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Now that we have discoursed on the nature of the will of God, we must move onto the moral perfections of the will of God, 1. Under the notion of desirability (love), 2. Under the notion of morality (justice and mercy).
Under the first, St. Thomas begins by treating the existence of love (a. 1), then moves on to its object (a. 2), and lastly its mode (a. 3-4).
First, the existence of love. Here, we do not ask about the existence of love in general, but, particularly, the formal existence of love in God, i.e., that it is proper and not metaphorical.
This formal existence of love in the will of God is distinct from the acts of the sensitive faculties, such as anger, sorrow, etc., which requires some sort of imperfection (in this case, it requires a sensitive soul).
The fact that there is love formally speaking in God necessarily follows from the fact that there is will formally speaking in God. For, love is the first appetite of the will which has as its object universal goodness (as is explained in the article). Thus, for there to even be a will, there must somehow be love.