Part I (Prima Pars) Part 157 (1/2)
Obj. 2: Further, by His goodness G.o.d is the cause why things exist, since, as Augustine says (De Doctr. Christ. i, 32): ”Because G.o.d is good, we exist.” But G.o.d cannot cease to be good. Therefore He cannot cause things to cease to exist; which would be the case were He to annihilate anything.
Obj. 3: Further, if G.o.d were to annihilate anything it would be by His action. But this cannot be; because the term of every action is existence. Hence even the action of a corrupting cause has its term in something generated; for when one thing is generated another undergoes corruption. Therefore G.o.d cannot annihilate anything.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Jer. 10:24): ”Correct me, O Lord, but yet with judgment; and not in Thy fury, lest Thou bring me to nothing.”
_I answer that,_ Some have held that G.o.d, in giving existence to creatures, acted from natural necessity. Were this true, G.o.d could not annihilate anything, since His nature cannot change. But, as we have said above (Q. 19, A. 4), such an opinion is entirely false, and absolutely contrary to the Catholic faith, which confesses that G.o.d created things of His own free-will, according to Ps. 134:6: ”Whatsoever the Lord pleased, He hath done.” Therefore that G.o.d gives existence to a creature depends on His will; nor does He preserve things in existence otherwise than by continually pouring out existence into them, as we have said. Therefore, just as before things existed, G.o.d was free not to give them existence, and not to make them; so after they are made, He is free not to continue their existence; and thus they would cease to exist; and this would be to annihilate them.
Reply Obj. 1: Non-existence has no direct cause; for nothing is a cause except inasmuch as it has existence, and a being essentially as such is a cause of something existing. Therefore G.o.d cannot cause a thing to tend to non-existence, whereas a creature has this tendency of itself, since it is produced from nothing. But indirectly G.o.d can be the cause of things being reduced to non-existence, by withdrawing His action therefrom.
Reply Obj. 2: G.o.d's goodness is the cause of things, not as though by natural necessity, because the Divine goodness does not depend on creatures; but by His free-will. Wherefore, as without prejudice to His goodness, He might not have produced things into existence, so, without prejudice to His goodness, He might not preserve things in existence.
Reply Obj. 3: If G.o.d were to annihilate anything, this would not imply an action on G.o.d's part; but a mere cessation of His action.
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FOURTH ARTICLE [I, Q. 104, Art. 4]
Whether Anything Is Annihilated?
Objection 1: It would seem that something is annihilated. For the end corresponds to the beginning. But in the beginning there was nothing but G.o.d. Therefore all things must tend to this end, that there shall be nothing but G.o.d. Therefore creatures will be reduced to nothing.
Obj. 2: Further, every creature has a finite power. But no finite power extends to the infinite. Wherefore the Philosopher proves (Phys.
viii, 10) that, ”a finite power cannot move in infinite time.”
Therefore a creature cannot last for an infinite duration; and so at some time it will be reduced to nothing.
Obj. 3: Further, forms and accidents have no matter as part of themselves. But at some time they cease to exist. Therefore they are reduced to nothing.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Eccles. 3:14): ”I have learned that all the works that G.o.d hath made continue for ever.”
_I answer that,_ Some of those things which G.o.d does in creatures occur in accordance with the natural course of things; others happen miraculously, and not in accordance with the natural order, as will be explained (Q. 105, A. 6). Now whatever G.o.d wills to do according to the natural order of things may be observed from their nature; but those things which occur miraculously, are ordered for the manifestation of grace, according to the Apostle, ”To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit, unto profit” (1 Cor. 12:7); and subsequently he mentions, among others, the working of miracles.
Now the nature of creatures shows that none of them is annihilated.
For, either they are immaterial, and therefore have no potentiality to non-existence; or they are material, and then they continue to exist, at least in matter, which is incorruptible, since it is the subject of generation and corruption. Moreover, the annihilation of things does not pertain to the manifestation of grace; since rather the power and goodness of G.o.d are manifested by the preservation of things in existence. Wherefore we must conclude by denying absolutely that anything at all will be annihilated.
Reply Obj. 1: That things are brought into existence from a state of non-existence, clearly shows the power of Him Who made them; but that they should be reduced to nothing would hinder that manifestation, since the power of G.o.d is conspicuously shown in His preserving all things in existence, according to the Apostle: ”Upholding all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3).
Reply Obj. 2: A creature's potentiality to existence is merely receptive; the active power belongs to G.o.d Himself, from Whom existence is derived. Wherefore the infinite duration of things is a consequence of the infinity of the Divine power. To some things, however, is given a determinate power of duration for a certain time, so far as they may be hindered by some contrary agent from receiving the influx of existence which comes from Him Whom finite power cannot resist, for an infinite, but only for a fixed time. So things which have no contrary, although they have a finite power, continue to exist for ever.
Reply Obj. 3: Forms and accidents are not complete beings, since they do not subsist: but each one of them is something ”of a being”; for it is called a being, because something is by it. Yet so far as their mode of existence is concerned, they are not entirely reduced to nothingness; not that any part of them survives, but that they remain in the potentiality of the matter, or of the subject.
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QUESTION 105
OF THE CHANGE OF CREATURES BY G.o.d (In Eight Articles)
We now consider the second effect of the Divine government, i.e. the change of creatures; and first, the change of creatures by G.o.d; secondly, the change of one creature by another.
Under the first head there are eight points of inquiry:
(1) Whether G.o.d can move immediately the matter to the form?