Summa contra Gentiles3.61 Chapter LXI. That by seeing God a man is made a partaker of eternal life

lect is made a partaker of eternal life. For eternity differs from time in that the latter has its being in a kind of succession, whereas the former is all simultaneously. Nowit has and ata glance. Therefore this vision takes place in a kind by that vision the created intellect becomes a partaker of eternal life.

Again. Actions take their species from their objects. Now the object of the aforesaidvision is the divine substance in its very being, and not in some created image, as we have shown. Now the being of the divine substance is in eternity, consists in a participation of eternity. Besides. If an action takes place in time, this is either of the term of the action; for instance, the actions which subject to time. Now the vision in question is not subject also the eternal substance; nor on the part of the seer, namely the intellect, whose being is independent of time;

altogether transcending time. Further. The intellective soul is created on the border line between eternity and time as stated in De Causis, and explained above:! because it is the last in order among intellects; and yet its substance stands above corporal matter, and is independent thereof. On the other hand its action in respect of which it comes into conjunction with lower and temporal things, is itself temporal. Consequently its action by reason of which it comes into conjunction with higher things that are above time, partakes of eternity. Especially does this apply to the vision in which it sees the divine substance. Therefore by this vision it enters into a participation of eternity: and for the same reason, so too does any other created intellect that sees God.

For this reason our Lord says (Jo. xvii. 3): This ts eternal life: that they may know Thee, the only true God.