This will be amply illustrated in the treatises concerning DIVINE PROVIDENCE and concerning LIFE. Here it is merely stated that the Lord Who is God of the universe is Uncreate and Infinite, whereas a man or an angel is created and finite. And because the Lord is Uncreate and Infinite, He is Esse (Being) Itself which is called Jehovah, and Life Itself or Life in Himself. No-one can be created directly from the Uncreate, the Infinite, Esse Itself and Life Itself, because the Divine is One and not divisible, whereas creation must be from things created and finited, and so formed that the Divine can be in them. Because men and angels are such, they are recipients of life. Wherefore, if any man allows himself to be so far led astray by the thought that he is not a recipient of life, but is life, he cannot be led away from the thought that he is God. A man's feeling as if he were life, and hence believing himself to be so, arises from fallacy; for the principal cause is not perceived in the instrumental cause otherwise than as one with it. That the Lord is Life in Himself, He teaches in John:

As the Father hath life in Himself, so also hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself John v 26

and that He is Life Itself John xi 26; xiv 6

Now because life and love are one, as is clear from what has been said above (n. 1, 2) it follows that the Lord, because He is Life Itself, is Love Itself.