Three Books on the Death of Christ and Self-Reflection, and Two Books on the Study of Divine and Human Philosophy

not to mention that it loves and esteems Him above all other things. For it is carried by a natural love toward that which is of another more than toward itself, rather than toward itself. For we see and feel that the parts themselves expose themselves to labors, expenses, and exhaustion so that the whole of which they are parts might not be endangered and perish. We read that for the protection of their country, some have strenuously fought and died among the densest ranks of enemies; others have chosen and inflicted certain death upon themselves. Indeed, the hand itself most promptly comes forward to ward off injuries to the body, even when the person whose hand it is does not think of it, so that it may receive the inflicted blows upon itself rather than the whole be wounded, or that a more serious loss be made in another more principal member. And surely, nothing else is signaled to us when we see a hand go in the way of someone striking the head with a stick than the desire which nature has implanted in itself to guard and preserve the greater good it loves. But since God is the good itself, and more common and excellent than can be said or thought, under whom both the soul and every creature is contained, and it cannot be doubted that this very thing which is the creature's is God's, it must be concluded that God is loved and worshipped by all creatures, not to mention the soul, above themselves.

That in loving we very often deceive ourselves, and how. Chapter iiii.

W?
concerning the previous chapter?

† But truly, in the angels who sinned, the right order of the will was confused and dissipated. It remained intact in the first man, formed from the slime of the earth, as long as he kept the commandment of the supreme God. Right order of will He would have transferred the same to his descendants if he had not rendered it void. But because of the crime of disobedience committed, nature was corrupted and original justice lost; we desire and follow the particular good unless divine clemency aids us. And we who, by an integral nature not stained by any contagion of paternal crime, were carried by the addition of supernatural grace to love God above all (even if we had need of His help to be moved toward it), now, being wounded and sick, we always need His aid, the Healer of nature. Thus, it has come to pass that in loving, we can be deceived in many ways; and first of all, by not seeking divine aid,