From what has been said it is clearly impossible that human happiness consist in pleasures of the body, the chief of which are pleasures of the table and of sex. It has been shown that according to nature's order, pleasure is on account of operation and not conversely. Wherefore if an operation is not the ultimate end, the consequence pleasure can neither be the ultimate end, nor accompany the ultimate end. Now it is manifest that the operations which are followed by the pleasures mentioned above are not the last end, for they are directed to certain manifest ends - eating, for instance, to the preservation of the body, and canal intercourse to the begetting of children; as it is, the aforesaid pleasures are not the end, nor do they accompany the last end.

Therefore happiness does not consist in them which is not good, unless it be moderate or is not good itself but receives its goodness from its moderator. Now the use of the aforesaid pleasures is not good for people unless it be moderate, for otherwise they would frustrate one another. Therefore these pleasures are not in themselves. But the sovereign good is good essentially because that which is good of itself is better that what is good through another. Such-like pleasures are not human's supreme good, which is happiness.

Acts of virtue are praiseworthy through being directed to happiness. If therefore human happiness consisted in the aforesaid pleasures, an act of virtue would be more praiseworthy in acceding to them than in abstaining from them. But this is clearly untrue, for the act of temperance is especially praised in abstinence from pleasures, whence that act takes its name.

Therefore human happiness is not be placed in bodily pleasures. And the last end of everything is God, we must therefore posit as human's last end that by which especially peoples approaches God. Now human is hindered by the aforesaid same pleasures are a very great hindrance since more than anything they plunge people into the midst of sensible things and, consequently, withdraw them from intelligible things.

Therefore human happiness is not to be placed in bodily pleasures. Besides, the soul is better than the body, which neither lives nor possesses these goods without the soul, wherefore the soul's good, such as understanding and the like, is better than the body's good. The body's good is not human's supreme good. Accordingly, if human ultimate happiness consists not in goods of the body, nor in goods of the soul, as regards the sensitive faculty, it remains for us to conclude that human ultimate happiness consists in wisdom based on the consideration of divine things.

It is therefore evident by way of induction that people ultimate happiness consists solely in the contemplation of God. Therefore our faith in God's, our hope in God's and loving God's is always not in vain and always fruitful.

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Faith . Hope . Love - Welcome donation. Thank You. God bless.

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Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -