Whether Corporeal Creatures Are from God?
Objection 1: It would seem that corporeal creatures are not from God.
For it is said (Eccles. 3:14): "I have learned that all the works
which God hath made, continue for ever." But visible bodies do not
continue for ever, for it is said (2 Cor. 4:18): "The things which are
seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."
Therefore God did not make visible bodies.
Obj. 2: Further, it is said (Gen. 1:31): "God saw all things that
He had made, and they were very good." But corporeal creatures are
evil, since we find them harmful in many ways; as may be seen in
serpents, in the sun's heat, and other things. Now a thing is called
evil, in so far as it is harmful. Corporeal creatures, therefore,
are not from God.
Obj. 3: Further, what is from God does not withdraw us from God,
but leads us to Him. But corporeal creatures withdraw us from God.
Hence the Apostle (2 Cor. 4:18): "While we look not at the things
which are seen." Corporeal creatures, therefore, are not from God.
_On the contrary,_ It is said (Ps. 145:6): "Who made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all things that are in them."
_I answer that,_ Certain heretics maintain that visible things are not
created by the good God, but by an evil principle, and allege in proof
of their error the words of the Apostle (2 Cor. 4:4), "The god of this
world hath blinded the minds of unbelievers." But this position is
altogether untenable. For, if things that differ agree in some point,
there must be some cause for that agreement, since things diverse in
nature cannot be united of themselves. Hence whenever in different
things some one thing common to all is found, it must be that these
different things receive that one thing from some one cause, as
different bodies that are hot receive their heat from fire. But being
is found to be common to all things, however otherwise different.
There must, therefore, be one principle of being from which all things
in whatever way existing have their being, whether they are invisible
and spiritual, or visible and corporeal. But the devil is called the
god of this world, not as having created it, but because worldlings
serve him, of whom also the Apostle says, speaking in the same sense,
"Whose god is their belly" (Phil. 3:19).
Reply Obj. 1: All the creatures of God in some respects continue for
ever, at least as to matter, since what is created will never be
annihilated, even though it be corruptible. And the nearer a creature
approaches God, Who is immovable, the more it also is immovable. For
corruptible creatures endure for ever as regards their matter, though
they change as regards their substantial form. But incorruptible
creatures endure with respect to their substance, though they are
mutable in other respects, such as place, for instance, the heavenly
bodies; or the affections, as spiritual creatures. But the Apostle's
words, "The things which are seen are temporal," though true even as
regards such things considered in themselves (in so far as every
visible creature is subject to time, either as to being or as to
movement), are intended to apply to visible things in so far as they
are offered to man as rewards. For such rewards, as consist in these
visible things, are temporal; while those that are invisible endure
for ever. Hence he said before (2 Cor. 4:17): "It worketh for us . .
. an eternal weight of glory."
Reply Obj. 2: Corporeal creatures according to their nature are good,
though this good is not universal, but partial and limited, the
consequence of which is a certain opposition of contrary qualities,
though each quality is good in itself. To those, however, who
estimate things, not by the nature thereof, but by the good they
themselves can derive therefrom, everything which is harmful to
themselves seems simply evil. For they do not reflect that what is in
some way injurious to one person, to another is beneficial, and that
even to themselves the same thing may be evil in some respects, but
good in others. And this could not be, if bodies were essentially
evil and harmful.
Reply Obj. 3: Creatures of themselves do not withdraw us from God,
but lead us to Him; for "the invisible things of God are clearly
seen, being understood by the things that are made" (Rom. 1:20). If,
then, they withdraw men from God, it is the fault of those who use
them foolishly. Thus it is said (Wis. 14:11): "Creatures are turned
into a snare to the feet of the unwise." And the very fact that they
can thus withdraw us from God proves that they came from Him, for
they cannot lead the foolish away from God except by the allurements
of some good that they have from Him.
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