Catholic Theology Plain Pure Peaceable, Section 17
SECT. XVII. Of Love as the end of Faith.
247. This predominant Love of God and Holineſs, is ſo proper a Cui non unus idem que vit… ſcopus eſt, hic unus idem que per vitam totam eſſe non poteſt. Non eſt ſatis quod dixi, niſi illud etiam adjeceris, qualis ſcopus hic eſſe debeat. M. Antoninus li. 11. ſect. 21. p. 113.fruit of the Spirit, that it is the very heart of the New Creature, the ſum of Sanctification, as love is the ſum of the Law. So that to give the Spirit of Adoption, to cry Abba, Father, and to ſanctifie, and to work in us the love of God and holineſs, are three phraſes of the ſame ſignification in the Word of God.
248. As Chriſt as Mediator is the ſummary means and way to the Father, to bring man home to his Creator; ſo Faith in Chriſt is a mediating Grace, to work in us the love of God: And as elſe-where I have oft ſaid, The bellowes of Faith kindling Love, and Love working by holy Obedience, Patience, Mortification, Gratitude and Praiſe, is the ſubſtance of all true Religion.
249. Love being the final Grace, and Faith in Chriſt, but a means to 1 Cor. 12. laſt. & 13. 1. 2. 2. Whether the habit of Love in patria be better than that of Faith and Viſion in genere moris only, or alſo in genere rei, the School-men are utterly diſagreed. Cacere's ſum. Theol. 22. q. 5. a. 1. Utrum in ſola charitate ſupernaturali ſit amicitia hominis ad Deum? Affirm. Quia D…us ut a…hor natura non ea communicat, quae ſunt propria ejus, ſed ſolum eſſe naturale & potentias quae, &c. The Reaſon is not ſo good as the Aſſertion. Vid. Bradward. li. 1. c. 1. cor. 30. Contra indoctos artis amandi, n…ſcientes Deum eſſe propter ſeipſum amandum, & c…tera propter Deum, omneſ que actus humanos ad ipſum propter ſe finaliter ordinandos, ipſum que eſſe ſuper omnia diligendum: and his following proof that God is not to be ſinned againſt in the ſmalleſt of his Precepts, or in the ſmalleſt thing, to avoid the greateſt pain, o… obtain the greateſt good imaginable.it, the end muſt needs be more excellent than the means as ſuch. And thus Paul giveth the pre-eminence to Love.
250. And no wonder if he prefer it alſo for duration; For Love is Heaven or felicity it ſelf, yea ſomewhat higher than felicity as ſuch. For as God is our End for and in himſelf, above the ratio foelicitatis, ſo God is our End as he is to be loved: And God the Ultimate Object, and Love the Ultimate Act, and Gods Love communicated perfectly to us, and Gods Will pleaſed in all this, are the inadequate Conceptions which make up the Ultimate End, ſuppoſing the perfection of Nature, and of the Intellect in the ſight of God, as ſubſervient hereunto.
251. Man therefore hath a degree of fruition, or attainment of his Ultimate End in this life, ſo far as he hath a delightful love of God: Though this be but the foretaſt and Firſt-fruits.
252. Therefore it is not by Faith only that we know what Heaven is, and are drawn to ſeek it and hope for it: but alſo by this earneſt and foretast of love; which worketh by a ſpiritual gust and ſweet inward experience. The Intellect firſt hath Faith, and the Will hath Love; And a promiſe and earneſt is more a promiſe alone.
253. When Faith hath wrought this holy Love in the Soul, it doth as much if not more to keep us from Apoſtacy than Faith it ſelf. Therefore many unlearned Chriſtians, by the power of holy Love, ſtand faſt, when ſubtile diſputing Doctors may cleave to the world, and fall away.
254. Though it be an ill expreſſion of thoſe School-men that ſay, Love is the form of every Grace, that which I ſuppoſe they mean is true: that love being the final Grace, the reſt as they are means to it, or the effects and expreſſions of it, are what they are partly in that Relation: The means is a means only by its Aptitude to the end; And is never loved (as ſuch) for it ſelf, but for the end: And what the effect hath, it hath from its efficient Cauſe. And it is true, that no Faith, no Fear, no Obedience, no Praiſe, no Suffering is further accepted of God, and a part of true Holineſs, nor will prove our Salvation, than it participateth of predominant love to God. But this predominant Love is always an evidence of Life.
255. Qu. What if a man ſhould by Faith in Chriſt be brought to the love of God, and after fall away from Faith in Chriſt, and yet retain his love to God, would that love ſave him? Anſ. When you can prove that ever there was ſuch a man, I will anſwer you. Till then ſuch falſe ſuppoſitions are no otherwiſe to be anſwered, than by telling you, that if God ſhould permit a man to fall from Chriſt, that man would loſe the Spirit of Chriſt, and the ſight and ſenſe of all Gods Love and Goodneſs manifeſted in Chriſt, and in all the Work of Redemption; And therefore he would loſe the love of God.
256. How far Holineſs is the deſign of Christianity, I have opened in a ſmall Tractate on that Queſtion; And how far Sanctification is to be preferred before Pardon as ſuch, and yet Chriſt's Glory in pardoning us, I have ſhewed there and in my Confeſſion, and therefore will not here repeat it.