Divine Justice and the Nature of True Life

These are the down-payments; yet none of these are outside of justice, intimately connected with goodnessdness, so as not to let the zeal for the beautiful perish through a lawless, unchecked cheerfulness (Ps 144:21). Again, he stretches out the hymns over a long duration and does not stand upon a single point or his own person, but intends to make all men equal toward the infinite age, even if he is sometimes seen along with those who are passing away, signifying a fellowship of the righteous who have become God's beginning according to the apostle (Ps 145:1-2).

It seems to teach that this is the work of life, and this is the benefit of being, if we are joined to the truly living and to the truly existing Being; for this is the provision both for the truly living and for existing eternally, since from the present life we are brought toward the life that is to come (Ps 145:5). In this way, hope in men is vanity, but hope in God is blessedness. For He is a true helper, eternal and ruler of all things; in this, His authority is such that, as from abundant wealth and infinite greatness, He readily benefits (Ps 146:4).

He is so great and so far-reaching that even the unnumbered stars are not outside His knowledge, but having been regulated by Him, He precisely knows the nature and power of each, distinguishing them just as names of designations (Ps 146:5). Strength and understanding, indeed, we hear in human terms, but let us not think in human terms what strength is, by which a strong man acts, nor what understanding is, by which the wise man deliberates, being something both arriving and departing.