The Difference Between Heaven and Earthly Cities

St. Thomas teaches that even without grace man by his nature would if not for sin have loved God above all things as the common good of all creation. His ordering to the good of the whole of creation goes through the intermediate holes to which he belongs more proximately, his species and especially his city. For St. Thomas, the earthly city whose good is the Bonham Chibile identified with the good, connatural to man is also in principle a city founded on love of God.