Dist. 40, 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/40/q/bon-sent-II-d40-a1-q3
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### Question III. *Whether intention without good works suffices to merit eternal life.*

Thirdly inquiry is made about the goodness of works as to necessity, namely whether intention without good works suffices to merit eternal life.

And that it does so, seems [the case].

1. Bernard, *On Free Choice*: "Intention suffices for merit, a good action is required for example": therefore it seems that, as regards the merit of eternal life, the goodness of the exterior action is not necessary.

2. Likewise, on that text of the Psalm: *I said, I will confess*; the Gloss: "The vow is judged in place of the work": therefore *to will well* is worth as much as to will and to work: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, Gregory in a certain Homily: "The hand is not empty of a gift, when the ark of the heart has been filled with good will": therefore the fullness of intention and of will is equivalent to the fullness of operation: therefore without that [operation] it can suffice for salvation.

4. Likewise, to merit eternal life is in our power; but exterior works are not in our power: therefore it seems that exterior works are not necessary for meriting eternal life: therefore for the merit of eternal life intention alone seems to suffice.

5. Likewise, intention and will do not depend on the work: therefore, the work not existing, there can be goodness both in the will and in the intention; but he who has a good will and intention is just, and every such person has what suffices him for eternal life: therefore for the merit of eternal life intention seems to suffice without exterior operation.

**On the contrary:** 1. Matthew, chapter twenty-five: *I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat*; thus the Lord will say to the reprobate, and on account of this he will bring the sentence of damnation against them: if therefore a person is damned on account of the lack of good works, the exercise of good works is necessary for salvation: therefore intention without works does not suffice for merit.

2. Likewise, in the Canonical [Epistle] of James, chapter two: *Faith without works is dead*; but intention is not more efficacious for meriting than faith: therefore if faith does not suffice for merit without works, by parity of reasoning neither does intention.

3. Likewise, Gregory in a certain Homily: "The love of God is never idle; for it works great things, if it is present; but if it neglects to work, love is not present": therefore if works are not present, the truth of love is not present. But nothing is meritorious of eternal life without the true love of charity: therefore, works being removed, intention does not suffice for merit.

4. Likewise, the Philosopher says that for virtue
three things are required, namely "to know and to will and to work unchangeably": therefore if there is no operation, the account of virtue is not preserved. But where the account of virtue is not preserved, neither will the sufficiency of merit be able to be preserved: therefore it seems that without operation we do not condignly and sufficiently merit eternal life.

5. Likewise, if intention alone or the interior will were to suffice for merit; but for one having grace it is most easy to will the good: therefore it would be most easy to merit eternal life; the contrary of which the Lord says in Matthew, chapter seven, when he says that *narrow is the way that leads to life*.

### Conclusion.

> For the merit of eternal life in him who has the faculty of acting well, the goodness of intention does not suffice without the goodness of the exterior work.

**I respond:** It must be said that, when it is asked whether intention and the interior will suffice for merit without the exterior work, a distinction must be made. For either he who has the intention has the faculty of acting well, or not. If he does not have the faculty: since no one is obligated to the impossible, if he has a good will and a direct intention, then the fullness of the internal will alone suffices him for the merit of eternal life without exterior operation. But if the faculty be present, and the opportunity offers itself, intention cannot suffice for merit without the work.

Now the reason for this is the obligation of the divine command, and the perfection of virtue, and the fullness of the will. The obligation of the divine command brings it about that intention without works does not suffice, when the opportunity and faculty offer themselves. For the commands of God oblige not only to *willing*, but also to *doing*; and therefore he who does not fulfill the divine commands, when he can, rather merits wrath than merits glory. — The perfection of virtue too is the reason why intention alone does not suffice, since "virtue is the utmost of a power," and therefore it elevates the power to something great and arduous. But the powers of the soul do not have their utility or complete perfection unless they go forth into the works due to them, when the faculty and opportunity are present. And therefore that intention, by which one wills and intends the good, and yet does not do it, though he can, is not a virtuous intention, and through this not meritorious either. — The fullness of the will too is the reason why intention alone does not suffice: since a full will posits the effect, if the faculty be present; otherwise a man is not said to will something fully, if he does not do it, though he can do it; but he wills half-fully and lazily, like *the sluggard*, who *wills and wills not*. And therefore Gregory says that "no one ought to flatter himself about a good will; rather, for the love of the Creator, tongue, mind, and hand must be required," and, as blessed John exhorts us in the first Canonical [Epistle], chapter three, we ought to love not only *in word and tongue, but in deed and in truth*. — Since therefore, when the faculty is present and the opportunity offers itself, without exterior works there is neither *the fulfillment of God's commands*, nor *the perfection of virtue*, nor *the fullness of the will*; and without these there is no sufficiency of merit: hence it is that for the merit of eternal life the goodness of intention does not suffice without the goodness of the exterior work. And the reasons which show this are to be conceded.

**To the arguments for the affirmative part:**

1. To that, then, which is objected first to the contrary, from Bernard, that good intention suffices for merit; it must be said that he speaks of the intention of those works which are not under precept, not by reason of the others which are under precept. — Or it must be said that he speaks in that case when, namely, the faculty of acting well exteriorly is not present.

2. To that which is objected, that *the will is reckoned for the deed*; it must be said that this is true when the opportunity and faculty of acting well do not offer themselves.

3. But to that [text] of Gregory, that *the hand is not empty of a gift* etc.; it must be said that force is to be made on this, that he says: "when the ark of the heart has been filled with good will"; for never, as was said before, does he fully have a good will who can do that good of which he has the will, and does not arrive at the fruit.

4. To that which is objected, that works are not in our power; it must be said that this concludes only that, in that case, intention suffices when the faculty for completing the good operation is lacking.

5. To that which is objected, that a good will does not depend on the work; it must be said that it is true; nevertheless, when the faculty is present, a full will necessarily posits the good work, so that, if the good work is not posited, either the will was never full, or it ceases to be full. Therefore that it does not suffice without works—this is not because the fullness of the good will depends on works, but because a good will, if it is full, necessarily overflows into good works, the faculty and opportunity offering themselves.