-q1
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### Article II. *On the obligation of conforming our will to the divine.*
### Question I. *Whether we are bound to conform our will to the divine will in the manner of willing.*

That we are bound [to conform it] in the manner of willing, is shown.

1. Because we are bound to do justly what we do. Hence *Deuteronomy* sixteen: *Thou shalt justly pursue what is just*; but it is not done justly except as man acts according to a conformity of will as to the manner of willing, namely, that he will from charity: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, we are bound to love God with our whole heart, since this is commanded in *Deuteronomy* six, and the Lord repeats the same in *Matthew* twenty-two; but this cannot be done except from charity: therefore we are bound to conformity in the manner, that is, in the form, of willing.

3. Likewise, we are bound truly to obey God; but no one truly obeys God except he who acts with the will that God accepts. But this is the will informed by charity: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, "that on account of which a thing [is so], is itself more so"; but on account of the conformity of will in the manner of willing we are obliged to conformity of will in the thing willed, since the end of the precept is charity, as the Apostle says in the first to *Timothy*, chapter one: therefore much more strongly are we obliged to conformity in the manner of willing, so that what we will, we may will from charity.

**On the contrary:**

1. God wills and commands parents to be honored; granted that opportunity offers itself, and someone honors his father out of natural piety, not out of charity, it is clear that he does not sin; and yet he conforms his will only in the thing willed: therefore he is not bound to the manner of willing.

2. Likewise, if we are bound to conform our will to the divine in the manner of willing as well as in the thing willed, then whenever we will anything not out of charity, that to which we are bound is lacking: therefore we sin in every act: therefore no act is indifferent.

3. Likewise, if we are bound to conform in the manner of willing, since a sinful man has a will continually deficient from God in this respect — because he does not have charity — therefore he sins continually in every instant.

4. Likewise, no one can conform his will to the divine in the manner of willing unless he have charity; but to have charity is not in our power: therefore man is bound to the impossible. If you say that he can do that which, once done, he will have charity, because he can dispose himself to charity; the objection is raised concerning the obstinate man, and concerning him who is actually in sin: while he sins and is in that act, he cannot conform himself: therefore he is not bound. And if he is not bound, while others are bound, he reaps an advantage from his malice; and if this is not fitting, then no one is bound.

### Conclusion.

> **Conclusion.** Our will is bound to be conformed to the divine will in the manner of willing — and indeed, insofar as it is a negative precept, always and for always; but insofar as it is affirmative, not for always, but for [the proper] place and time.

**Respondeo:** It must be said that we are bound to conform our will to the divine will in the manner of willing, so that, if we will anything, we will it from charity; and this is plain, because we are bound to love him from charity.

But it must be observed that this is an obligation by way of an *affirmative* precept. For the obligation of an *affirmative* and of a *negative* precept differs; for the negative obliges always and for always; but the affirmative only obliges always, but not for always, but rather according to place and time; and just as it does not oblige for always, so neither does it oblige to every act of the will, nor to every precept, but only when we are bound to issue forth in an act of charity.

Whence it is to be noted that we are so bound to this, that never to the contrary — as it would be to will what God wills out of lust. To this also we are bound according to place and time, if we have charity; but if we do not have it, we are not bound to this, but to the equivalent, since we are bound to do what is in us, in order that we may have it; and to this likewise we are obliged according to place and time. From these things the response to the objections is plain.

**To the arguments:**

*To 1, 2, 3.* What is objected, that someone honors his parents without sin even from natural piety; it must be said that this is true; and from this it follows that he is not bound to conform in every act — yet it does not follow that he is not bound. And through this the next objection, which urges the generality of acts, is also clear. Likewise the other objection, which urges the generality of time, is clear.

*To 4.* To that which is objected last, that it is not in our power to have charity; it must be said that it is in the power of those who have charity, and in the power of those who do not have it — not in proximate, but in dispositive power. For anyone can do that which, once done, he will have charity; and therefore, if he does not do it, it is imputed to him, nor is he excused by impossibility, since there is no impossibility where power is supplied from elsewhere, and it does not fail except through our own negligence.

To that which is objected concerning the obstinate man, it must be said that no one is so obstinate that he cannot do what is in himself, and who cannot return to the heart; and therefore he is bound just as others are, although not for every instant, but for [the proper] place and time.

If, however, you ask what the place and time are; unction teaches this better than art does; nevertheless, when the Lord visits him by interior address, or by exterior preaching, or by some such thing in which there is opportunity for returning to the heart, if he then neglects it, he falls into contempt and into the sin of omission.