Chapter 3 (114)
Distinction XXXI | 131 so, although perfect charity is so rooted that it cannot be lost, yet beginning or progressing charity can be, and often is, lost.
10. But while it is had, it does not allow the one who has it to sin criminally. , Augustine shows this, saying: "Because cupidity is the root of all evils," and charity is the root of all goods, both cannot exist at the same time: unless the one is entirely uprooted, the other cannot be planted. It is pointless for one to attempt to cut away the branches, if he does not make a strenuous effort to dig up the root.""!
Chapter 2 (113)
1. WHY FAITH, HOPE, AND KNOWLEDGE ARE SAID TO BE MADE VOID, AND
NOT CHARITY, EVEN THOUGH IT TOO IS ONLY IN PART. It is to be noted too how faith, hope, and knowledge are said to be made void, because they are in part,' and not charity, even though it too is in part. For it is in part, that is, imperfectly, that we love, just as in part that we know, as says
Hesychius, in On Leviticus.' But since all that is in part is made void, why is charity excepted, which is said never to fail?*
2. Charity too is in part, as the saints frequently teach, because we now love in part; and so it too will be made void insofar as it is in part, because imperfection will be taken away and perfection will be added, but charity itself will remain, but increased, both its acts, and the manner of loving, so that you may love God for his own sake and with your whole heart and your neighbour as yourself, but the mode of imperfection shall be eliminated. But faith and hope shall be made entirely void. As for knowledge, it shall be taken away in regard to its present act and mode, but not in regard to its essence: for the virtue itself of knowledge will remain, but it will have another use and mode.
Chapter 3 (114)
1. WHETHER CHRIST HAD THE ORDER OF CHARITY SET OUT EARLIER. Now
it remains to investigate whether Christ, according to his humanity, preserved the order of loving which was set out earlier.' If this is the case, then he loved every man like himself; and so he desired life for all, and 204 Tims6, 10.
*1Rather, Caesarius of Arles, Sermo 182, nl.
'Esl Cot 13, 8-10:
Ordinary gloss, on Lev. 2, 2.
1) Com 378 ICf. dist. 27 c5 and dist. 29 ccl-2.
132 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
he willed that all should be saved. But not all are saved, and so that which he desired did not happen.
2. But it should not be forgotten that in him there was charity according to the manner of the fatherland, not of the way; and he fulfilled the order of loving which is observed in the fatherland, and not on the way. For those who are in the fatherland, that is, who are already blessed, are so attached to God's justice that nothing pleases them, except what pleases
God; because of this, they will only the salvation of those whom God wills to be saved, and these alone do they love like themselves. And so Christ loved the elect alone like himself and desired their salvation.
DISTINCTION XXXII
Chapter | (115) 1. ON GOD'S CHARITY. To the above we must add [something] concerning the love of God, by which he loves us; which is nothing else than the love by which we love him. For God's love is the divine usia, and it is by the same love that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit love each other and us, as we discussed above.!
2. THAT GOD LOVES SOME THINGS MORE, SOME LESS.—AUGUSTINE,
ON JOHN. And although his love is immutable and eternal, yet he loves someone more, and another less. Hence Augustine: "The love is incomprehensible and immutable by which God loves in each of us what he has done, just as he hates what we have done. And so, in a wonderful and divine manner, even when he hates, he loves us; and this can be understood in everything. Who, then, can worthily describe how much he loves the members of his only-begotten, and how much more he loves the only-begotten himself? Of him, it is also said: You have hated none of the things which you have made."""—From this, we perceive that God loves all his creatures, because it is written: You have hated none of the things which you have made,' and also: God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good.' If all the things which he made are good, and if he loves all that is good, then he loves all the things that he has made.
And among them, he loves rational creatures more; and of these, he loves more those which are members of his only-begotten, and much more the only-begotten himself.
; 'Bk 1 dist. 10 and 17.
"Wis. 11, 25.
*Augustine, Jn Joannem 17, 21-23, tr. 110 n6.
"Wis. 11, 25.
Gen. 1, 31.