Of Other Great Benefits and Advantages That the Obligation of the Vows Carries with It

Boe what has been mentioned, the vows carry another great utility and profit, which is that what is done under vow is much more praiseworthy and of greater value and merit before God, than what is done voluntarily without vow. For this St. Thomas assigns three excellent reasons. The first is because a vow is an act of religion, which is the greatest and most excellent of all moral virtues; and so it gives a stamp of superior excellence to the other virtues, making them works of religion, a sacred thing, an act of divine worship, a sacrifice and thing now dedicated and promised to God. Thus fasting, which is an act of temperance, is made also an act of religion, and so becomes a meritorious work in two ways, by virtue of the act of fasting in itself and by its being an act of religion. And generally in all that we do under obedience we gain a double merit, one that of the act itself, the other the merit of obedience. Thus our works are more meritorious than they would be if done of our own will, away from obedience and without vow. This will be better understood by the contrary. When a man sins against a vow of chastity, he commits two sins, one against chastity and the Sixth Commandment; the other, and the greater sin, of sacrilege against the vow that he has has made; so also when a man keeps his vow of chastity, he gains two merits, one of the virtue of chastity and observance of the Sixth Commandment; the other, and a greater merit, that of fulfilling the vow which he has made to God, which is an act of the virtue of religion. And so of the other vows. The second reason why it is more meritorious is because he who does a thing under vow does more, and gives and offers more to God, than another who does it without vow, because he not only gives what he does, but gives also his inability to do otherwise, which is much more; he offers to God his liberty, which is the greatest thing that he can offer. An excellent thing it is to leave all for Christ; but by the vow of poverty a man not only leaves the property which he has, but also the very power of keeping it, which is much more. He gives the tree along with the fruit, an excellent comparison used by St. Thomas and St. Anselm to explain this. As he does more and gives more, he says, who presents another with the tree itself along with all its fruit, than he who gathers the fruit and sends it, keeping the tree; so the religious gives to God the tree along with the fruit; while people living in the world at most give to God the fruit of the tree, that is, sundry good works, but they do not offer Him the tree, which is themselves: they keep that; they remain their own. But the religious offers also his very self, tree and fruit, work, desire, and liberty; he gives all to God, he is now no longer his own. For the religious there is nothing left more for him to give; he has given all. St. Bonaventure brings another comparison. He says that, as he gives more who gives not only the use of a thing, but the ownership as well, so the religious, who offers himself to God by vows, gives more and makes a greater sacrifice of himself because he gives not only his works, but also his will and his liberty of doing otherwise; he delivers himself over to God, use and dominion alike.

The third reason why what is done under vow is of greater merit than what is done without vow is because the goodness of exterior works springs chiefly from the will; and the better the will, the better also are the works that proceed from it. But it is clear that the firmer, steadier, and more lasting the good will is, the better it will be, because it will be so much the further from falling into that defect which the Wise Man notes: The sluggard willeth and willeth not (Prov. xiii. 4). Even the pagan philosopher, Aristotle, sets it down as one of the conditions of virtue that the act be done firmly and steadily. Now this is what the vow does; it gives firmness and steadiness to the good work, and so renders it more perfect. Contrariwise, theologians say that he who is obstinate in sin sins more grievously than another who sins by weakness or overpowered by a sudden fit of passion, because his will is more rooted and fixed in evil, and this they call sin against the Holy Ghost (Matt. xii. 32). So, then, to do a good work with a very firm will, and a will fixed and resolute in good, makes an action very perfect and meritorious.

Furthermore, if we consider on the one hand our own weakness, and on the other the virulence and pertinacity of the devil in tempting us, it appears that no expedient could be found more to the purpose, as well for strengthening our weakness as for closing the gate against the devil, than binding ourselves to God by these vows. As one who is soliciting the hand of a rich lady loses his hopes, and there is an end to his solicitations, when he sees her married to another; so, when the devil sees that a soul has now espoused herself to God by means of these vows, he loses his hopes of bringing her round again to the things of this world, and often on that account he ceases to tempt her, because he fears that such temptation will serve only to augment her crown, and that he will lose where he thought to gain.