DISPUTATION III

ON BLESSEDNESS, THE END OF THEOLOGY

I. The end of theology is the blessedness of man; and that, not animal or natural, but spiritual and supernatural.

II. It consists in fruition, the object of which is a perfect, chief, and sufficient good, which is God.

III. The foundation of this fruition is life, endowed with understanding and with intellectual feeling.

IV. The connective or coherent cause of fruition is union with God, by which that life is so greatly perfected, that they who obtain this union are said to be "partakers of the divine nature and of life eternal."

V. The medium of fruition is understanding and emotion or feeling -- understanding, not by species or image, but by clear vision, which is called that of face to face; and feeling, corresponding with this vision.

VI. The cause of blessedness is God himself, uniting himself with man; that is, giving himself to be seen, loved, possessed, and thus to be enjoyed by man.

VII. The antecedent or only moving cause is the goodness and the remunerative justice of God, which have the wisdom of God as their precursor.

VIII. The executive cause is the power of God, by which the soul is enlarged after the capacity of God, and the animal body is transformed and transfigured into a spiritual body.

IX. The end, event, or consequence is two-fold,

     (1.) a demonstration of the glorious wisdom, goodness, justice, power, and likewise the universal perfection of God; and

     (2.) his glorification by the beatified.