Dist. 28, Art. 1, Q. 3
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/2/d/28/q/bon-sent-II-d28-a1-q3
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### Question III. *Whether free choice without grace that makes pleasing can fulfill all the commandments.*

Thirdly it is asked whether, without grace that makes pleasing, free choice can fulfill all the commandments. And that it can, it seems.

1. Deuteronomy chapter thirty: *The commandment that I command you this day is not above you nor far off,* etc. And afterward: *But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it;* but this would not be so, if the observance of the commandments were above the power of free choice: therefore it seems that, without grace that makes pleasing — which is above the power of free choice — it happens that the commandments of God are kept and fulfilled.

2. Likewise, this is seen by the authority of the New Testament, Matthew chapter eleven: *My yoke is sweet, and my burden light;* but this would not be so, if the commandments of God were above the power of free choice: therefore, etc.

3. Likewise, this is seen by reason. God is much more kindly toward his servants than a man is; but a man can keep the commandments of a man without grace that makes pleasing, which are grievous and many: therefore it seems that much more strongly can he keep the divine commandments.

4. Likewise, in the commandments of God either the very kinds of works are enjoined, or formed works are enjoined. If formed works are enjoined: then he who honors his father with natural devotion, not doing it out of charity, seems to omit that commandment by which it is enjoined: *Honor your father and mother*, and to sin mortally; which is absurd to say. If therefore the very kinds of works are within the precept; and this is certain, that we can do them without grace that makes pleasing: it seems that the divine commandments may be fulfilled without the gift of grace that makes pleasing.

5. Likewise, nothing is more difficult than to lay down one's soul for another, *for greater charity no one has* etc., as is said in John chapter fifteen; but without grace that makes pleasing one can undergo death for another: therefore much more strongly all the kinds of the other commandments.

**On the contrary, it is argued thus.**
1. Jeremiah chapter ten: *I know, O Lord, that the way of a man is not his own, nor is it in a man to walk and direct his steps;* but whoever fulfills the divine commandments directs his steps: therefore it is not within the power of a man to fulfill the divine commandments.

2. Likewise, Acts chapter fifteen: *This is a yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear; but by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we believe we are saved;* and he speaks there of the commandments of the Law: therefore it does not happen that the divine commandments are observed without divine grace.

3. Likewise, the observance of the commandments of God makes a man a friend of God, whence John chapter fifteen: *You are my friends* etc.; but no one can be made a friend of God without the gift of charity and of grace that makes pleasing: therefore it is impossible that the commandments of God be kept without such a gift.

4. Likewise, the observance of the commandments of God makes a man worthy of eternal life, whence Matthew chapter nineteen: *If you will enter into life, keep the commandments;* but no one can merit eternal life without the gift of the grace of God, as is said in Romans chapter six: *The grace of God, life everlasting:* therefore without it no one can observe the divine commandments.

5. Likewise, just as the foundation of the Old Law is fear, so the foundation of the Gospel is love, as the Apostle intimates in Romans chapter eight, and Augustine says expressly: therefore just as the commandments of the Old Law could not be observed without the fear of God, so the evangelical commandments cannot be fulfilled without the love of charity. But the gift of love is not without the gift of grace that makes pleasing: therefore without such a gift it does not happen that the divine commandments are fulfilled.

### Conclusion

> Man, through free choice without grace that makes pleasing, but with graces freely given, can fulfill the precepts of God as to the substance of the work, yet not as to the intention of the one commanding.

**I respond:** It must be said that the commandments of God happen to be fulfilled in two ways: in one way as to the kind of work, in another way as to the intention of the one commanding. If we speak of the fulfillment of the commandments as to the kind of work, in this way it happens that they are fulfilled through graces freely given — as the commandment concerning worship through faith, and the commandment concerning the honoring of parents through a certain natural devotion and piety, and so of the others. — In another way is to speak of the fulfillment of the commandments as to the intention of the one commanding; and in this way — because God commands the commandments to this end, that our will be conformed to his will, and this cannot be without charity, and charity cannot be without the gift of grace that makes pleasing — the commandments of God as to the intention of the one commanding cannot be observed without such a gift. And this is what the Apostle says in Romans chapter thirteen: *He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law;* and again: *The fullness of the law is love;* and in First Timothy chapter one: *The end of the precept is charity from a pure heart* etc. This very thing is also intimated in Deuteronomy chapter six, where, after the enumeration of the commandments of the decalogue, there is added the commandment of charity, by which it is said: *You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart* etc. — It is clear therefore from what has been said how great is the necessity of grace that makes pleasing, since it is necessary not only for the remission of sins, but also for the victory over temptations, and for the observance of the divine commandments. In many ways therefore did Pelagius err, who said that the gift of free choice could be had so that it would not need grace that makes pleasing. This position therefore having been repudiated as heretical, the grace of God is to be implored, through which sins are blotted out and diabolical temptations are conquered and the divine commandments are fulfilled — not only according to the *kind of work,* but also according to the *intention of the one commanding;* not only unto the *avoidance of punishment,* but also unto the *merit of glory.* For although the first mode of observing can be through grace freely given, the second mode cannot be without grace that makes pleasing, as was shown before. — And along this way proceed the reasons which show that without grace that makes pleasing the divine commandments cannot be fulfilled; whence they are also to be granted.

*To 1.* To that which is objected from Deuteronomy, that the commandment is not above man but near; it must be said that this is understood of observance as to the kind of work. But if it be understood of observance as to the intention of the one commanding, then it is said to be near, not because free choice can attain it by itself without the gift of grace, but because the grace of God is at hand to everyone; nor does anyone lack grace because grace is wanting to him, but because he himself is wanting to grace.

*To 2.* To that which is objected, that the commandments of God are light and sweet; it must be said that this is understood in respect of one having charity; for to a man having charity it is easy to love an enemy, but to one not having it, it is very difficult and as it were impossible. And there is an example in birds, which are light for flying when they have an abundance of feathers; but when they are deprived of feathers, they are heavy and cannot fly. Therefore the Lord says that his commandments are light, because to those willing to keep them and to be converted to him he gives charity and the feathers of the virtues, by which they can fly and easily raise themselves above themselves.

*To 3.* To that which is objected, that a man can fulfill the commandments of a man etc.; it must be said that it is not the same, because a man needs the service of a man and considers the outward act more than the inward intention. But God, who has no need of our goods, and looks more upon hearts than upon faces, does not accept the work of a man unless first the will of the man, through which those works are done, is acceptable to him.

*To 4, 5.* To the fourth and last argument the reply is sufficiently plain from what has been said. For they prove that the commandments of God can be kept without grace that makes pleasing as to the kind of work. And this indeed is true; for a man can fulfill that commandment: *Honor your father* etc., without grace, so as thus to avoid punishment. He could also do other commandments, aided by some grace freely given, and not only do certain things which seem arduous, but even suffer terrible things. In all these, however, the commandments would not be fulfilled according to the divine intention and acceptance, as the Apostle expressly says in First Corinthians chapter thirteen, enumerating the manifold kind of work, after which he adds: *If I have not charity, it profits me nothing.* And this was what Pelagius did not consider, on account of which he fell into error and believed that someone, from the mere observance of the commandments as to outward works, was worthy of eternal life; which is against pious and sound faith, as the Apostle explains in the authority cited above.

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