it can affect achievement of the supreme end. God does predestine men. This is because God is superior to man. Those higher powers are given control of the lower powers. An example is that man controls beasts. Therefore God controls or predestines man towards happiness. But this is a two-fold end. One that is eternal life and the other is the attainment of the perfection of the created nature of man. (Summa, 175) God then gives merits as he predestines them. They are predestined according to the following principle. …giving us to understand that God gives grace to a person, and preordains that He will give it, because He knows beforehand that he will make good use of it… (Summa, 177)So God gives merit as they are prepared for it. So this is where faith plays a role in achieving and giving the supreme end. Faith is the preparation that leads to merits being given to a man. For faith allows man to live according to God’s plan, not man’s will. Living by man’s will allows those things that Tolstoy says are pamperings of the will to exist. These pamperings are the acts, reflections, sciences, and arts of the rich educated class. Reaching the Moral EndHow do we live by God’s law? Tolstoy says that faith is the key to living by the laws of God. Faith gives the meaning of life. No course of action can be taken without knowing the goal or meaning of what is trying to be attained as the end. Faith gave the common people a life attached to the infinite. (Elements, 549) The more a person was drawn towards the pampering of the appetites, the farther they were drawn from the infinite. Tolstoy uses the running comparison of the commoners versus the wealthy. The affluent and learned members of society were controlled by their appetites. But faith can only light the way to the supreme end, something more is needed. This is a control over the appetites so that their control is by man. T...
