the intention is intense,
the interior or exterior act may be not so intense, materially
speaking: for instance, when a man does not will with as much
intensity to take medicine as he wills to regain health. Nevertheless
the very fact of intending health intensely, redounds, as a formal
principle, upon the intense volition of medicine.

We must observe, however, that the intensity of the interior or
exterior act, may be referred to the intention as its object: as when
a man intends to will intensely, or to do something intensely. And
yet it does not follow that he wills or acts intensely; because the
quantity of goodness in the interior or exterior act does not depend
on the quantity of the good intended, as is shown above. And hence it
is that a man does not merit as much as he intends to merit: because
the quantity of merit is measured by the intensity of the act, as we
shall show later on (Q. 20, A. 4; Q. 114, A. 4).

Reply Obj. 1: This gloss speaks of good as in the estimation of God,
Who considers principally the intention of the end. Wherefore another
gloss says on the same passage that "the treasure of the heart is the
intention, according to which God judges our works." For the goodness
of the intention, as stated above, redounds, so to speak, upon the
goodness of the will, which makes even the external act to be
meritorious in God's sight.

Reply Obj. 2: The goodness of the intention is not the whole cause of
a good will. Hence the argument does not prove.

Reply Obj. 3: The mere malice of the intention suffices to make the
will evil: and therefore too, the will is as evil as the intention is
evil. But the same reasoning does not apply to goodness, as stated
above (ad 2).
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NINTH ARTICLE [I-II, Q. 19, Art. 9]

Whether the Goodness of the Will Depends on Its Conformity to the
Divine Will?

Objection 1: It would seem that the goodness of the human will does
not depend on its conformity to the Divine will. Because it is
impossible for man's will to be conformed to the Divine will; as
appears from the word of Isa. 55:9: "As the heavens are exalted above
the earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts
above your thoughts." If therefore goodness of the will depended on
its conformity to the Divine will, it would follow that it is
impossible for man's will to be good. Which is inadmissible.

Obj. 2: Further, just as our wills arise from the Divine will, so
does o