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072 - Lxxii That In God There Is Will · Summa Contra Gentiles, First Book (On God)

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventy two of Suma Contragentilees, First Book on God
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  Speaker 1: by Saint Thomas Aquinas translated by the Fathers of the
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  Speaker 1: English Dominican Province. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventy two that in God there is will. After
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  Speaker 1: discussing the matters concerning the knowledge of the divine intellect,
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  Speaker 1: it remains for us to consider the divine will. For
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  Speaker 1: from the fact that there is intelligence in God, it
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  Speaker 1: follows that in him there is will. Because since the
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  Speaker 1: good understood is the proper object of the will, it
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  Speaker 1: follows that the good understood as such is willed. Now
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  Speaker 1: understood indicates a reference to one who understands. It follows, therefore,
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  Speaker 1: of necessity, that one who understands good as such as
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  Speaker 1: a will, Now God understands good. For since he is
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  Speaker 1: perfectly intelligent shown above, he understands being simultaneously with the
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  Speaker 1: notion of good. Therefore in him there is will. Again,
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  Speaker 1: whatever has a form is thereby related to things actually existing. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: white timber, by its whiteness, is like some things and
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  Speaker 1: unlike others. Now in intelligent and sensient subjects there is
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  Speaker 1: the form of the thing understood and sensed, because all
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  Speaker 1: knowledge is through some likeness. Therefore, there must be a
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  Speaker 1: relation in the intelligent or sensient subject to the things
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  Speaker 1: understood or sensed, according as the latter actually exist. This
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  Speaker 1: is not due to the fact that they understand or sense,
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  Speaker 1: because in this respect, rather is there a relation in
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  Speaker 1: things to the intelligent or sensient subject, since intelligence and
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  Speaker 1: sensation depend on things being in the intellect and sense
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  Speaker 1: according to the respective modes of each. But the sensient
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  Speaker 1: and the intelligent subject have, by the will and appetite
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  Speaker 1: a relation to things outside the mind. Wherefore every sensient
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  Speaker 1: and intelligent subject has an appetite and will, although properly speaking,
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  Speaker 1: will is in an intellect. Since then God is intelligent,
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  Speaker 1: it follows that he has a will. Moreover, that which
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  Speaker 1: is consequent upon every being belongs to being as such,
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  Speaker 1: and a thing of this kind must needs be found,
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  Speaker 1: especially in that which is the first being. Now, it
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  Speaker 1: is competent to every being to desire its own perfection
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  Speaker 1: and the preservation of its being, And to each one
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  Speaker 1: this is competent according to its mode, to intelligent beings,
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  Speaker 1: by will, to animals by sensitive appetite, to those that
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  Speaker 1: are devoid of sense by natural appetite, to those, however,
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  Speaker 1: who have it otherwise than to those who have it not.
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  Speaker 1: For those who have it not by the appetitive power
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  Speaker 1: of their genus, tend with a desire to acquire what
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  Speaker 1: is lacking to them, whereas those who have it are
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  Speaker 1: at rest therein. Wherefore this cannot be lacking to the
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  Speaker 1: first being, which is God, Since then he is intelligent,
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  Speaker 1: there is will in him, whereby his being and his
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  Speaker 1: goodness are pleasing to him. Again, the more perfect the
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  Speaker 1: act of understanding is, the more delightful is it to
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  Speaker 1: the one who understands. Now, God understands, and his act
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  Speaker 1: of understanding is most perfect, as was proved above. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: to understand is to him most delightful. But intellectual delight
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  Speaker 1: is by the will, even as sensitive delight is by
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  Speaker 1: the appetite of concupiscence. Therefore there is will in God. Further,
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  Speaker 1: a form considered by the intellect neither moves nor causes
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  Speaker 1: anything except through the medium of the will, whose object
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  Speaker 1: is an end and a good by which one is
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  Speaker 1: moved to act. Wherefore, the speculative intellect does not move,
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  Speaker 1: nor does the soul imagination. Without the stip pimative power. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the form of the divine intellect is the cause of
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  Speaker 1: being and movement in other things. For God moves things
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  Speaker 1: by his intellect, as we shall prove further on. Therefore
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  Speaker 1: it follows that he has a will. Again, the first
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  Speaker 1: of motive powers in intelligent beings is the will, because
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  Speaker 1: the will applies every power to its act. For we
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  Speaker 1: understand because we will, we imagine because we will, and
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  Speaker 1: so forth. And the will has this because its object
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  Speaker 1: is the end. Although the intellect, not by way of
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  Speaker 1: efficient and moving cause, but by way of final cause,
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  Speaker 1: moves the will by putting its object before it, which
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  Speaker 1: object is the end. Therefore it is especially fitting that
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  Speaker 1: the first mover should have a will. Further, the free
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  Speaker 1: is that which is its own cause, and so the
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  Speaker 1: free has the aspect of that which is of itself. Now,
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  Speaker 1: liberty of action is seeded primarily in the will, for
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  Speaker 1: in so far as one acts voluntarily, one is said
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  Speaker 1: to perform any action whatever freely. Therefore, it is especially
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  Speaker 1: fitting that the first agent should act by will, since
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  Speaker 1: to him it is most competent to act of himself. Moreover,
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  Speaker 1: the end and the agent in tending the end are
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  Speaker 1: always of the same order in things. Wherefore the proximate end,
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  Speaker 1: which is proportionate to the agent, is of the same
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  Speaker 1: species as the agent in works, both of nature and
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  Speaker 1: of art. For the form of the art whereby the
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  Speaker 1: craftsman works, is the species of the form that is
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  Speaker 1: in matter, and is the end of the craftsmen. And
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  Speaker 1: the form of the generating fire, whereby the fire acts,
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  Speaker 1: is of the same species as the form of the
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  Speaker 1: fire generated, which form is the end of the generation.
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  Speaker 1: Now nothing is coordinate with God, as though it were
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  Speaker 1: of the same order, except God himself. Otherwise there would
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  Speaker 1: be several first beings, and we have shown the contrary
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  Speaker 1: to be the case. He is therefore the first agent,
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  Speaker 1: intending an end, which is himself. Therefore, he not only
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  Speaker 1: is a desirable end, but also desires himself, so to speak,
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  Speaker 1: as an end. And since he is intelligent, he desires
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  Speaker 1: himself by intellectual appetite. And this is will. Therefore in
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  Speaker 1: God there is will. Holy writ bears witness to this
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  Speaker 1: will of God, for it is said in the Psalm,
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  Speaker 1: whatsoever the Lord willed, he hath done, And in Romans
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  Speaker 1: nine nineteen, who resisteth his will? End of Chapter seventy two,
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  Speaker 1: read by Michael Shane, Craig, Lambert, Elsie