Dist. 27, Art. 2, Q. 4
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/3/d/27/q/bon-sent-III-d27-a2-q4
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### Question IV. *Which of the two motions of charity precedes the other.*

Fourth, it is asked which of these motions precedes the other. And it seems that the motion of love toward the neighbor is prior to the motion toward God:

1. *First*, through what is said in the first [letter] of John, chapter four: *He who does not love his brother, whom he sees, how can he love God, whom he does not see?* According to this, then, upon the destruction of the love of the neighbor there follows the destruction of the love of God: if therefore upon the destruction of the latter the destruction of the former does not follow, but the reverse: therefore the motion of love toward the neighbor is prior to [that] toward God.

2. Likewise, in the first [letter] to the Corinthians, chapter fifteen: *First [comes] that which is animal, then that which is spiritual;* but the love of the neighbor is more sensible, the love of God more spiritual: therefore the affect must first be inclined to loving the neighbor than to loving God.

3. Likewise, the process goes from lower things to higher and from the imperfect to the perfect according to right order, not the reverse: if therefore the love of God is more perfect and higher than the love of the neighbor, the love of the neighbor is the way to it. But the way is prior to the terminus: therefore the motion of love toward the neighbor is prior to [that] toward God.

4. Likewise, action is prior to contemplation according to right order; but the love of the neighbor makes a man occupy himself about the active life, the love of God about the contemplative life: therefore according to right order the motion of charity toward the neighbor is prior to [that] toward God.

**On the contrary:** 1. Charity moves a man to loving God according to that manner in which God commands; but God commands, first, that He be loved, and then that the neighbor be loved, because *the first and greatest commandment is: You shall love the Lord your God. And the second is like to it: You shall love your neighbor,* according to what is said in Matthew, chapter twenty-two: therefore charity moves to loving God before loving the neighbor.

2. Likewise, « the cause is prior to its effect »; but the love of God is the cause of the love of the neighbor, because a man loves his neighbor for this reason, that he loves God, whose image the neighbor is: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, the lovable thing that is prior in intention is prior in affection; but the intention is first with respect to the end than with respect to that which is toward the end: therefore so also is the love. If therefore God is loved in the character of the end, and the neighbor in the character of that which is toward the end; it necessarily seems that the love of God is preliminary to the love of the neighbor.

4. Likewise, love inclines first toward that to which it inclines more ardently, because the affect follows the greater inclination; but the love of charity inclines more ardently to loving God than the neighbor: therefore it makes one go out into that motion before this one.

> **Conclusion.** The motion of charity toward God, as regards inclination, is prior both in dignity and in origin to [that] toward the neighbor, but as regards the perfection of exercise the love of the neighbor is prior to [that] of God.

**I respond:** It must be said that these motions of love can be compared to the habit of charity in two ways: either according to the first inclination of the habit itself, or according to the perfection of exercise. If according to its first inclination, then it must be conceded that the motion of love toward God is prior to the motion of love toward the neighbor, since charity inclines toward God before [it inclines] toward the neighbor, because God is the more principal object, and the inclination with respect to God Himself is the cause of the inclination with respect to the neighbor. For charity makes God be loved for His own sake, and the neighbor for God's sake, in such a way that *for the sake of* expresses the relation of a final cause and of a moving and inducing cause. According therefore to the first inclination of charity, the motion of love toward God is prior to the motion of love toward the neighbor not only in dignity but also in origin. — But if we speak according to the perfection of exercise; since the exercise about the motion of love toward the neighbor regards the active life, while the exercise of the motion of love toward God regards the contemplative life; and that state is inferior to and more imperfect than this one: the love of the neighbor is prior to the love of God. For he who wishes to be a perfect lover of God ought first to exercise himself in the love of the neighbor, just as he who wishes to be a good contemplative ought first to be a good active, as Gregory teaches. — And as a sign of this thing the Holy Spirit was given twice, and first on earth, [in] John chapter twenty; secondly from heaven, [in] Acts chapter two; because the love of charity must first be exercised in those things which we see, so that through the love of visible things « we may be caught up into the love of invisible things ».

**To the arguments:** And along this way proceed the reasonings which are brought forward for the opposite part, as is plain to one who looks. From these, therefore, the response to the question proposed is plain, and likewise plain is the response to the reasonings adduced for both parts; for they proceed according to diverse ways, according to which both conclude what is true, as is plain from those things which have been said before.

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