Whether God Comprehends Himself?
Objection 1: It seems that God does not comprehend Himself. For
Augustine says (Octog. Tri. Quaest. xv), that "whatever comprehends
itself is finite as regards itself." But God is in all ways infinite.
Therefore He does not comprehend Himself.
Obj. 2: If it is said that God is infinite to us, and finite to
Himself, it can be urged to the contrary, that everything in God is
truer than it is in us. If therefore God is finite to Himself, but
infinite to us, then God is more truly finite than infinite; which is
against what was laid down above (Q. 7, A. 1). Therefore God does
not comprehend Himself.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (Octog. Tri. Quaest. xv), that
"Everything that understands itself, comprehends itself." But God
understands Himself. Therefore He comprehends Himself.
_I answer that,_ God perfectly comprehends Himself, as can be thus
proved. A thing is said to be comprehended when the end of the
knowledge of it is attained, and this is accomplished when it is known
as perfectly as it is knowable; as, for instance, a demonstrable
proposition is comprehended when known by demonstration, not, however,
when it is known by some probable reason. Now it is manifest that God
knows Himself as perfectly as He is perfectly knowable. For everything
is knowable according to the mode of its own actuality; since a thing
is not known according as it is in potentiality, but in so far as it
is in actuality, as said in _Metaph._ ix. Now the power of God in
knowing is as great as His actuality in existing; because it is from
the fact that He is in act and free from all matter and potentiality,
that God is cognitive, as shown above (AA. 1, 2). Whence it is
manifest that He knows Himself as much as He is knowable; and for that
reason He perfectly comprehends Himself.
Reply Obj. 1: The strict meaning of "comprehension" signifies that
one thing holds and includes another; and in this sense everything
comprehended is finite, as also is everything included in another.
But God is not said to be comprehended by Himself in this sense, as
if His intellect were a faculty apart from Himself, and as if it held
and included Himself; for these modes of speaking are to be taken by
way of negation. But as God is said to be in Himself, forasmuch as He
is not contained by anything outside of Himself; so He is said to be
comprehended by Himself, forasmuch as nothing in Himself is hidden
from Himself. For Augustine says (De Vid. Deum. ep. cxii), "The whole
is comprehended when seen, if it is seen in such a way that nothing
of it is hidden from the seer."
Reply Obj. 2: When it is said, "God is finite to Himself," this is to
be understood according to a certain similitude of proportion,
because He has the same relation in not exceeding His intellect, as
anything finite has in not exceeding finite intellect. But God is not
to be called finite to Himself in this sense, as if He understood
Himself to be something finite.
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