ARTICLE IV

In the Fourth Article We Ask: DOES GOD OF NECESSITY WILL WHATEVER HE WILLS?

Difficulties:

It seems that He does, for

1. Everything that is eternal is necessary. But from eternity God wills whatever He wills. Therefore of necessity He wills whatever He wills.

2. The answer was given that God's willing is necessary and eternal on the part of the One willing both from the viewpoint of the act of will, which is the divine essence, and from that of the reason for willing, which is the divine goodness; but not under the aspect of the relation of the will to the thing willed.--On the contrary, the very fact of God's willing anything implies a relationship of the will to the thing willed. But the fact of God's willing something is eternal. Then the relationship of the will to the thing willed is itself eternal and necessary.

3. The answer was given that the relationship to the thing willed is eternal and necessary inasmuch as the thing willed exists in its exemplary idea, not inasmuch as it exists in itself or in its own nature.--On the contrary, a thing is willed by the fact of having the will of God referred to it. Consequently, if the will of God were not referred from all eternity to the thing willed as it exists in itself but merely as it exists in its exemplary idea, then a temporal fact, such as the salvation of Peter, would not be willed by God from all eternity as it exists in its own nature; but it would merely be the object of God's will from all eternity as it exists in God's eternal ideas. But this is obviously false.

4. Whatever God has willed or wills, after He wills or has willed it, He is unable not to will or not to have willed it. But whatever God wills He never has not willed, because He always and from all eternity has willed whatever He wills. God is therefore unable not to will whatever He wills. Whatever He wills He therefore wills from necessity.

5. The answer was given that the above argument is based upon God's willing taken from the viewpoint of the One willing or of the act or of the reason for willing, not from that of its relationship to the thing willed.--On the contrary, to create is an act which always implies a relation to its effect, for it connotes a temporal effect. But the above reasoning would be verified concerning creation if it were supposed that God had always been creating, because what He has created He is unable not to have created. It therefore follows with necessity also from the viewpoint of the relation to the thing willed.

6. To be and to will are one and the same for God. But God must necessarily be everything that He is, because "in everlasting beings there is no difference between being and being able to be" in the words of the Philosopher. God must therefore also necessarily will everything that He wills.

7. The answer was given that, although to will and to be are in this case really identica, they nevertheless differ in the manner in which they are expressed, because to will is expressed after the manner of an act that passes over into something else.--On the contrary, even God's act of being, though really identical with His essence, nevertheless differs in the manner of its expression, because to be is expressed after the manner of an act. There is therefore no difference in this respect between being and willing.

8. Eternity does not admit of succession. But divine willing is measured by eternity. Hence there cannot be any succession in it. But there would be succession in it if God did not will what He has willed from eternity, or if He willed what He has not willed. It is consequently impossible for Him to will what He has not willed or not to will what He has willed. Hence whatever He wills He wills from necessity, and whatever He does not will He necessarily does not will.

9. It is impossible for anyone who has willed anything not to have willed it, because what has been done is unable not to have been done. But in God to will and to have willed are identical because the act of His will is not new but is eternal. God is therefore unable not to will what He wills; and so He necessarily wills what He wills.

10. The answer was given that He necessarily wills from the point of view of His reason for willing, but not from that of the thing willed.--On the contrary, God's reason for willing is Himself, because He wills for Himself whatever He wills. Then, if He necessarily wills Himself, He will also necessarily will all other things.

11. The reason for willing is the end. But according to the Philosopher in matters of appetite and operation the end occupies the same place as the principle in matters of demonstration. Now in matters of demonstration, if the principles are necessary, a necessary conclusion follows. Hence also in matters of appetite, if a person wills the end, he necessarily wills the means to the end; and so, if the divine act of willing is necessary from the standpoint of the reason for willing, it will also be necessary with reference to the things willed.

12. Whoever can will and not will something can begin to will it. But God cannot begin to will something. Hence He cannot will and not will something; and so He necessarily wills whatever He wills.

13. God's power and knowledge, like His will, imply a relation to creatures. But it is necessary for God to be able to do anything that He is able to do, and it is necessary for Him to know whatever He knows. It is therefore necessary for Him to will whatever He wills.

14. Whatever is always the same is necessary. But the relation of the divine will to the things willed is always the same. It is therefore necessary; and so the divine act of willing is also necessary from the standpoint of its relationship to the substance of the thing willed.

15. If God wills that there shall be an Antichrist, it follows with necessity that there will be an Antichrist even though it is not necessary that there should be an Antichrist. Now this would not be the case if there were not a necessary relation or reference of the divine will to the thing willed. The divine act of willing inasmuch as it implies a relation of the will to the thing willed is therefore itself necessary.

16. The relation of the divine will to the reason for willing is the cause of the relation of the divine will to the thing willed, for the will is directed to some object because of the reason for willing. Between the two relations, moreover, there does not fall any contingent intermediary. When a necessary cause is placed, a necessary effect follows unless there happens to be a contingent cause between them. Consequently, since the divine act of will is necessary in its relation to the reason for willing, it will also be necessary in its relation to the thing willed; and so God wills necessarily whatever He wills.

To the Contrary:

1'. God's will is more fully free than our will. But our will does not necessarily will whatever it wills. Then neither does God's.

2'. Necessity is opposed to gratuitous willing. But God wills the salvation of men with a gratuitous will. He therefore does not will from necessity.

3'. Since nothing extrinsic to God can impose necessity upon Him, if He willed anything from necessity, He would will it only from the necessity of His own nature. The same consequence would therefore follow from positing that God acts by His will and from positing that He acts by the necessity of nature. Now since it follows for those who hold that God acts by the necessity of nature that all things have been made by Him from all eternity, the same conclusion would follow for us, who hold that He makes all things by His will.

REPLY:

It is undoubtedly true that the divine act of willing has necessity from the point of view of the One willing and of the act; for God's action is His essence, which is clearly eternal. That is accordingly not the question, but rather whether God's willing has any necessity with respect to the thing willed. It is this respect which is understood when we say that God wills this or that. And this is what we ask about when we ask whether God wills anything from necessity.

It should therefore be noted that the object of any will is twofold: one which is principal and another which is, in a sense, secondary. The principal object is that to which the will is directed of its own nature, since the will is a nature and has a natural ordination to something. This is what the will naturally wills, as the human will naturally desires happiness. In regard to this object the will is under necessity, since it tends to it in the manner of a nature. A man, for instance, cannot will to be miserable or not to be happy. Secondary objects of the will are the things which are directed to this principal object as to an end. Now upon these two different sorts of objects the will has a different bearing, just as the intellect has upon the principles which are naturally known and the conclusions which it draws out of these.

The divine will has as its principal object that which it naturally wills and which is a sort of end of its willing, God's own goodness, on account of which He wills whatever else He wills distinct from Himself. For He makes things on account of His own goodness, as Augustine says; that is to say, He does it in order that His goodness, which cannot be multiplied in its essence, may at least by a certain participation through likeness be poured out upon many recipients. Hence the things which He wills concerning creatures are, as it were, the secondary objects of His will. He wills them on account of His goodness. Thus the divine goodness serves His will as the reason for willing all things, just as His essence is the reason for His knowing all things.

In regard to that principal object, God's goodness, the divine will is under a necessity, not of force but of natural ordination, which is not incompatible with freedom, according to Augustine. God cannot will Himself not to be good, nor, consequently, not to be intelligent or powerful or anything else which the nature of His goodness includes.

It is not, however, under any necessity in regard to any other object. Since the reason for willing the means is the end, the means stands to the will in the same relation as it stands to the end. Hence if the means is proportioned to the end so that it embraces the end perfectly and without it the end cannot be obtained, the means, like the end, is desired of necessity, and especially by a will which cannot depart from the rule of wisdom. It seems to be all of a piece, for instance, to desire the continuance of life and the taking of food by which life is sustained and without which it cannot be preserved.

But just as no effect of God is equal to the power of the cause, so nothing which is directed to God as its end is equal to the end. No creature is made perfectly like God. That is the exclusive property of the uncreated Word. From this it comes about that, no matter how much more nobly any pure creature is related to God, being assimilated to Him in some way, it is still possible for some other creature to be related to God and to represent the divine goodness in a manner equally noble.

It is accordingly clear that from the love which God has for His own goodness there is no necessity in the divine will for willing this or that concerning a creature. Nor is there any necessity in it as regards the whole of creation, since the divine goodness is perfect in itself, and would be so even though no creature existed, because God has no need of our goods, as is said in the Psalm (15:2). For the divine goodness is not an end of the kind which is produced by the means to the end, but rather one by which the things which are directed to it are produced and perfected. For this reason Avicenna says that only God's action is purely liberal, because nothing accrues to Him from what He wills or does regarding any creature.

It is therefore clear from what has been said that whatever God wills to be in His own regard He wills from necessity, but whatever He wills to be concerning creatures He does not will from necessity.

Answers to Difficulties:

1. Something is said to be necessary in two ways: (1) absolutely, and (2) conditionally. Something is said to be necessary absolutely because of a necessary relation which the terms used in a proposition have to each other; e.g., "Man is an animal" or "Every whole is greater than its part" and the like. But something is necessary conditionally which is not necessary of itself but only if something else is given; e.g., "Socrates has run." In himself Socrates is no more disposed to this than to its opposite; but on the condition that he has run it is impossible for him not to have run.

I say, therefore, that God's willing something in creatures, as that Peter be saved, is not necessary absolutely, since the divine will does not have a necessary relation to this, as is evident from what has been said.* But on the condition that God wills or has willed it, then it is impossible for Him not to have willed or not to will it, since His will is unchangeable. Among the theologians such necessity is accordingly called the necessity of unchangeability. Now the fact that God's act of willing is not absolutely necessary comes from the thing willed, which falls short of a perfect proportion to the end, as has been said.* In this respect the answer given above is verified. And eternity is to be distinguished in the same way as necessity.

2. The relationship implied is necessary and eternal conditionally, not absolutely; and this is from the standpoint of its termination in the object, not only as it has its exemplar in the reason for willing, but also as in its own nature it exists in time.

3. This we concede.

4. After God wills or has willed something, that He wills or has willed it is necessary conditionally, not absolutely; as it is that Socrates has run, after he has run. This is the case with creation or any act of the divine will which terminates in something external.

5. We concede this.

6. Although the divine existence is necessary in itself, yet creatures do not proceed from God through necessity but through a free act of will. Whatever implies a reference of God to the origin of creatures, as to will, to create, etc., is not necessary absolutely, like the predicates which refer to God in Himself, such as to be good, living, wise, etc.

7. To be does not express the kind of act which is an operation passing over into something external to be produced in time, but rather the act that is primary. To will, however, expresses a secondary act, which is an operation. Thus it is from the different manner of expression that something is attributed to the divine act of being which is not attributed to the divine act of willing.

8. We do not imply succession if we say that God can will or not will something unless this is understood in the sense that, on the condition that He wills something, it is asserted that He afterward does not will it. But this is excluded by our affirmation that God's willing something is necessary conditionally.

9. God's having willed what He has willed is necessary conditionally, not absolutely. The same is true of God's willing what He wills.

10. Although God necessarily wills that He be, it nevertheless does not follow that He wills other things necessarily. Nothing is said to be necessary by reason of the end except when it is such that without it the end cannot be had, as is evident in the Metaphysics. But that is not the case in the point at issue.

11. If the principle is necessary in syllogisms, it does not follow that the conclusion is necessary unless the relationship of the principle to the conclusion is also necessary. In the same way, no matter how necessary the end is, unless the means has a necessary relationship to the end so that without it the end cannot exist, there will be no necessity arising from the end in the means; just as, even though the principles may be true, if the conclusion is false because of the lack of a necessary relationship, no necessity on the part of the conclusion follows from the necessity of the principles.

12. If anyone who can will and not will can will after he has been unwilling and can be unwilling after he has willed, he can begin to will. If he wills, he can cease to will and again begin to will. If he does not will, he can immediately begin to will. God cannot will and not will in this way because of the unchangeableness of the divine will. But He can will and not will inasmuch as His will is not bound on its part to will or not to will. It remains, then, that God's willing something is necessary conditionally, not absolutely.

13. Although knowledge and power imply a relation to creatures, they nevertheless pertain to the very perfection of the divine essence, in which there can be nothing except what is necessary of itself. A thing is said to have knowledge because the thing known is in the knower. Something is said to have power to do something inasmuch as it is in complete act with respect to that which is to be done. Whatever is in God, however, must necessarily be in Him; and whatever God actually is, He must necessarily be actually. But when it is said that God wills something, that something is not designated as being in God, but there is merely implied the relationship of God Himself to the production of that thing in its own nature. From this point of view the condition of absolute necessity is accordingly lacking, as was said above.

14. That relationship is always the same because of the immutability of the divine will. The argument is accordingly conclusive only in regard to the necessary which is conditional.

15. The will has a twofold relation to its object: (1) inasmuch as the latter is the object, and (2) inasmuch as it is to be brought into act by the will. The second relation presupposes the first. We first understand that the will wills something. Then, from the fact that it wills it, we understand that it is bringing it forth into reality, if the will is efficacious. The first relation of the divine will to its object is not necessary in an absolute sense because of the lack of proportion of the object to the end, which is the reason for willing, as has been said.* Hence it is not necessary absolutely that God will it. But the second relation is necessary because of the efficacy of the divine will; and for this reason it follows of necessity that if God wills anything with His embracing will, it comes about.

16. Although between the two relations mentioned in the difficulty there intervenes no contingent cause, yet because of the lack of proportion the necessity of the first relation does not introduce necessity into the second, as is clear from what has been said.*

Answers to Contrary Difficulties:

1'-2'. These we concede.

3'. The difficulty about the freedom of the will has already been solved inasmuch as the necessity of the order of nature is not incompatible with freedom, but only the necessity of force.