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Order of Contents
Definition 1
Historical 1
God’s 1
Latin 1
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Articles
1500’s
Vermigli, Peter Martyr – The Common Places… (London: Henrie Denham et al., 1583), pt. 1
14. ‘Of Felicity in General & of the Chiefest Good, out of the Commentaries upon Aristotle’s Ethics’ 132
‘Of Pleasure & wherein it may concur with the Chiefest Good’ 134
‘Of Honor’ 141
‘Of Riches, Beauty, Nobility & such like’ 145
‘Of Contemplation’ 149
‘That Virtue is not the Chief Good’ 176
‘The Causes of Felicity’ 154
15. ‘Whether any man can be counted happy while he lives here’ 158
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1600’s
Perkins, William – A Golden Chain (Cambridge: Legat, 1600)
50. Of the Estate of the Elect after Judgment
. A Corollary, or the Last Conclusion
Voet, Gisbert – Exercise on Thomas, Summa, pt. 1 of 2, q. 3, art. 4, on the Subject & Formal Acts of Beatitude in Exercise on Thomas, Summa, pt. 1, q. 12, art. 1, on the Vision of God through his Essence, etc., pp. 20-39 tr. by AI by WesternCatholike in Select Theological Disputations (Utrecht, 1655) Latin
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Book
1600’s
Rous, Francis – The Art of Happiness… (London: Stansby, 1619) 506 pp. ToC
Rous was a Westminster divine.
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Quotes
Order of
Aquinas
On Aquinas
Burgersdijk
Feser
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1200’s
Thomas Aquinas
Summa Contra Gentiles, bk. 1, ch. 11
“For man knows God naturally in the same way as he desires him naturally. Now man desires him naturally insofar as he naturally desires happiness, which is a likeness of the divine goodness.
Hence it does not follow that God considered in Himself is naturally known to man, but that his likeness is. Therefore, man must come by reasoning to know God in the likenesses to Him which he discovers in God’s effects.”
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On Aquinas
Edward Feser, Immortality of Souls: a Treatise on Human Nature (Editiones Scholastica, 2024), ch. 4, p. 137
“Like every other substance, a rational substance is of its nature directed toward some end. Aquinas would say that that end is its happiness, which is the realization of what is good for it.”
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1600’s
Burgersdijk, Francis – An Idea of Philosophy, both Moral & Natural [only Moral here], or a Concise Epitome of both, excerpted from Aristotle & Methodically Arranged trans. AI by Josh Smith (Oxford: W.H., 1667)
2. Good in General 6
3. Opinions on Happiness 10
4. True Opinion on Happiness 15-20
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2000’s
Edward Feser
Neo-Scholastic Essays (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 2015), ch. 15, ‘Self-ownership, Libertarianism, and Impartiality’, p. 368
“What is ‘happiness’ after all? Is it a matter of ‘getting what you want’? Is it a matter of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain, as Bentham and Mill held (albeit in different ways)? On these conceptions, happiness seems to be definable in terms of the subjective states of the agent.
On an Aristotelian or classical natural law conception, though, it is something objective, a matter of living in accordance with one’s nature, understood as a fixed essence entailing a natural end or purpose.”
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On the Definition of Blessedness
Quote
1900’s
Allan B. Wolter
Little Summary of Metaphysics (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1958), pt. 3, p. 101 Wolter was a Scotus scholar.
“…for blessedness is nothing other than an intellectual being pleased, that follows upon possession of one’s proper perfection.”
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Historical
On the 1600’s
Beck, Andreas – ‘Voetius on the Will as the Subject & Formal Act of Happiness’ in Church & School in Early Modern Protestantism
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On God’s Blessedness
Order of
Articles 4+
Quote 1
Latin 5
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Articles
1500’s
Polanus, Amandus – ch. 17, ‘On the Blessedness of God’ tr. by AI by Chaznvo 3 pp. in System of Christian Theology (1609-1610), vol. 1, bk. 2, cols. 995-98 Latin
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1600’s
Perkins, William – 4. Of God’s Glory & Blessedness in A Golden Chain (Cambridge: Legat, 1600)
Leigh, Edward – 15. Of God’s Glory & Blessedness in A System or Body of Divinity… (London, A.M., 1654), bk. 2, pp. 194-204
van Mastricht, Peter – 23. ‘The Blessedness of God’ in Theoretical-Practical Theology ed. Joel Beeke, tr: Todd Rester (RHB, 2018), vol. 2, Faith in the Triune God, pt. 1, bk. 2, pp. 482-97
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1900’s
Wolter, Allan B. – p. 101, point 2 in Little Summary of Metaphysics (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1958), pt. 3
Wolter was a Scotus scholar.
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Quote
1900’s
Allan Wolter
‘Allan Wolter’s Conclusions respecting Reality, Proving God’ (1958), ‘Proof of God’
“16. Therefore God is personal.
“A conclusion certain enough: God loves himself.” p. 100
Proof:
1) A perfect being’s love seems to be a pure perfection; therefore it belongs to God and indeed in supreme degree. The proof of the antecedent is:
a) If love of this sort were not a pure perfection formally, it could be reduced to one or other pure perfections that were not formally love. But I do not see how such love could be reduced to something that was [not] formally love.
b) To love seems to be better than not to love; therefore love seems to be a pure perfection, because it is better than what is incompatible with it (namely not to love). The proof of the antecedent here is: a distinction must be drawn between love of friendship (benevolence) and love of concupiscence.
The former is love of an object for its own sake, that is, because of the object’s intrinsic perfection, and this love does not seem to involve imperfection in the lover.
Love of concupiscence is love of an object and not for the object’s sake finally but because the object perfects the lover or is a good for the lover. But this love does involve imperfection because the object is wanted precisely because it perfects a lover that is in itself capable of perfection.
2) Blessedness seems to be a pure perfection, and therefore it belongs to God in supreme degree. But love seems to be either the principal element in blessedness, or at any rate intimately connected with the blessedness of an intellectual being.
That blessedness is a pure perfection is clear from the notion of it; for blessedness is nothing other than an intellectual being pleased, that follows upon possession of one’s proper perfection. But God knows himself as infinitely perfect; he seems, therefore, to be blessed; therefore blessedness seems to be a pure perfection.
That this blessedness is not simply intellection, but includes an act of will or love, seems to follow from the fact that there is in God some operation besides what is formally called intellection, for God is formally willing, at least in respect of creatures. (See the next chapter [Part 3] about the proof of free volition in God.) For if God freely creates things outside himself and so has volition, it seems that he also has some act of volition, namely love, toward himself.
3) God is the first cause of all love in us. Hence he has this perfection either formally or virtually. If you concede that the love is better than not to love, God cannot have love only virtually, because the more imperfect does not include the more perfect virtually. Therefore God has love formally.
As was said above about divine intellection, this divine love is not something really distinct from God’s essence. It extends, therefore, to everything that is really identified with the same essence. Hence it can be said that God loves his essence, his decrees, his knowledge, etc. This love is also eternal, unchangeable, non-contingent.”
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Latin Articles
1500’s
Zanchi, Jerome – bk. 2, ch. 8, ‘Of the Blessedness of God’ in Of the Nature of God, or of the Divine Attributes, in 5 Books (Heidelberg, 1577)
Zanchi (1516-1590) was an Italian, protestant Reformation clergyman and educator who influenced the development of Reformed theology during the years following John Calvin’s death.
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1600’s
Voet, Gisbert – (14) Blessedness of God in Syllabus of Theological Problems (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 1, tract 2, I. ‘Of God’, 4. Attributes of God in Specific, 2nd Kind Abbr.
Maresius, Samuel – 26. Of the Blessedness of God in bk. 1, ‘Of God & his Attributes’ in The Hydra of Socinianism Expunged, vol. 1 (Groningen, 1651), pp. 473-77
de Vries, Gerard – 22. Majesty & Blessedness of God in Rational Exercitations on God & the Divine Perfections, even Miscellaneous Philosophical Things new ed. (Utrecht, 1695), vol. 1, Rational Exercitations, pp. 171-77
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1700’s
Holtzfus, Barthold – 11. ‘Of the Power, Glory & Blessedness of God’ in A Theological Tract on God, Attributes & the Divine Decrees, Three Academic Dissertations (1707), pp. 176-81
Holtzfus (1659-1717) was a reformed professor of philosophy and theology at Frankfurt.
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Latin Article
1600’s
Voet, Gisbert – II. Of the Chief Good or of Blessedness in Syllabus of Theological Problems (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 1, tract 1 Abbr.
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