Chapter 107 — That motion toward God for the acquiring of beatitude is like natural motion

We should note that, since advance from potency to act is motion, or at least is similar to motion, the process of arriving at beatitude has points of resemblance with natural motion or change. In natural motion we may consider, first, a certain property by which the mobile object has a proportion to such and such an end, or is inclined in its direction, as heaviness in earth is inclined to being borne downward. No object would move naturally toward a definite end unless it had a proportion to that end. Second, we may consider the motion itself toward its end. Third, the form or place toward which there is motion. Fourth, the repose in the form attained or in the place reached.

Thus, therefore, in an intellectual movement toward an end, there is first the love inclining toward the end; second, the desire which is like a motion toward the end, and the actions issuing from such desire; third, the form which the intellect receives; and fourth, the resulting delight, which is nothing else than the repose of the will in the end reached.

Just as, therefore, the end of natural generation is a form and the end of local motion is a place, yet the end is not rest in form or place, but this rest follows upon the attainment of the end (and much less does the end consist in motion or in proportion to the end), even so the ultimate end of an intellectual creature is seeing God, not delighting in God; but such delight accompanies attainment of the end and, as it were, perfects it. Much less can desire or love be the ultimate end, because they are present even before the end is reached.