"Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:17). These words of Paul's must have had great significance to Mary Baker Eddy, for she saw the importance of including in the Glossary of her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," a clear definition of the word will. Referring to the one infinite will of God, she says that it is "the might and wisdom of God" (ibid., p. 597). Continuing her definition, Mrs. Eddy makes a clear distinction between divine will and what is popularly called human will. She says, "Will, as a quality of so-called mortal mind, is a wrong-doer; hence it should not be confounded with the term as applied to Mind or to one of God's qualities."
The line of demarcation between the so-called human will and God's will must be positively and distinctly drawn at all times. Mortal mind cannot make that distinction, for mortal mind is a state of confusion. Human will never becomes a part of the divine and cannot be fused with it. Spiritual perception alone distinguishes between the true and the false and does so with precision and certainty. The will of Mind—"the might and wisdom of God"-—is omnipotent and omniscient, and there is no opposing will or intelligence to contest Mind's supremacy.
The divine will, unerring in action, harmonious in government, immortal in Life, and immutable in Truth, cannot be separated from man, the compound idea of God. Man forever expresses divine will. Every idea emanating from divine Mind is activated, motivated, and maintained by irresistible divine impulsion and is free from the so-called influence of mortal mind. But so-called mortal mind in its efforts to counterfeit the divine creation has given its expression, mortal man, a counterfeit human will which is at its best mutable, fallible, and temporary.
