summa-contra-gentiles

CHAPTER VI 9
For it was shown above^ by the proof
of Aristotle that
there is a first efficient cause which we call God. Now an
efficient cause brings
its effects into being.
Therefore God
is the cause of being to other things.
Again.
It was shown in the First Book^ by the argument
of the same author, that there is a first immovable mover,
which we call God. Now the first mover in any order of
movements is the cause of all the movements in that order.
Since then many things are brought into being by the
movements of the heaven, and since God has been proved
to be the first mover in the order of those movements, it
follows that God is the cause of being to many things.
Moreover. That which belongs to a thing by
its nature,
must needs be in that thing universally ; as for man to be
rational, and for fire to tend upwards. Now it
belongs to a
being in act that it should enact an effect for ; every agent
acts according as it is in act.^ Therefore it is natural to
every being in act to enact something existing in act.
in the First Book.*
Now God is
being in act, as we proved
Therefore it is
competent to Him to produce something in
act, to which He is the cause of being.
Further. It is a sign of perfection in things of the lower
world, that they are able to produce their like, as stated by
the Philosopher (4 Meteor.).^ Now God is
supremely
perfect, as was proved in the First Book.® Therefore it is
competent to Him to produce something in act like unto
Himself, so that He is the cause of its
being.
Again.
It was shown in the First Book'' that God wills
to communicate His being to other things by way of likeness.
Now it
belongs to the will's perfection to be the
principle of action and movement, as stated in 3 De Anima.^
Since then God's will is perfect,^ it lacks not the power of
communicating His being to a thing by way of likeness.
And thus He will be the cause of its being.
Further. The more perfect the principle of a thing's
1
Bk. I., ch. xiii.
* Ch. xvi.
» Ibid.
« Cf. 3 Phys.
iii. i.
5 iii. i. « Ch. xxviii.
'
Ch. Ixxv. « X. » Bk. I., ch. Ixxiii.