Whether God Can Do Better Than What He Does?
Objection 1: It seems that God cannot do better than He does. For
whatever God does, He does in a most powerful and wise way. But a
thing is so much the better done as it is more powerfully and wisely
done. Therefore God cannot do anything better than He does.
Obj. 2: Further, Augustine thus argues (Contra Maximin. iii, 8):
"If God could, but would not, beget a Son His equal, He would have
been envious." For the same reason, if God could have made better
things than He has done, but was not willing so to do, He would have
been envious. But envy is far removed from God. Therefore God makes
everything of the best. He cannot therefore make anything better
than He does.
Obj. 3: Further, what is very good and the best of all cannot be
bettered; because nothing is better than the best. But as Augustine
says (Enchiridion 10), "each thing that God has made is good, and,
taken all together they are very good; because in them all consists
the wondrous beauty of the universe." Therefore the good in the
universe could not be made better by God.
Obj. 4: Further, Christ as man is full of grace and truth, and has
the Spirit without measure; and so He cannot be better. Again created
happiness is described as the highest good, and thus cannot be
better. And the Blessed Virgin Mary is raised above all the choirs of
angels, and so cannot be better than she is. God cannot therefore
make all things better than He has made them.
_On the contrary,_ It is said (Eph. 3:20): "God is able to do all
things more abundantly than we desire or understand."
_I answer that,_ The goodness of anything is twofold; one, which is of
the essence of it--thus, for instance, to be rational pertains to the
essence of man. As regards this good, God cannot make a thing better
than it is itself; although He can make another thing better than it;
even as He cannot make the number four greater than it is; because if
it were greater it would no longer be four, but another number. For
the addition of a substantial difference in definitions is after the
manner of the addition of unity of numbers (Metaph. viii, 10). Another
kind of goodness is that which is over and above the essence; thus,
the good of a man is to be virtuous or wise. As regards this kind of
goodness, God can make better the things He has made. Absolutely
speaking, however, God can make something else better than each thing
made by Him.
Reply Obj. 1: When it is said that God can make a thing better than
He makes it, if "better" is taken substantively, this proposition is
true. For He can always make something else better than each
individual thing: and He can make the same thing in one way better
than it is, and in another way not; as was explained above. If,
however, "better" is taken as an adverb, implying the manner of the
making; thus God cannot make anything better than He makes it,
because He cannot make it from greater wisdom and goodness. But if it
implies the manner of the thing done, He can make something better;
because He can give to things made by Him a better manner of
existence as regards the accidents, although not as regards the
substance.
Reply Obj. 2: It is of the nature of a son that he should be equal to
his father, when he comes to maturity. But it is not of the nature of
anything created, that it should be better than it was made by God.
Hence the comparison fails.
Reply Obj. 3: The universe, the present creation being supposed,
cannot be better, on account of the most beautiful order given to
things by God; in which the good of the universe consists. For if any
one thing were bettered, the proportion of order would be destroyed;
as if one string were stretched more than it ought to be, the melody
of the harp would be destroyed. Yet God could make other things, or
add something to the present creation; and then there would be
another and a better universe.
Reply Obj. 4: The humanity of Christ, from the fact that it is united
to the Godhead; and created happiness from the fact that it is the
fruition of God; and the Blessed Virgin from the fact that she is the
mother of God; have all a certain infinite dignity from the infinite
good, which is God. And on this account there cannot be anything
better than these; just as there cannot be anything better than God.
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