ngs. For it is manifest that Christ is better than the whole human
race, being God and man. But God loved the human race more than He
loved Christ; for it is said: "He spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all" (Rom. 8:32). Therefore God does not
always love more the better things.

Obj. 2: Further, an angel is better than a man. Hence it is said of
man: "Thou hast made him a little less than the angels" (Ps. 8:6).
But God loved men more than He loved the angels, for it is said:
"Nowhere doth He take hold of the angels, but of the seed of Abraham
He taketh hold" (Heb. 2:16). Therefore God does not always love more
the better things.

Obj. 3: Further, Peter was better than John, since he loved Christ
more. Hence the Lord, knowing this to be true, asked Peter, saying:
"Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me more than these?" Yet Christ
loved John more than He loved Peter. For as Augustine says,
commenting on the words, "Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me?": "By
this very mark is John distinguished from the other disciples, not
that He loved him only, but that He loved him more than the rest."
Therefore God does not always love more the better things.

Obj. 4: Further, the innocent man is better than the repentant, since
repentance is, as Jerome says (Cap. 3 in Isa.), "a second plank after
shipwreck." But God loves the penitent more than the innocent; since
He rejoices over him the more. For it is said: "I say to you that
there shall be joy in heaven upon the one sinner that doth penance,
more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance" (Luke 15:7).
Therefore God does not always love more the better things.

Obj. 5: Further, the just man who is foreknown is better than the
predestined sinner. Now God loves more the predestined sinner, since
He wills for him a greater good, life eternal. Therefore God does not
always love more the better things.

_On the contrary,_ Everything loves what is like it, as appears from
(Ecclus. 13:19): "Every beast loveth its like." Now the better a thing
is, the more like is it to God. Therefore the better things are more
loved by God.

_I answer that,_ It must needs be, according to what has been said
before, that God loves more the better things. For it has been shown
(AA. 2, 3), that God's loving one thing more than another is nothing
else than His willing for that thing a greater good: because God's
will is the cause of goodness in things; and the reason why some
thin