Dist. 32
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/32/q/bon-sent-III-d32-littera
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### DISTINCTION XXXII.

### Chapter I. *On the love of God.*

To what has gone before must be added [a treatment] of the love of God, by which he himself loves us, which is no other than that by which we love him. Now the love of God is the divine substance; by the same love the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit love themselves and us, as we discussed above. And although his love is immutable and eternal, yet he loves one more, another less. Hence Augustine: «Incomprehensible and immutable is the love by which God in each one of us loves what he has made, just as he hates what we have made. In a wondrous and divine manner, therefore, even when he hates, he loves us; and this indeed can be understood in all. Who then can worthily tell how much he loves the members of his Only-Begotten, and how much more the Only-Begotten himself? Of him too it has been said: *Thou hatest none of the things which thou hast made*». — From these things it is perceived that God loves all his creatures, because it is written: *Thou hatest none of the things which thou hast made;* and likewise: *God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good.* If all the things he made are good, and he loves every good: he therefore loves all the things he has made; and among them he loves the rational creatures more, and of these more those which are members of his Only-Begotten, and much more the Only-Begotten himself.

### Chapter II. *How God is said to love this one or that one more, or less.*

But since the love of God is immutable, and therefore is neither intensified nor remitted, if it is asked what is the account of the saying, when he is said to love this more than that, and when God is said to love all things; we say that the love of God, like *peace,* surpasses all human understanding, so that it scarcely in any measure aspires to the comprehension of so great a height. Yet it can be understood that it is said for this reason: that all the things he made are loved by God, because all please him, he approves all, insofar as they are his works; nor did they please him then, or earlier, or more, when they were made; but even before they came to be, indeed from eternity all pleased him, no less than after they began to be. But that he is said to love some rational creatures, that is, men or Angels, more, others less, does not signify mutability of his charity, but that he loved some unto greater goods, others unto lesser, some unto better uses, others unto less good ones. For all our goods come to us from his love. Of the elect, therefore, he loved some more, others less from eternity, and loves them even now, because for some he has prepared from his love greater goods, for others lesser, and on some he confers greater goods in time, and on others lesser. Hence he is said to love these or those more or less.

### Chapter III. *That the love of God is to be considered in two ways.*

For the love of God is considered in two ways: according to *essence* and according to *efficacy.* It does not admit of more or less according to *essence,* but only according to *efficacy,* so that those are called *more loved* for whom from his love from eternity he prepared a greater good and bestowed it in time, and those *less loved* for whom not so much. Hence too it is, that some, when they are converted and justified, are then said to *begin to be loved by God,* not that God can love anyone with a new love — nay, with an everlasting love he loved, *before the foundation of the world*, whomever he loves — but they are then said to *begin to be loved by him,* when they obtain the effect of God's eternal love, namely grace, or glory. Hence Augustine: «Far be it that God should love anyone temporally as if with a new love, which was not before in him, with whom neither have the things past passed away, and the things future are already done. Therefore he loved all his Saints before the foundation of the world, just as he predestined them. But when they are converted and find him, then they are said to *begin to be loved by him,* so that it is said in that manner in which what is said can be grasped by human affection. So too, when he is said to be *angry* with the evil and *kindly* toward the good, they are changed, not he. As light is harsh to weak eyes, gentle to strong ones, namely by their change, not its own»; «so, when anyone through justification begins to be a friend of God, he himself is changed, not God».

### Chapter IV. *Whether anyone is loved by God more or less at one time than at another.*

But if it is asked of someone, whether he is loved by God more at one time than at another, the understanding of the love must be distinguished. For if it is referred to the *effect* of the love, it can be granted; but if to the *essence* of the love, it is to be denied.

### Chapter V. *Whether God from eternity loved the reprobate.*

But of the reprobate, who are prepared not for life but for death, if it is asked whether it ought to be granted that God from eternity loved them; we say that of the elect alone this is *simply* to be granted, that God from eternity loved those whom he prepared for justice and the crown. But of the non-elect it is simply to be granted that he *held [them] in hatred,* that is, reprobated them, as it is read: *Jacob I loved, Esau I held in hatred;* yet it is not to be said simply that he loved them, lest they be understood as predestined, but with the addition: he loved them, insofar as they would be his work, that is, who and what manner of persons he would make them.

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