summa-contra-gentiles

CHAPTER XXXIX 87
agent by His will and intellect, as proved above. ^
Nor can
there be any defect in His power, so that He fail of His
intention : since His power is infinite, as was proved above.'
It follows therefore that the form of the universe is intended
and willed by God. Therefore it is not from chance : for
we ascribe to chance those things which are beside the
intention of the agent. Now the form of the universe
consists in the distinction and order of its parts. Therefore
the distinction of things
is not from chance.
Further. That which is
good and best in the effect is
and the best
the end of its production. But the good
in the universe consists in the mutual order of its parts,
which is
impossible without distinction : since by this
order the universe is established as one whole, and this
is its best. Therefore the order of the parts of the
universe and their distinction is the end of the production
of the universe. Therefore the distinction of things is not
from chance.
Holy Writ bears witness to this truth, as is clear from
Gen. i. i, where after the words, In the beginning God
God
created heaven and earth, the text continues {verse 4),
. . . divided the light from the darkness, and so on : so
that not only the creation of things,
but also their distinction
is shown to be from God, and not from chance,
but as the good and the best of the universe. Wherefore
it is added (verse 31)
: God sa-iV all the things that He
had made, and they were very good.
Hereby is excluded the opinion of the ancient natural
philosophers who affirmed that there was only a material
cause, and no other, from which all things were made by
expansion and cohesion.^ For these are compelled to say
that the distinction of things which we observe in the
universe resulted, not from the intentional ordinance of one,
but from the chance movement of matter.
Likewise is excluded the opinion of Democritus and
Leucippus,* who postulated an infinite number of material
^ Chs. xxiii., xriv. *
Bk. I., ch. xliii.
» Cf. I Meiaph. iii., iv.
«
Cf. ibid.