Sect. 83The Absolute Freedom of God’s WillThe Absolute Freedom of God’s Will
I. First of all it is certain that liberty of choice cannot be attributed to all the volitions of the Divine Will. God’s absolute perfection necessarily includes the absolutely perfect action of His Will, necessarily directed to the Divine Essence as the highest good. The necessity of this act is even greater than the necessity which proceeds from the nature of creatures and compels them to act; because it is founded in, and identical with, the Divine Essence. For this very same reason, however, the act of the Divine Will includes the perfection essential to acts of the will, viz. the acting for an end with consciousness and pleasure; for God knowingly and willingly loves His own lovableness.
II. Liberty of choice is attributable to the Divine Will only in respect to external things; and, as these are dependent for their existence on a Divine volition, this creative volition itself is in the free choice of God. This is defined by the Vatican Council, “God created the world of freest design” (sess. iii., chap, 1), “If any one shall say that God did not create with a will free from all necessity, but did so as necessarily as He loves Himself; let him be anathema” (can. v.).
1. Holy Scripture fittingly describes the liberty of choice in God: “Who worketh all things according to the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11); and again, “Who has predestinated us … according to the purpose of His Will” (1:5). See also Rom. 9:18; 1 Cor. 12:11; John 3:8.
2. The following considerations contain the proofs from reason and the solution of difficulties.
(a.) God is perfectly free to create or not to create beings outside of Himself. Such beings are neither necessary in themselves nor necessary to the beatitude or perfection of God; they can only serve to his external glory, which, however, is not necessary to Him because His essential glory is all-sufficient. If, indeed, God creates, He must do so for His own glory, and it is the love of His own glory that moves Him to create. But if He wills not to create, He is not bound to intend His external glory. The Love of Himself moves Him to create, in as far as it appears to Him fitting that He should be glorified by creatures and should be enabled to find delight in external glory. But there is no necessity here, because God might assert his Self-Love in another way, viz. by abstaining from producing other beings, and thus proving Himself the sole necessary and absolutely self-sufficient Being. This consideration gains additional force from the dogma that the Trinity is an infinite communication, ad intra, of the Divine perfections.
(b.) Again, God is free to create the world with any degree of perfection He chooses; He is not bound to create a world of the greatest possible perfection. If He is free to create or not to create, He is likewise free to create any of the many worlds alike possible and unnecessary to Him. Moreover, however perfect a created world be conceived, it would always be finite, and therefore a still more perfect one could be conceived. Hence, if God was bound to create the most perfect world possible, He would be unable to create at all, because a world at once finite and incapable of higher perfection involves a contradiction. All that can be said is this: once God has determined upon creating a world, His own moral perfection requires that He should realize the idea in a fitting manner, and ordain everything to His own glory. Thus God is bound by His wisdom and goodness to ordain particular things to the ends of the whole world of His choice, and the whole world to His own glory.
(c.) God is free in His choice of the particular beings through which the general object of creation is to be attained; and also in the determination of the position which each particular being is to occupy in the universe, and in the degree of perfection to be granted to them. This principle applies especially to the creation of beings of the same kind. No man has a better claim than any other to be called into existence or to be distinguished by particular gifts. Holy Scripture often mentions this point in order to set forth God’s absolute dominion over His creatures, and over His gifts to them, and to excite the gratitude of men for the gifts so freely bestowed upon them by the Divine bounty. It ought, however, to be borne in mind that, if God favours some creatures with extraordinary gifts, He refuses to none the perfections required by their nature. “And I went down into the potter’s house, and behold he was doing a work on the wheel. And the vessel was broken which he was making of clay with his hands: and turning he made another vessel, as it seemed good in his eyes to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Cannot I do with you as this potter, O house of Israel? saith the Lord. Behold as clay is in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. I will suddenly speak against a nation, and against a kingdom, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy it” (Jer. 18:3–7). Cf. Ecclus. 33:10 sqq.; Rom. 9:20 sqq.
III. Although the Divine volition of finite things is free from antecedent necessity, it is subject to the necessity consequent upon the Divine wisdom, sanctity, and immutability. Once God has freely decreed certain objects, He is bound, by “consequent necessity,” to decree likewise all that is necessarily connected as means or otherwise with these objects. The older Theologians give to this “Willing” of God, regulated by His wisdom, sanctity and immutability, the name of voluntas ordinata, in contradistinction to the voluntas simplex, a willing which has its only foundation in the Divine liberty.
The willing of an end does not always entail the necessary willing of particular means. The same end may often be attained by various means; and besides the necessary means, others merely useful or ornamental may be chosen. Hence the Divine Will, even when acting in consequence of a previous decree, has scope left for freedom. There is, then, in God a twofold simple volition, viz. the willing of ultimate ends and the willing of certain means thereto. Yet, this simple willing is not arbitrary—that is, entirely without reason,—and therefore unwise and unholy. The wisdom and sanctity of a choice do not always require a special reason for the preference given; it is sufficient that there be (1) a general reason for making a choice, (2) the consciousness that the choice is really free, and (3) the intention to direct the object of the preference to a wise and holy end; and all these conditions are all fulfilled in the Divine simple Volition. These notions are important on account of their bearing on the difficult question of predestination.
I. First of all it is certain that liberty of choice cannot be attributed to all the volitions of the Divine Will. God’s absolute perfection necessarily includes the absolutely perfect action of His Will, necessarily directed to the Divine Essence as the highest good. The necessity of this act is even greater than the necessity which proceeds from the nature of creatures and compels them to act; because it is founded in, and identical with, the Divine Essence. For this very same reason, however, the act of the Divine Will includes the perfection essential to acts of the will, viz. the acting for an end with consciousness and pleasure; for God knowingly and willingly loves His own lovableness.
II. Liberty of choice is attributable to the Divine Will only in respect to external things; and, as these are dependent for their existence on a Divine volition, this creative volition itself is in the free choice of God. This is defined by the Vatican Council, “God created the world of freest design” (sess. iii., chap, 1), “If any one shall say that God did not create with a will free from all necessity, but did so as necessarily as He loves Himself; let him be anathema” (can. v.).
1. Holy Scripture fittingly describes the liberty of choice in God: “Who worketh all things according to the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11); and again, “Who has predestinated us … according to the purpose of His Will” (1:5). See also Rom. 9:18; 1 Cor. 12:11; John 3:8.
2. The following considerations contain the proofs from reason and the solution of difficulties.
(a.) God is perfectly free to create or not to create beings outside of Himself. Such beings are neither necessary in themselves nor necessary to the beatitude or perfection of God; they can only serve to his external glory, which, however, is not necessary to Him because His essential glory is all-sufficient. If, indeed, God creates, He must do so for His own glory, and it is the love of His own glory that moves Him to create. But if He wills not to create, He is not bound to intend His external glory. The Love of Himself moves Him to create, in as far as it appears to Him fitting that He should be glorified by creatures and should be enabled to find delight in external glory. But there is no necessity here, because God might assert his Self-Love in another way, viz. by abstaining from producing other beings, and thus proving Himself the sole necessary and absolutely self-sufficient Being. This consideration gains additional force from the dogma that the Trinity is an infinite communication, ad intra, of the Divine perfections.
(b.) Again, God is free to create the world with any degree of perfection He chooses; He is not bound to create a world of the greatest possible perfection. If He is free to create or not to create, He is likewise free to create any of the many worlds alike possible and unnecessary to Him. Moreover, however perfect a created world be conceived, it would always be finite, and therefore a still more perfect one could be conceived. Hence, if God was bound to create the most perfect world possible, He would be unable to create at all, because a world at once finite and incapable of higher perfection involves a contradiction. All that can be said is this: once God has determined upon creating a world, His own moral perfection requires that He should realize the idea in a fitting manner, and ordain everything to His own glory. Thus God is bound by His wisdom and goodness to ordain particular things to the ends of the whole world of His choice, and the whole world to His own glory.
(c.) God is free in His choice of the particular beings through which the general object of creation is to be attained; and also in the determination of the position which each particular being is to occupy in the universe, and in the degree of perfection to be granted to them. This principle applies especially to the creation of beings of the same kind. No man has a better claim than any other to be called into existence or to be distinguished by particular gifts. Holy Scripture often mentions this point in order to set forth God’s absolute dominion over His creatures, and over His gifts to them, and to excite the gratitude of men for the gifts so freely bestowed upon them by the Divine bounty. It ought, however, to be borne in mind that, if God favours some creatures with extraordinary gifts, He refuses to none the perfections required by their nature. “And I went down into the potter’s house, and behold he was doing a work on the wheel. And the vessel was broken which he was making of clay with his hands: and turning he made another vessel, as it seemed good in his eyes to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Cannot I do with you as this potter, O house of Israel? saith the Lord. Behold as clay is in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. I will suddenly speak against a nation, and against a kingdom, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy it” (Jer. 18:3–7). Cf. Ecclus. 33:10 sqq.; Rom. 9:20 sqq.
III. Although the Divine volition of finite things is free from antecedent necessity, it is subject to the necessity consequent upon the Divine wisdom, sanctity, and immutability. Once God has freely decreed certain objects, He is bound, by “consequent necessity,” to decree likewise all that is necessarily connected as means or otherwise with these objects. The older Theologians give to this “Willing” of God, regulated by His wisdom, sanctity and immutability, the name of voluntas ordinata, in contradistinction to the voluntas simplex, a willing which has its only foundation in the Divine liberty.
The willing of an end does not always entail the necessary willing of particular means. The same end may often be attained by various means; and besides the necessary means, others merely useful or ornamental may be chosen. Hence the Divine Will, even when acting in consequence of a previous decree, has scope left for freedom. There is, then, in God a twofold simple volition, viz. the willing of ultimate ends and the willing of certain means thereto. Yet, this simple willing is not arbitrary—that is, entirely without reason,—and therefore unwise and unholy. The wisdom and sanctity of a choice do not always require a special reason for the preference given; it is sufficient that there be (1) a general reason for making a choice, (2) the consciousness that the choice is really free, and (3) the intention to direct the object of the preference to a wise and holy end; and all these conditions are all fulfilled in the Divine simple Volition. These notions are important on account of their bearing on the difficult question of predestination.
Seção 28% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.