Breviloquium

But concerning what is to be loved, this is to be held:¹ although all divine works are very good², nevertheless four are properly to be loved out of charity, namely, eternal God, what we are, our neighbor, and our body. — In loving these, order and measure must be observed, so that God is loved first, above all, and for his own sake; second, what we are, under God and for God; third, our neighbor, as we love ourselves; fourth, our body, beneath us and beneath our neighbor, as a less excellent good. — To carry this out, there is given one habit of charity and a twofold commandment, on which hangs the whole of the Law and the Prophets, not only as regards the Old Testament but also the New.³

The reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: because the first principle, by the very fact that it is first, is supreme; and by the very fact that it is supreme, it is supremely good; and by the very fact that it is supremely good, it is supremely blessed and supremely beatifying; and by the very fact that it is supremely beatifying, it is supremely to be enjoyed through it; and by the very fact that through it we are supremely to enjoy, we must cling to it supremely through love and rest in it as in an end.⁴ Since therefore right and ordered love, which is called charity, is borne principally toward that good in which we enjoy and in which we rest, and that good itself is the reason for loving,⁵ hence it is that it loves that good chiefly as beatifying and consequently the rest, which through it are suited to be beatified. Since therefore our neighbor is born to arrive with us at beatitude, and our body too is born to arrive as beatifiable with the spirit, hence it is that only four are said to be loved out of charity, namely, God and neighbor, our spirit and our body.

Again, since God is above us as the supreme good, our spirit within us as the intrinsic good, and our neighbor beside us as the kindred good, but our body beneath us as the subject good, hence order must be observed here in loving, so that first God is loved above all and for his own sake; second, our spirit under God above every passing good; third, our neighbor beside us toward a similar good; fourth, our body beneath us as the lowest good; and the body of our neighbor ought to be included at the same rank, because each bears the character of an inferior good with respect to our spirit.

Lastly, since love is the weight of the mind and the origin of every mental affection, which easily reflects into itself, tends with difficulty toward the neighbor, and is raised still more difficultly to God, hence it is that, although four are to be loved out of charity, a twofold commandment is nevertheless given: one that directs toward God, another that directs toward the neighbor.⁶ — And since all precepts are referred either to God or to the neighbor, as to the end, and to that which is toward the end, hence it is that in these two commandments are contained the collection of the commandments and the comprehension of all the Scriptures. And charity itself is the root, form, and end of the virtues, joining all with the last end and binding all together simultaneously and in order;⁷ therefore it is the weight of ordered inclination and the bond of perfect colligation, preserving order with respect to the diverse things loved as regards affection and effect alike, but having unity in the habit as regards one end and one principal beloved, which is the reason for loving all the others, which through the bond of love are destined to be bound together into one Christ as head and body, which contains in itself the universality of those to be saved. This unity is now begun on the way, but is consummated in eternal glory, according to the Lord's prayer: “that they may be one, as we also are one; and I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity”;⁸ when this unity has been perfected through the bond of charity, God will be all in all in sure eternity and perfect peace, and all things will be common through love in ordered communion, connected by ordering, and indissolubly bound by connection.