Doubt I: In what the perfection of man consists

I assert that Christian perfection consists especially in Charity. Thus D. Bonav. in Apol. pauperum, cap. 3. primae responsionis, D. Thom. art. 1. et 3. and commonly Valencia disp. 10. quaest. 2. puncto 1. Tannerus disp. 6. quaest. 3. dub. 1. num. 9.

IT IS PROVED first by D. Bonaventure. Perfection consists principally in that which is the root, form, end, complement, and bond of perfection: such is Charity: Therefore. The minor is proved from Rom. 13, the end of the law is charity, Matth. 22, On this commandment hangs the whole law, 1 Cor. 13, And if I have not charity, I am nothing, ad Coloss. 3, But above all things have charity, which is the bond of perfection.

IT IS PROVED second by D. Bonaventure here, and in the preceding chapter, and by D. Thom. art. 1. with an excellent argument: Then each thing, ordered to an end, is perfect when it is joined to its end; but man is joined to his end, that is, to God, through Charity: Therefore. The minor is evident from 1 John 4, He that abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him.

S. Bonaventure observes, moreover, that perfection simpliciter consists in the Charity of God, and secondarily of neighbor; yet that it consists secundum quid in certain other things, as dispositions and instruments, which Charity uses and is accustomed to use, according to that 1 Cor. 13, Charity is patient, is kind, etc. For just as natural life does not consist solely in its essential parts, but also in certain dispositions, whence it is called life in the blood, so too the spiritual life: D. Thom. ad 2. subscribes, and Valencia disp. 10. q. 2. Thus he observes with D. Thom. ad 3., from D. James cap. 1., that patience worketh a perfect work in order to Charity, from which tolerance arises, as is said Rom. 8.

Hence also you will perceive it to be true what S. Bonaventure here and D. Thom. art. 3. teach, that man's perfection essentially consists in the observance of the divine precepts, but accidentally in the counsels; for essential perfection stands in the Charity of God and neighbor, and in certain other virtues which are precepted; the counsels, however, lead to Charity, but not necessarily; for Charity can exist without them, yet it can more easily exist with them.

Whence the Saintly Doctor observes that Charity has a threefold state. One indeed the lowest, in the observance of the commandments of the law; the second the middle, in the observance of the counsels; the third the highest, in the fruition of eternal joys. Therefore a threefold difference of perfection is assigned in Scripture. One of necessity, of which Deuter. 18, Thou shalt be perfect and without spot before the Lord thy God; the Gloss says: without criminal spot. Of this S. Prosper, lib. de vita contemplat. lib. 3. c. 15: Perfect are they who, willing what God wills, acquiesce in no sins by which He is offended.

The second is the perfection of supererogation, of which it is said Matth. 19, If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor. Of this D. Jerome says, epist. ad Heliodorum: The perfect servant of Christ has nothing besides Christ; or if he has anything besides Him, he is not perfect.

The third is the perfection of ultimate fullness; of which Proverb. 4, The path of the just, as a shining light, grows and proceeds unto the perfect day, that is, to the Charity of the divine vision. Of this D. Augustine, solil. 1. cap. 6.: Truly perfect virtue is reason arriving at that end which blessed life attains. All things, both counsels and precepts, are referred to the fulfillment and observance of Charity, which the Apostle thus describes, 1 Tim. 1: Charity is the end of the commandment, from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith.

Hence the Saintly Doctor gathers that the perfection of precept is distinguished from the perfection of the counsels; for the latter is compared to the former as the more perfect to the less perfect, as D. Ambrose says lib. 1. de offic. cap. 11.

Now this difference consists in this, as the Saintly Doctor says: that essential perfection, or that of precept, is such that it bears upon natural good so conformably that if it does not bear upon it, we find turpitude in the act and deformity; but concerning positive divine precepts, that if we do not pursue them, we find God offended and punitive; whereas in pursuing the counsels we are so placed that, if we desist from them, we incur neither deformity nor the wrath of God.

Hence the Saintly Doctor goes on to show whence we may distinguish precept from counsel in the divine law. Valencia hands down many marks of this matter, but the Saintly Doctor says better: That is to be judged handed down by way of counsel by which we are conformed to God Christ in goods whose lack is not at once against the virtue of Charity or another necessary virtue joined to it; but the evil proposed to be shunned is not contrary to virtue, such that at once, if we incur it or pursue the opposite good, we become deformed and the enmity of God is imposed upon us. But that is recognized as precept which, if omitted, we are at once turned away from God and converted to some one of those three goods, that is: Either the concupiscence of the flesh, or the concupiscence of the eyes, or the pride of life.

It will indeed be a counsel by which occasions and incentives are avoided. Thus, to avoid the concupiscence of the eyes, they urge that all temporal things be relinquished, Matth. 19, If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor. To perfectly turn aside the occasion of the pride of life, he says Matth. 16, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. But to perfectly turn aside the concupiscence of the flesh, he teaches that all experience according to the generative power be cut off, saying Matth. 19, There are eunuchs who have castrated themselves for the kingdom of heaven; he that can take it, let him take it.

IN this threefold supererogative declination, therefore, both sacred Scripture insinuates and true Doctors assert, and the Holy Fathers, the institutors of religious orders, affirm, that the first part of every evil of triple origin consists in the Evangelical perfection. Thus the Saintly Doctor.

From which you also have that the distinction of things precepted from Counsels is to be drawn from Scripture and the judgment of the Church, as Valencia also teaches most excellently.

HENCE he also gathers, together with D. Thom., that to relinquish all things is not essentially necessary to essential perfection, but to the accidental perfection of supererogation.

YOU OBJECT. The counsels are about those things to which the precept is ordered: Therefore there is not a twofold perfection. The antecedent is proved: for the counsels are ordered to Charity, which stands in union with God; but the precept of Charity is ordered to this, that we love God more and more, and this is for the counsels to be about the better good.

IT IS ANSWERED that the counsels are about the better good superadded to the precepts, and thus it is not about the better good standing within the limits of the precept of Charity, that we love God with the whole heart, but about the better good which is added in act, as to do good to an enemy even beyond necessity, as is said Matth. 5. Whence there also is added: Be you perfect as also your heavenly Father is perfect; for that is another perfection imitating God, who with overflowing kindness does good abundantly even to enemies. Thus answers the Saintly Doctor, and with him Valencia disp. 10. quaest. 2. puncto 1.