hand, certain moral virtues are concerned with
works of giving and expending; such as justice, liberality, and
magnificence; and these reside not in the sensitive faculty, but in
the will. Hence, there is nothing to prevent our attributing these
virtues to God; although not in civil matters, but in such acts as
are not unbecoming to Him. For, as the Philosopher says (Ethic. x,
8), it would be absurd to praise God for His political virtues.

Reply Obj. 2: Since good as perceived by intellect is the object of
the will, it is impossible for God to will anything but what His
wisdom approves. This is, as it were, His law of justice, in
accordance with which His will is right and just. Hence, what He does
according to His will He does justly: as we do justly what we do
according to law. But whereas law comes to us from some higher power,
God is a law unto Himself.

Reply Obj. 3: To each one is due what is his own. Now that which is
directed to a man is said to be his own. Thus the master owns the
servant, and not conversely, for that is free which is its own cause.
In the word debt, therefore, is implied a certain exigence or
necessity of the thing to which it is directed. Now a twofold order
has to be considered in things: the one, whereby one created thing is
directed to another, as the parts of the whole, accident to
substance, and all things whatsoever to their end; the other, whereby
all created things are ordered to God. Thus in the divine operations
debt may be regarded in two ways, as due either to God, or to
creatures, and in either way God pays what is due. It is due to God
that there should be fulfilled in creatures what His will and wisdom
require, and what manifests His goodness. In this respect, God's
justice regards what befits Him; inasmuch as He renders to Himself
what is due to Himself. It is also due to a created thing that it
should possess what is ordered to it; thus it is due to man to have
hands, and that other animals should serve him. Thus also God
exercises justice, when He gives to each thing what is due to it by
its nature and condition. This debt however is derived from the
former; since what is due to each thing is due to it as ordered to it
according to the divine wisdom. And although God in this way pays
each thing its due, yet He Himself is not the debtor, since He is not
directed to other things, but rather other things to Him. Justice,
therefore, in God is sometimes spoken of as the fittin