Chapter XXII.—A Happy Life is to
Rejoice in God, and for God.
32. Let it be far, O Lord,—let it be far
from the heart of Thy servant who confesseth unto Thee; let it be
far from me to think myself happy, be the joy what it may. For
there is a joy which is not granted to the “wicked,”
859
but to those
who worship Thee thankfully, whose joy Thou Thyself art. And the
happy life is this,—to rejoice unto Thee, in Thee, and for Thee;
this it is, and there is no other.
860
But those who think there is
another follow after another joy, and that not the true one. Their
will, however, is not turned away from some shadow of
joy.
859
Isa. xlviii. 22
.
860
Since “life eternal is the supreme good,” as he
remarks in his
De Civ. Dei
, xix. 4. Compare also
ibid.
viii. sec. 8, where he argues that the highest good is
God, and that he who loves Him is in the enjoyment of that good.
See also note on the chief good, p. 75, above.