For one may misuse will
in order to wish ill, cheat, hurt, or do injustice; whereas good-
will is the good or right use of will itself, which cannot but be
good. Good-will is therefore what is most precious in man. It is
that which sets a value upon all the rest. It is, as it were, "The
whole man:" Hoc enim omnis homo.
I have already shown that my will is not by itself, since it is
liable to lose and receive degrees of good or perfection; and
likewise that it is a good inferior to good-will, because it is
better to will good than barely to have a will susceptible both of
good and evil. How could I be brought to believe that I, a weak,
imperfect, borrowed, precarious, and dependent being, bestow on
myself the highest degree of perfection, while it is visible and
evident that I derive the far inferior degree of perfection from a
First Being? Can I imagine that God gives me the lesser good, and
that I give myself the greater without Him? How should I come by
that high degree of perfection in order to give it myself! Should I
have it from nothing, which is all my own stock? Shall I say that
other spirits, much like or equal to mine, give it me? But since
those limited and dependent beings like myself cannot give
themselves anything no more than I can, much less can they bestow
anything upon another. For as they do not exist by themselves, so
they have not by themselves any true power, either over me, or over
things that are imperfect in me, or over themselves.
Pages:
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113