Whether All Things Are Life in God?
Objection 1: It seems that not all things are life in God. For it is
said (Acts 17:28), "In Him we live, and move, and be." But not all
things in God are movement. Therefore not all things are life in Him.
Obj. 2: Further, all things are in God as their first model. But
things modelled ought to conform to the model. Since, then, not all
things have life in themselves, it seems that not all things are life
in God.
Obj. 3: Further, as Augustine says (De Vera Relig. 29), a living
substance is better than a substance that does not live. If,
therefore, things which in themselves have not life, are life in God,
it seems that things exist more truly in God than themselves. But this
appears to be false; since in themselves they exist actually, but in
God potentially.
Obj. 4: Further, just as good things and things made in time are
known by God, so are bad things, and things that God can make, but
that never will be made. If, therefore, all things are life in God,
inasmuch as known by Him, it seems that even bad things and things
that will never be made are life in God, as known by Him, and this
appears inadmissible.
_On the contrary,_ (John 1:3, 4), it is said, "What was made, in Him
was life." But all things were made, except God. Therefore all things
are life in God.
_I answer that,_ In God to live is to understand, as before stated
(A. 3). In God intellect, the thing understood, and the act of
understanding, are one and the same. Hence whatever is in God as
understood is the very living or life of God. Now, wherefore, since
all things that have been made by God are in Him as things understood,
it follows that all things in Him are the divine life itself.
Reply Obj. 1: Creatures are said to be in God in a twofold sense. In
one way, so far are they are held together and preserved by the
divine power; even as we say that things that are in our power are in
us. And creatures are thus said to be in God, even as they exist in
their own natures. In this sense we must understand the words of the
Apostle when he says, "In Him we live, move, and be"; since our
being, living, and moving are themselves caused by God. In another
sense things are said to be in God, as in Him who knows them, in
which sense they are in God through their proper ideas, which in God
are not distinct from the divine essence. Hence things as they are in
God are the divine essence. And since the divine essence is life and
not movement, it follows that things existing in God in this manner
are not movement, but life.
Reply Obj. 2: The thing modelled must be like the model according to
the form, not the mode of being. For sometimes the form has being of
another kind in the model from that which it has in the thing
modelled. Thus the form of a house has in the mind of the architect
immaterial and intelligible being; but in the house that exists
outside his mind, material and sensible being. Hence the ideas of
things, though not existing in themselves, are life in the divine
mind, as having a divine existence in that mind.
Reply Obj. 3: If form only, and not matter, belonged to natural
things, then in all respects natural things would exist more truly in
the divine mind, by the ideas of them, than in themselves. For which
reason, in fact, Plato held that the _separate_ man was the true man;
and that man as he exists in matter, is man only by participation.
But since matter enters into the being of natural things, we must say
that those things have simply being in the divine mind more truly
than in themselves, because in that mind they have an uncreated
being, but in themselves a created being: whereas this particular
being, a man, or horse, for example, has this being more truly in its
own nature than in the divine mind, because it belongs to human
nature to be material, which, as existing in the divine mind, it is
not. Even so a house has nobler being in the architect's mind than in
matter; yet a material house is called a house more truly than the
one which exists in the mind; since the former is actual, the latter
only potential.
Reply Obj. 4: Although bad things are in God's knowledge, as being
comprised under that knowledge, yet they are not in God as created by
Him, or preserved by Him, or as having their type in Him. They are
known by God through the types of good things. Hence it cannot be
said that bad things are life in God. Those things that are not in
time may be called life in God in so far as life means understanding
only, and inasmuch as they are understood by God; but not in so far
as life implies a principle of operation.
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