Whether Corporeal Creatures Were Produced by God Through the Medium
of the Angels?
Objection 1: It would seem that corporeal creatures were produced by
God through the medium of the angels. For, as all things are governed
by the Divine wisdom, so by it were all things made, according to Ps.
103:24: "Thou hast made all things in wisdom." But "it belongs to
wisdom to ordain," as stated in the beginning of the _Metaphysics_
(i, 2). Hence in the government of things the lower is ruled by the
higher in a certain fitting order, as Augustine says (De Trin. iii,
4). Therefore in the production of things it was ordained that the
corporeal should be produced by the spiritual, as the lower by the
higher.
Obj. 2: Further, diversity of effects shows diversity of causes,
since like always produces like. If then all creatures, both
spiritual and corporeal, were produced immediately by God, there
would be no diversity in creatures, for one would not be further
removed from God than another. But this is clearly false; for the
Philosopher says that some things are corruptible because they are
far removed from God (De Gen. et Corrup. ii, text. 59).
Obj. 3: Further, infinite power is not required to produce a finite
effect. But every corporeal thing is finite. Therefore, it could be,
and was, produced by the finite power of spiritual creatures: for in
suchlike beings there is no distinction between what is and what is
possible: especially as no dignity befitting a nature is denied to
that nature, unless it be in punishment of a fault.
_On the contrary,_ It is said (Gen. 1:1): "In the beginning God
created heaven and earth"; by which are understood corporeal
creatures. These, therefore, were produced immediately by God.
_I answer that,_ Some have maintained that creatures proceeded from
God by degrees, in such a way that the first creature proceeded from
Him immediately, and in its turn produced another, and so on until
the production of corporeal creatures. But this position is
untenable, since the first production of corporeal creatures is by
creation, by which matter itself is produced: for in the act of
coming into being the imperfect must be made before the perfect: and
it is impossible that anything should be created, save by God alone.
In proof whereof it must be borne in mind that the higher the cause,
the more numerous the objects to which its causation extends. Now the
underlying principle in things is always more universal than that
which informs and restricts it; thus, being is more universal than
living, living than understanding, matter than form. The more widely,
then, one thing underlies others, the more directly does that thing
proceed from a higher cause. Thus the thing that underlies primarily
all things, belongs properly to the causality of the supreme cause.
Therefore no secondary cause can produce anything, unless there is
presupposed in the thing produced something that is caused by a
higher cause. But creation is the production of a thing in its entire
substance, nothing being presupposed either uncreated or created.
Hence it remains that nothing can create except God alone, Who is the
first cause. Therefore, in order to show that all bodies were created
immediately by God, Moses said: "In the beginning God created heaven
and earth."
Reply Obj. 1: In the production of things an order exists, but not
such that one creature is created by another, for that is impossible;
but rather such that by the Divine wisdom diverse grades are
constituted in creatures.
Reply Obj. 2: God Himself, though one, has knowledge of many and
different things without detriment to the simplicity of His nature,
as has been shown above (Q. 15, A. 2); so that by His wisdom He is
the cause of diverse things as known by Him, even as an artificer,
by apprehending diverse forms, produces diverse works of art.
Reply Obj. 3: The amount of the power of an agent is measured not
only by the thing made, but also by the manner of making it; for one
and the same thing is made in one way by a higher power, in another
by a lower. But the production of finite things, where nothing is
presupposed as existing, is the work of infinite power, and, as
such, can belong to no creature.
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