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028 - Xxviii Of The Divine Perfection · Summa Contra Gentiles, First Book (On God)

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty 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 twenty eight of the Divine Perfection. Now, although things
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  Speaker 1: that exist and live are more perfect than those which
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  Speaker 1: only exist, Yet God, who is not distinct from his
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  Speaker 1: own existence, is universally perfect being. And by universally perfect
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  Speaker 1: I mean that he lacks not the excellence of any genus.
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  Speaker 1: For every excellence of any being whatsoever is ascribed to
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  Speaker 1: a thing in respect of its being, Since no excellence
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  Speaker 1: would accrue to man from his wisdom unless thereby he
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  Speaker 1: were wise, and so on. Wherefore, according as a thing
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  Speaker 1: has being, so is its mode of excellence. Since a thing,
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  Speaker 1: according as its being is contracted to some special mode
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  Speaker 1: of excellence more or less great, is said to be
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  Speaker 1: more or less excellent. Hence, if there be a thing
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  Speaker 1: to which the whole possibility of being belongs, no excellence
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  Speaker 1: that belongs to anything can be lacking. There too. Now
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  Speaker 1: to a thing which is its own being, being belongs
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  Speaker 1: according to the whole possibility of being. Thus, if there
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  Speaker 1: were a separate whiteness. Nothing of the whole possibility of
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  Speaker 1: whiteness could be wanting to it, because something of the
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  Speaker 1: possibility of whiteness is lacking to a particular white thing
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  Speaker 1: through a defect in the recipient of whiteness, which receives
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  Speaker 1: it according to its mode, and maybe not according to
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  Speaker 1: the whole possibility of whiteness. Therefore, God, who is his
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  Speaker 1: own being, as shown above, has being according to the
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  Speaker 1: whole possibility of being itself, and consequently he cannot lack
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  Speaker 1: any excellence that belongs to anything. And just as every
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  Speaker 1: excellence and perfection is in a thing according as that
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  Speaker 1: thing is, so every defect is in a thing according
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  Speaker 1: as that thing in some sense is not. Now just
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  Speaker 1: as God has being wholly, so is not being wholly
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  Speaker 1: absent from him, since according as a thing as being,
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  Speaker 1: it fails in not being. Therefore all defect is removed
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  Speaker 1: from God, and consequently He is universally perfect. But those
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  Speaker 1: things which only exist are imperfect not on account of
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  Speaker 1: an imperfection in absolute being itself, for they have not
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  Speaker 1: being according to its whole possibility, but because they participate
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  Speaker 1: being in a particular and most imperfect way. Again, every
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  Speaker 1: imperfect thing must needs be preceded by some perfect thing,
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  Speaker 1: For seed is from some animal or plant. Wherefore the
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  Speaker 1: first being must be supremely perfect. Now it has been
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  Speaker 1: shown that God is the first being. Therefore he is
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  Speaker 1: supremely perfect. Moreover, a thing is perfect in so far
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  Speaker 1: as it is in act, and imperfect in so far
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  Speaker 1: as it is in potentiality and void of act. Wherefore
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  Speaker 1: that which is no wise in potentiality but is pure
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  Speaker 1: act must needs be most perfect. Now such is God,
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  Speaker 1: Therefore he is most perfect. Further, nothing acts except according
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  Speaker 1: as it is in act. Wherefore action follows upon the
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  Speaker 1: mode of actuality in the agent. And consequently it is
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  Speaker 1: impossible for the effect that results from an action to
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  Speaker 1: have a more excellent actuality than that of the agent,
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  Speaker 1: although it is possible for the actuality of the effect
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  Speaker 1: to be more imperfect than that of the active cause,
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  Speaker 1: since action may be weakened on the part of that
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  Speaker 1: in which it terminates. Now in the genus of efficient cause,
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  Speaker 1: we come at length to the one cause, which is
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  Speaker 1: called God, as explained above, from whom all things proceed,
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  Speaker 1: as we shall show in the sequel. Wherefore it follows
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  Speaker 1: that whatever is actual in any other thing is found
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  Speaker 1: in God much more eminently than in that thing, and
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  Speaker 1: not conversely. Therefore God is most perfect. Again in every genus,
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  Speaker 1: there is something most perfect relatively to that genus by
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  Speaker 1: which everything in that genus is measured. Since everything is
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  Speaker 1: shown to be more or less perfect according as it
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  Speaker 1: approaches more or less to the measure of that genus.
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  Speaker 1: Thus white is said to be the measure in all colors,
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  Speaker 1: and the virtuous among all men. Now, the measure of
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  Speaker 1: all beings can be none other than God, who is
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  Speaker 1: his own being. Therefore, no perfection that belongs to anything
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  Speaker 1: is lacking to him, otherwise he would not be the
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  Speaker 1: universal measure of all. Hence it is that when Moses
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  Speaker 1: sought to see the face of God, the Lord answered him,
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  Speaker 1: I will show thee all good confer Exodus thirty three,
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  Speaker 1: verses eighteen nineteen, giving thus to understand that the fullness
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  Speaker 1: of all God good is in him, and Dionysius says
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  Speaker 1: in on the Divine Names five, God exists not in
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  Speaker 1: any single mode, but embraces and prepossesses all being within himself,
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  Speaker 1: absolutely and without limit. It must, however, be observed, that
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  Speaker 1: perfection cannot fittingly be ascribed to God. If we consider
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  Speaker 1: the meaning of the word in respect of its derivation,
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  Speaker 1: since what is not made cannot seemingly be described as perfect,
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  Speaker 1: Yet since whatever is made has been brought from potentiality
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  Speaker 1: to act and from not being to being when it
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  Speaker 1: was made, it is rightly described as perfect. That is
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  Speaker 1: completely made when its potentiality is completely reduced to act,
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  Speaker 1: so that it retains nothing of not being and has
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  Speaker 1: complete being. Accordingly, by a kind of extension of the
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  Speaker 1: term perfect is applied not only to that which has
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  Speaker 1: arrived at complete act through being made, but also to
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  Speaker 1: that to which is complete act without being made at all.
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  Speaker 1: It is thus that we say that God is perfect.
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  Speaker 1: According to Matthew five, verse forty eight, be ye perfect,
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  Speaker 1: as also your heavenly Father is perfect. End of Chapter
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  Speaker 1: twenty eight, read by Michael Shane, Craig, Lambert Elsie