bt--it follows
that our highest good and perfection also depend solely on the knowledge
of God. Further, since without God nothing can exist or be conceived, it
is evident that all natural phenomena involve and express the conception
of God as far as their essence and perfection extend, so that we have
greater and more perfect knowledge of God in proportion to our
knowledge of natural phenomena: conversely (since the knowledge of an
effect through its cause is the same thing as the knowledge of a
particular property of a cause) the greater our knowledge of natural
phenomena, the more perfect is our knowledge of the essence of God
(which is the cause of all things). So, then, our highest good not only
depends on the knowledge of God, but wholly consists therein; and it
further follows that man is perfect or the reverse in proportion to the
nature and perfection of the object of his special desire; hence the
most perfect and the chief sharer in the highest blessedness is he who
prizes above all else, and takes especial delight in the intellectual
knowledge of God, the most perfect Being.

Hither, then, our highest good and our highest blessedness aim--namely,
to the knowledge and love of God; therefore the means demanded by this
aim of all human actions, that is, by God in so far as the idea of him
is in us, may be called the commands of God, because they proceed, as it
were, from God Himself, inasmuch as He exists in our minds, and the plan
of life which has regard to this aim may be fitly called the law of God.

The nature of the means, and the plan of life which this aim demands,
how the foundations of the best states follow its lines, and how men's
life is conducted, are questions pertaining to general ethics. Here I
only proceed to treat of the Divine law in a particular application.

As the love of God is man's highest happiness and blessedness, and the
ultimate end and aim of all human actions, it follows that he alone
lives by the Divine law who loves God not from fear of punishment, or
from love of any other object, such as sensual pleasure, fame, or the
like; but solely because he has knowledge of God, or is convinced that
the knowledge and love of God is the highest good. The sum and chief
precept, then, of the Divine law is to love God as the highest good,
namely, as we have said, not from fear of any pains and penalties or
from the love of any other object in which we desire to take pleasure.
The idea of Go