Chapter 37 of 100

I. Reply to the question

I. Reply to the question

Ordinatio I, d. 48, q. un.

"Is a created will morally good whenever it is in conformity with the uncreated will?"

1 Concerning distinction 48 I ask whether the human will—or, more generally, whether a created will—is morally good whenever it is in conformity with the uncreated will.

For the affirmative:

There is truth in a created intellect whenever it is in conformity with the uncreated intellect. Therefore, by analogy, a created will is good when it is in conformity with the uncreated will.

2 On the contrary:

The Jews willed that Christ suffer and die, which Christ also willed. And yet they sinned: "Forgive them, Father," he said, "for they know not what they do."1 Therefore, etc.

I. Reply to the question 3 I reply:

According to Dionysius, On the Divine Names, chapter 4 [§ 30], good is from a complete cause; and according to the Philosopher, Ethics II [1104b24–28], all the circumstances must concur at the same time in any given moral act in order for it to be morally good, whereas a defect in any one circumstance suffices for the act to be morally bad.

4 Therefore, a created will in conformity with the divine will as to the substance of the act, whether as to the substance as characterized by some one circumstance, or in conformity with the divine will in all the circumstances relevant to moral goodness

(and perhaps if it were in conformity with the divine will in all the circumstances, for example, if it willed for the same reason and in the same way, and so on for all the other circumstances), might still not be good, as the uncreated will is good. For the 1 Luke 23:34.

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