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038 - Xxxviii That God Is Goodness Itself · Summa Contra Gentiles, First Book (On God)

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty eight of Summa Contragentilees, First Book on God,
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  Speaker 1: by Saint Thomas aquinas translated by the Fathers of the
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  Speaker 1: English Dominican Province. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty eight that God is goodness itself. From the above,
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  Speaker 1: we are able to conclude that God is his own goodness.
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  Speaker 1: For to be in act is for every thing its
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  Speaker 1: own good Now, God is not only being in act,
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  Speaker 1: but is his own being, as proved above. Therefore, he
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  Speaker 1: is goodness itself, and not merely good. Further, the perfection
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  Speaker 1: of a thing is its goodness, as we have shown above. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the perfection of the divine being does not consist in
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  Speaker 1: something added there too, but in its being perfect in itself,
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  Speaker 1: as proved above. Therefore, God's goodness is not something added
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  Speaker 1: to his essence, but his essence is his goodness. Again,
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  Speaker 1: any good that is not its own goodness is good
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  Speaker 1: by participation. Now, that which is by participation presupposes something
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  Speaker 1: antecedent to itself, from which it derives the nature of goodness.
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  Speaker 1: But it is not possible to continue thus to infinity,
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  Speaker 1: since in final causes there is no proceeding to infinity,
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  Speaker 1: for the infinite is inconsistent with finality, and the good
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  Speaker 1: as the nature of an end. We must therefore come
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  Speaker 1: to some first good that is good not by participation
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  Speaker 1: in relation to something else, but by its essence. Now
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  Speaker 1: this is God. Therefore God is his own goodness. Again,
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  Speaker 1: that which is can participate something, but being itself can
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  Speaker 1: participate nothing, because that which participates his potentiality. Whereas being
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  Speaker 1: is act, now God is being itself, as we have proved. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: he is good not by participation but essentially. Moreover, in
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  Speaker 1: every simple thing, Being and that which is are one,
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  Speaker 1: for if they be distinct, there is no longer simplicity.
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  Speaker 1: Now God is absolutely simple, as we have proved. Therefore
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  Speaker 1: that he is good is not distinct from himself. Therefore
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  Speaker 1: he is his own goodness. These same arguments show that
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  Speaker 1: nothing else is its own goodness. Hence it is said
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  Speaker 1: in Matthew nineteen seventeen, none is good but God alone,
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  Speaker 1: end of Chapter thirty eight, read by Michael Shane, Craig Lambert.
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  Speaker 1: Else