Whether Corporeal Things Were Made on Account of God's Goodness?
Objection 1: It would seem that corporeal creatures were not made
on account of God's goodness. For it is said (Wis. 1:14) that God
"created all things that they might be." Therefore all things were
created for their own being's sake, and not on account of God's
goodness.
Obj. 2: Further, good has the nature of an end; therefore the
greater good in things is the end of the lesser good. But spiritual
creatures are related to corporeal creatures, as the greater good to
the lesser. Corporeal creatures, therefore, are created for the sake
of spiritual creatures, and not on account of God's goodness.
Obj. 3: Further, justice does not give unequal things except to the
unequal. Now God is just: therefore inequality not created by God
must precede all inequality created by Him. But an inequality not
created by God can only arise from free-will, and consequently all
inequality results from the different movements of free-will. Now,
corporeal creatures are unequal to spiritual creatures. Therefore the
former were made on account of movements of free-will, and not on
account of God's goodness.
_On the contrary,_ It is said (Prov. 16:4): "The Lord hath made all
things for Himself."
_I answer that,_ Origen laid down [*Peri Archon ii.] that corporeal
creatures were not made according to God's original purpose, but in
punishment of the sin of spiritual creatures. For he maintained that
God in the beginning made spiritual creatures only, and all of equal
nature; but that of these by the use of free-will some turned to God,
and, according to the measure of their conversion, were given a
higher or a lower rank, retaining their simplicity; while others
turned from God, and became bound to different kinds of bodies
according to the degree of their turning away. But this position is
erroneous. In the first place, because it is contrary to Scripture,
which, after narrating the production of each kind of corporeal
creatures, subjoins, "God saw that it was good" (Gen. 1), as if to
say that everything was brought into being for the reason that it was
good for it to be. But according to Origen's opinion, the corporeal
creature was made, not because it was good that it should be, but
that the evil in another might be punished. Secondly, because it
would follow that the arrangement, which now exists, of the corporeal
world would arise from mere chance. For it the sun's body was made
what it is, that it might serve for a punishment suitable to some sin
of a spiritual creature, it would follow, if other spiritual
creatures had sinned in the same way as the one to punish whom the
sun had been created, that many suns would exist in the world; and so
of other things. But such a consequence is altogether inadmissible.
Hence we must set aside this theory as false, and consider that the
entire universe is constituted by all creatures, as a whole consists
of its parts.
Now if we wish to assign an end to any whole, and to the parts of that
whole, we shall find, first, that each and every part exists for the
sake of its proper act, as the eye for the act of seeing; secondly,
that less honorable parts exist for the more honorable, as the senses
for the intellect, the lungs for the heart; and, thirdly, that all
parts are for the perfection of the whole, as the matter for the form,
since the parts are, as it were, the matter of the whole. Furthermore,
the whole man is on account of an extrinsic end, that end being the
fruition of God. So, therefore, in the parts of the universe also
every creature exists for its own proper act and perfection, and the
less noble for the nobler, as those creatures that are less noble than
man exist for the sake of man, whilst each and every creature exists
for the perfection of the entire universe. Furthermore, the entire
universe, with all its parts, is ordained towards God as its end,
inasmuch as it imitates, as it were, and shows forth the Divine
goodness, to the glory of God. Reasonable creatures, however, have in
some special and higher manner God as their end, since they can attain
to Him by their own operations, by knowing and loving Him. Thus it is
plain that the Divine goodness is the end of all corporeal things.
Reply Obj. 1: In the very fact of any creature possessing being, it
represents the Divine being and Its goodness. And, therefore, that
God created all things, that they might have being, does not exclude
that He created them for His own goodness.
Reply Obj. 2: The proximate end does not exclude the ultimate end.
Therefore that corporeal creatures were, in a manner, made for the
sake of the spiritual, does not prevent their being made on account
of God's goodness.
Reply Obj. 3: Equality of justice has its place in retribution, since
equal rewards or punishments are due to equal merit or demerit. But
this does not apply to things as at first instituted. For just as an
architect, without injustice, places stones of the same kind in
different parts of a building, not on account of any antecedent
difference in the stones, but with a view to securing that perfection
of the entire building, which could not be obtained except by the
different positions of the stones; even so, God from the beginning,
to secure perfection in the universe, has set therein creatures of
various and unequal natures, according to His wisdom, and without
injustice, since no diversity of merit is presupposed.
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