summa-contra-gentiles

50 THE SUMMA CONTRA GENTILES
out willing. Now it was proved above^ that God wills
nothing other than Himself of absolute necessity. Therefore
eflects proceed from the divine will not of necessity
but by its
free ordinance.
HOW THERE IS
CHAPTERS XXVni AND XXIX
ANYTHING DUE IN THE PRODUCTION OF
THINGS
Again. From what has been said it may be shown that
God in the creation of things did not work of necessity, as
though He brought things into being as a debt of justice.
For justice, according to the Philosopher (5 Ethic. ),^ is
towards another person to whom it renders his due. But
nothing, to which anything may be due, is presupposed to
the universal production of things. Therefore the universal
production of things could not result from a debt of justice.
Again. Since the act of justice is to render to each one
that which is his own,^ the act by which a thing becomes
one's own precedes the act of justice, as appears in human
affairs : for a man by working has a right to call his own
that which, as an act of justice, is rendered to him by the
person who pays him. Therefore the act whereby a person
first acquires something of his own cannot be an act of
Now a created thing begins to have something of
justice.
its own by creation. Therefore creation does not proceed
from a debt of justice.
Further. No one owes something to another except from
the fact that in some way he depends on him or receives
something either from him or from a third, on whose
account he owes something to the other : for thus a son is
a debtor to his father, because he receives being from him ;
a master to his servant, because he receives from him the
service he requires and
; every man is a debtor to his
neighbour for God's sake, from Whom we have received
*
Bk. I., ch. Ixxxi.
2 i,
12^ 20. ^ InsiiL i. i ; Digest,
i. i.