Dist. 44
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/44/q/bon-sent-II-d44-littera
----------------------------------------
# DISTINCTION XLIV.

### Chapter I. *On the power of sinning, whether it is from God to man or to the devil.*

After the foregoing matters it presents itself as worthy of consideration whether the power of sinning is from God to us, or from ourselves. — Some think that the power of acting rightly is from God to us, but the power of sinning is not from God, but from ourselves, or from the devil; just as an *evil will* is not from God to us, but from ourselves and from the devil, whereas a good one is from God alone to us. « For that the beginning of a good will and thought is not born to man from himself, but is divinely prepared and bestowed, God plainly shows in this, that neither the devil nor any of his Angels, from the time they were thrust down into this darkness, was able or will be able to resume a good will; for if it were possible that human nature, after, being turned away from God, it lost the goodness of its will, could of itself have it again from itself, much more possible would the angelic nature have this, which, the less it is weighed down by the burden of an earthly body, the more it would be endowed with this faculty ... Therefore neither man nor Angel can have a good will of himself, but only an evil one. And in like manner they say of *power* also, discoursing about the *power* of good or of evil after the likeness of the *will*, that the former is from God, not the latter. »

But by many testimonies of the Saints it is shown beyond doubt that all power of evil is from God, from whom is all power. For the Apostle says: *There is no power but from God*; which must be understood not of the power of good only, but also of evil, since to Pilate also the Truth says: *Thou shouldst have no power against me, unless it were given thee from above.* « For the malice of men, as Augustine says, has of itself the desire of doing harm; but power it has not, unless He give it ... And therefore the devil, before he took away anything of Job's, said to the Lord: *Put forth thy hand*, that is, give power, « for even the power of those who do harm is only from God, as Wisdom says: *By me kings reign, and tyrants by me hold the earth.* Whence Job says of the Lord: *Who maketh a hypocrite to reign for the sins of the people.* And of the people of Israel God says: *I gave them a king in my wrath* ». « For the will to do harm can be from the mind of man, but the power is only from God, and that by a hidden and fitting justice »; for by the power given to the devil God makes the just His own. Concerning this also Gregory in the *Morals* says: « It is the swelling of pride, not the order of power, that is in the crime. God bestows the power, but the malice of our mind devises the elation of power. Let us therefore take away what is from ourselves, since it is not just power, but the wicked deed, that is condemned ». — By these authorities and very many others it is evidently shown that there is no power of good or of evil to anyone except from a just God, even though His equity is hidden from thee.

### Chapter II. *Whether one must sometimes resist a power.*

Here arises a question not to be passed over in silence. It has been said above that the power of sinning and of doing harm is not in man or the devil except from God. But the Apostle says that *he who resists the power resists the ordinance of God.* Since therefore the devil has the power of evil by God's ordinance, it seems that his power must not be resisted. — But it must be known that the Apostle there speaks of secular power, namely the king and the prince and the like; whom one must not resist in those things which God commands to be rendered to them, namely in tributes and the like. But if some prince or the devil should command or persuade something against God, then it must be resisted. Whence Augustine, determining when a power must be resisted, in the book *On the Nature of the Good* says: « If a power commands something which thou oughtest not to do, here indeed despise the power, fearing a greater power. Consider the very grades of human affairs. If a curator commands something, is it to be done, if he commands against the proconsul? Again, if the proconsul himself commands something, and the emperor commands something else, is it doubted that, the former being despised, the latter is to be served? Therefore if the emperor commands one thing and God another, the former being despised, God is to be obeyed ». — Let us therefore resist the power of the devil or of man when it suggests something against God, wherein we do not resist God's ordinance, but obey it. For thus God has commanded, that in evil things we obey no power. — Now let us bend our whole consideration of mind to the understanding and treating of those things which pertain to the mystery of the incarnate Word, that we may be able, God revealing it, to utter at least some little about things ineffable.

*Here ends the second book.*

---