Question XLIV: Whether God ought, and can, be loved in this life with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole mind, and all one's strength

ALL the HERETICS of our time clamor that the divine law is impossible to man, even to the just. From this they further deduce that all works are mortal sins. Thus Luther, Lib. de libertate Christiana, and in assert. art. 2. 31. 32. 36. Calvin Lib. 3. Instit. cap. 14. §. 9. et in Antidoto, sess. 6. cap. 11. et Lib. 2. Instit. cap. 7. §. 5. he urges this especially concerning this precept of loving God with the whole heart, etc. Kemnitius follows in Examine, Philippus de Locis et confessione Augustana.

THE CATHOLIC Faith teaches that the Divine precepts, and especially this one of the love of God with the whole heart, are not impossible to observe.

SINCE, however, I showed at length elsewhere that the Law of God is possible prima secunda, Tract. de Legibus, disp. 1. quaest. 9. and that Liberty is defended with respect to it in Tract. de anima disput. 9. quaest. 3. I shall now treat of this precept; and because in this consists the observance of the Law, it will stand proved concerning all.

THEREFORE IT IS PROVED first by St. Bonavent., because: This is the greatest, and first commandment, Matth. 22. given to us by God on the way, and he commands the very manner: With the whole heart, with the whole soul, etc. Therefore it can be observed. For God would cruelly command under penalty of damnation that which is impossible. Wherefore the Holy Fathers condemn with anathema that proposition, that God commanded impossibilities, as St. Bonavent. notes in fundamentis, and the Council of Trent sess. 6. cap. 11. And this is the argument of St. John Chrysost. Hom. 8. de Poenit. where he says: By no means accuse the Lord; he does not command impossibilities, and of St. Augustine Lib. de natura et gratia; cap. 69. where he says: By the very fact that it is most firmly believed that God, who is just and good, could not have commanded impossibilities; hence we are admonished what to do in easy things, and what to ask for in difficult ones. For all things become easy to Charity, to which alone Christ's burden is light. The same is found in Lib. de peccatorum meritis, cap. 3. et 6. et Lib. de gratia, et Lib. arbitrio, cap. 16. as in Bellarmine Lib. 5. de Iustificatione, cap. 10. et Lib. de monachis, cap. 13. Indeed a tyrant would be worse and more cruel than all, if he commanded, under penalty of eternal damnation, even to his own friends, things that are impossible. Hence St. Augustine: he would not damn a lazy servant, if he commanded things that could in no way be done.

BUT IT IS PROVED secondly, that this precept of the love of God and of neighbor is possible, Psalm. 118. I have run the way of thy commandments, when thou didst enlarge my heart. Philip. 4. I can do all things in him who comforteth me. Indeed we acknowledge that the precepts of God are observable not by the bare powers of free will, but by the grace of God, as I showed Tract. de gratia, disp. 1. quaest. 11. 12. 13. et 14.

THE Scriptures show this, witnesses, that the commandments are in fact observed by those who love, whom God calls friends. Ioan. 14. He that loveth me, will keep my word, as the Holy Doctor observes there. Rom. 13. He that loveth his neighbor, hath fulfilled the Law. Galat. 5. The whole Law is fulfilled in one word: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But this is said, because the neighbor is loved in order to God; whence the precept of the love of God is also fulfilled, as I said quaest. 29. with the Seraphic Doctor; et prima secundae, Tract. de gratia, disp. 1. quaest. 12. Ioan. 13. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. Nor could we become friends of God, if we could not love. For above John says 15. You are my friends, if you do the things that I command you. But what he commands, he explains there: This is my commandment, that you love one another. In Deuteronomy 30. you have a splendid testimony: The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed: that thou mayest love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.

DAVID also says Psalm. 118. With my whole heart have I sought thee, and 3 Kings 14. Thou wast not as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and followed me with all his heart, doing that which was pleasing in my sight, and Act. XIII. I have found a man according to my own heart, who shall do all my wills.

Of Josias, 4 Kings XXIII. There was no king like him before him, who returned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength.

Of Asa, and the people, 2 Paral. XV. it is said: With their whole will they sought the Lord, and found him.

Of Josue it is said, cap. XI. As the Lord had commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Josue, and he fulfilled all things: he passed not by any of the commandments, nor even one word, that the Lord had commanded Moses. Nor is there doubt that the same may be said of Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and others.

In the new Testament, Luke I. it is said of Zachary, and Elizabeth: They were both just before God, walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame.

Of the Apostles Ioan. XVII. Thine they were, and thou gavest them to me: and they have kept thy word, and they are called friends in Luke XII.: But I say to you, my friends. Ioan. XV. You are my friends; and yet he had said there that only those are friends who keep the commandments.

But these the sectaries do not solve, answering that these things were said by non-imputation: yet the Scriptures plainly say that they observed the commandments of the Lord.

Therefore the Holy Doctor, upon those words 13. Ioan. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another, observes, that the execution of Charity is the testimony of the discipleship of Christ, as St. Gregory says Lib. XX. moral. cap. IX. Of Charity, I say, not imputed, but of which 1 John, cap. III. Let us not love in tongue, but in deed, and in truth. Let us love one another, as he hath given commandment unto us, and Rom. XI. Loving one another with the charity of brotherhood. And upon 15. Ioan., upon those words. These things I command you, that you love one another. Greater Charity than this no one hath, than that he lay down his soul for his friends. But he says that we do these things by that Charity which is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us, namely by an internal gift cooperating, not by an extrinsic imputation. Upon this testimony also the Council of Trent sess. VI. c. VII. gravely infers with St. Bonavent. that Justification is not made by imputation alone. And upon those words of Luke 1: They were both just before God, he observes, that they were such, and were asserted inwardly in the eyes of God. For the just are such within. Therefore Wisd. V. The just shall live for ever, and their thought is with the Most High: and therefore of this, Genes. VI. Noe was a just and perfect man in his generations, he walked with God. 1 Kings XVI. For the Lord looketh on the heart. So also Ezech. 4 Kings XX. he says: Remember how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart.

Therefore also David was a man according to the heart of God, as is said in the places alleged. But God looketh on the heart, 1 Kings XVI. as above; which reason the Seraphic Doctor observes at the place cited. For whoever truly does not observe one commandment, even if he keeps the others, is become guilty of all, as James says, chapter II.

David himself, Psalm. CXVIII. I was directed to all thy commandments; I have run the way of thy commandments, as the Holy Doctor observes upon that place of the Psalm. He also says Psalm. LVIII. without iniquity have I run, and directed my steps. And the Apostle Philip. II. I have not run in vain. Then indeed, when thou didst enlarge my heart, namely softened beforehand by thy grace.

For truly the heart is softened, as is said 2 Paral. XXXIV. Because thou hast heard the words of the volume, and thy heart is softened, and thou art humbled before God. Heb. XIII. It is best that the heart be established by grace. These things indeed intimate the internal motions. All of which, and the other things said above, the Holy Doctor observes, as if he had foreseen the insanities of the Sectaries.

It is proved thirdly by St. Bonavent.: To love God with the whole heart, is to love him sweetly, wisely, and strongly, from St. Bernard, serm. XX. in Cant. and from St. Augustine. It is to love without error, without contradiction, and without forgetfulness. Lib. I. de doctrina Christiana, cap. XXII. but all this can be in the state of the way: Therefore it is also commanded. See other things in Bellarmine: To this also recur what I said tom. IV. de actibus hum. disp. XVII. quaest. X. ad proposit. I.

The heretics object first. This precept cannot be fulfilled perfectly in this life, from St. Augustine Lib. contra Caelestinum, after XVI. resp. where he says: When there is any concupiscence within, God is not loved with the whole soul in every way. And Lib. de spiritu et litt. last chapter he says: To that life now immortal belongs: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, etc. But to this; Let not sin reign in your mortal body, etc. To that, Thou shalt not covet: To this, Go not after thy concupiscences. Similar things St. Bernard says in sermon L. in Cant. and St. Thom. II. II. quaest. XLIV. art. VI. et quaest. CLXXXIV. art. III.

One must first see what is meant by those various expositions of the precept. First indeed Deuter. VI. it is had thus: Thou shalt love with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. Matth. XXII. it is said: With all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. Marc. cap. XII. With all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy virtue. Lucae X. with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.

Some of the Fathers judge these to be different, and therefore have tried to show their distinction, namely that Soul signifies the vegetative part, Heart the sensitive, Mind the intellectual, as Bellarmine reports cap. XI. or by Heart, the natural powers, that is the vegetative; by Soul, the animal ones, that is the senses; by Mind, the rational powers. So Theophylactus, and almost Gregory of Nyss. in Tostatus.

It is better expounded to the mind of the Fathers by St. Bonavent. dist. XXVII. dub. III. thus: That although Charity immediately regards the act of the Concupiscible, around which it first consists; nevertheless it regards the acts of those powers as disposing (as Tostatus also says:) Hence all the powers of the soul are in a manner ordered to that dilection itself, as to that which has the character of what is complete with respect to all the powers; and because the higher powers of the soul are three, therefore three conditions are added. Further, because the ternary of the powers of the soul can be distinguished in a twofold way, such that one of those modes does not disagree with the other: These conditions, regarding the powers of the soul in the act of loving, are distinguished in a twofold manner. For in one way the powers of the soul are distinguished according as the image consists in them, and they are said to be three potencies in the mind, namely; Memory, Intelligence, and Will: And so according to those three powers, three conditions are added, of which one regards the intelligence, namely with the whole heart, as the Gloss says; another the will, namely with the whole soul, the third the memory, namely with the whole mind, and so these three conditions are assigned by Matthew, and are expounded by St. Augustine Lib. I. de doctrina Christ. cap. XXII. With the whole heart, that is with the whole intellect without error. With the whole soul, that is with the whole will without contradiction. With the whole mind, that is with the whole memory without forgetfulness. In another way the powers of the soul are distinguished into Rational, Concupiscible, and Irascible; and according to this three conditions are added, of which one regards the Rational, namely with the whole heart. Another the Concupiscible, namely with the whole soul. The third the Irascible, namely with the whole strength, and so they are assigned in Deuteronomy, and are expounded by Bernard, serm. 20. in Cant. With the whole heart, that is, wisely. With the whole soul, that is sweetly; With the whole strength, that is strongly, so that we be not seduced by fallacies, not led away by blandishments, not broken by injuries, and to these three can be reduced those three that are touched upon: Out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. Nor is there any repugnance in these, because the Irascible and the Memory are strengthened in the act: and therefore one virtue is reformative of both, and one dower perfective of both, and it regards one principally, and the other consequently: Therefore, where it is said in Deuteronomy with all thy strength, in Matthew it is said: with all thy mind. And this is the reason why this condition with all thy mind, is placed last. See Gregory of Nyss. Lib. de creatione hominis, cap. 8. Theophylactus, and Anselm in commentariis, cap. 22. Matth. St. Augustine, St. Bernard loco cit. and Tostatus in 22. Matth. quaest. 171. where he explains thus, that with the whole heart, etc. signifies the internal powers; with the whole strength, the executive ones, which is the exposition of St. Bonavent. ad 10. Lucae. For to a perfect manner of loving God is required that we refer to him all thoughts, all affections, all operations. Therefore Deuter. 6. it is said: with all thy heart, thoughts; with all thy soul, affections: with all thy strength, he understands operations, and executive powers: And because intellections are both cogitative of the heart and memorial of the mind; Therefore Luke, and Matthew add with all thy mind, in which he unfolded the Law, and because, whoever refers what is within, namely the act of memory, intelligence, and will to God, consequently refers works; therefore in these three is closed the reference of all powers in Luke. See the Holy Doctor, referring almost all the expositions.

HE INTIMATES, however, that the clause with all thy powers is inclusive of all, and that all signify the same thing, so that we love God according to our powers, as Bellarmine also notes; but that many things are expressed as expressions of greater grace. So also think Hilary, Jerome, Chrysost. ad 22. Matth. Ambrose ad cap. 10. Lucae. That this sense is more conformable to Scripture, Bellarmine says here, and Maldonatus ad 22. Matth. where he says that St. Augustine wishes this Lib. 1. cap. 22. Tom. 3. de doctrina Christ. saying: But when he says, With the whole heart, whole soul, whole mind, he leaves no part of our life that ought to be empty, and as it were to give place, so that we might wish to enjoy it with another thing; but whatever comes into the mind to be loved, is carried thither, whither the impulse of the whole dilection runs. From which he infers the impiety of Calvin, who says that God thus commands impossibilities; since he commands only that we love him according to our powers, helped by grace, never failing.

BUT AS TO that clause repeated (with all) Bonaventure reports two expositions. The first is, that the totality of affections and powers is commanded; so that this precept of Charity, which is the end of the Law, and the complement of perfection, is gravely imposed as to the means, and the end is indicated, which is perfection; yet so, that if we do not attain the perfection of the end in this life, we do not sin; just as, if a King should command the army: Take the city; the soldiers would not be punished if they did not attain the end, but if they did not fight. But if they fought faithfully, it would suffice to fulfill the precept. Therefore SS. Augustine, Bernard, and Thomas say, that the means are here commanded, and the end indicated, which cannot be perfectly obtained in this life, and accordingly that this precept is fulfilled most perfectly only in the other life; yet so, that place is given to the counsels, which add other means besides the precepts. Tannerus praises this exposition disp. 2. quaest. 4. dub. 4. num. 76. where he concludes, that this precept is fulfilled in order to the end, even if the end cannot be attained here.

THE SECOND exposition, which is more consonant with Scripture, as Bellarmine also notes, and which St. Bonaventure receives, is; that by this precept: with the whole heart, there is not commanded every act of the heart, or every possible intensity, so that we do nothing with the heart but love God; but only, that we love God with such love, that in our soul we prefer nothing to him, or make anything equal to him, and accordingly that by this precept the end is not contained, but only the means, moderated in this sense as to appreciation; whence you have, that this precept is observed: provided the last end is placed in God, not in another thing, by turning away from God lethally.

THAT this manner of Charity, indeed, is intended, and nothing more; and that it is more consonant with the Scriptures, is proved; because this precept is asserted from the Scriptures to be easy, Deuter. 10. And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but that thou fear the Lord thy God, and love him, and serve him with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and cap. 13. The Lord your God tempteth you, that it may be made manifest whether you love him or not with all your heart, and with all your soul, and Lucae 10. to the lawyer asking, What doing shall I possess eternal life? The Lord answered: What is written in the Law, how readest thou? he said: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, etc. And the Lord: This do, and thou shalt live. Christ gives the rule: If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, as Bassaeus notes num. 8.

THEN the Lord promised that he would bring it about, that in this life we should fulfill this precept Deuter. 30. alleged, and Hierem. 24. I will give them a heart, that they may know me, because I am the Lord: and they shall be to me a people, and I will be to them a God: because they shall return to me with their whole heart.

THAT MANY also observed this precept, the many Scriptures above testify.

FINALLY the Fathers testify with the fullest consent that nothing impossible is commanded us. See Origen homil. 9. in Iosue. Basil on that: Attend to thyself. Hilary in Psalm. 118. upon those words: Thy commandment is exceedingly broad. Jerome Lib. 3. cont. Pelagianos, in St. Bonaventure here. Augustine Lib. de natura, et gratia, cap. 69. and in Psalm. 56. Bernard serm. 50. in Cant. where he inclines rather to this latter opinion, which is that of St. Bonavent., as Bellarmine notes. This they commonly follow in Aragonium q. 26. art. 2. Tannerus disp. 2. quaest. 3. dub. 3.

From this exposition Bellarmine gathers with St. Bonavent. ad argumenta, that venial sins do not contravene this precept, because they do not turn away from the last end.

THEN, that inordinate involuntary movements of concupiscence are not contrary to the same precept, even in grave matters; because, since Charity stands in the will, the movements of the appetite that are not voluntary are not opposed to it. From which also tumble down the tumultuary opinions of the sectaries in Bellarmine Lib. 5. de amissione gratiae, cap. 10. where they clamor that concupiscence is indomitable, and all its acts mortal, even if involuntary; which they strive to prove from the confession of the Apostle to Rom. 6. 7. et 8. but I repelled the infamy of these in prima secunda, Tract. 4. De peccat. disp. 1.

INDEED, by Poll, it is indomitable in the sectaries, who with loosened reins break out into every crime, desperate more than impetuous.¹ It is indomitable in Luther, who violated the nun Catharina of Berna, ravished from the monastery, and led her into a pseudo-marriage. It is indomitable in Calvin, who, sunk in unspeakable and most filthy abominations, deserving to be burned with the fire of Pentapolis, was consumed with the putrefaction of worms, just as Luther, in the bosom of the woman of Bern, breathed forth his soul into hell. It is indomitable in Theodore Beza, that Antichrist of the Gauls, who, inflamed toward tender boys, was first nurtured in robes of saffron, and at last embraced filth; who so stirred, excited, kindled the Huguenot seditions in that most noble kingdom, that that warlike nation drowned the glories of its triumphs, once borne back distinguished over barbarians, in the slaughter and blood of its own citizens. ¹ Editor's note: the print/OCR reads 'desperati magis quam quam concitati' — 'quam' duplicated; rendered with a single 'quam'.