, there must needs be also
order of some kind. But it has been said above (Q. 23, A. 1; Q. 25,
A. 12) that the love of charity tends to God as to the principle of
happiness, on the fellowship of which the friendship of charity is
based. Consequently there must needs be some order in things loved
out of charity, which order is in reference to the first principle of
that love, which is God.

Reply Obj. 1: Charity tends towards the last end considered as last
end: and this does not apply to any other virtue, as stated above (Q.
23, A. 6). Now the end has the character of principle in matters of
appetite and action, as was shown above (Q. 23, A. 7, ad 2; I-II, A.
1, ad 1). Wherefore charity, above all, implies relation to the First
Principle, and consequently, in charity above all, we find an order
in reference to the First Principle.

Reply Obj. 2: Faith pertains to the cognitive power, whose operation
depends on the thing known being in the knower. On the other hand,
charity is in an appetitive power, whose operation consists in the
soul tending to things themselves. Now order is to be found in things
themselves, and flows from them into our knowledge. Hence order is
more appropriate to charity than to faith.

And yet there is a certain order in faith, in so far as it is chiefly
about God, and secondarily about things referred to God.

Reply Obj. 3: Order belongs to reason as the faculty that orders, and
to the appetitive power as to the faculty which is ordered. It is in
this way that order is stated to be in charity.
_______________________

SECOND ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 26, Art. 2]

Whether God Ought to Be Loved More Than Our Neighbor?

Objection 1: It would seem that God ought not to be loved more than
our neighbor. For it is written (1 John 4:20): "He that loveth not
his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God, Whom he seeth not?"
Whence it seems to follow that the more a thing is visible the more
lovable it is, since loving begins with seeing, according to _Ethic._
ix, 5, 12. Now God is less visible than our neighbor. Therefore He is
less lovable, out of charity, than our neighbor.

Obj. 2: Further, likeness causes love, according to Ecclus. 13:19:
"Every beast loveth its like." Now man bears more likeness to his
neighbor than to God. Therefore man loves his neighbor, out of
charity, more than he loves God.

Obj. 3: Further, what charity loves in a neighbor, is God, according
to Augustine (De Doctr. Chris