Scholastica commentaria in Primam Partem Summae Theologicae

SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLE.

The CONCLUSION is affirmative. The reason is, because the to-be of God is infinite.

COMMENTARY.

NOTE that, although this conclusion is not had expressly in the Sacred Scriptures, it is nevertheless to be held as most certain faith. And it is proved. According to the faith, God is omnipotent, as will be proved in art. 3; but if God does not have infinite power, He is not omnipotent, for a finite power cannot do all things, but some things in a finite way: therefore. Second, according to the faith the power of God is God Himself, for whatever is in God is God, as was said in q. 3; but God is infinite: therefore. It is confirmed: for Christ the Lord is called in Sacred Scripture the Virtue and power of God: but Christ is infinite: therefore the power of God is infinite, and so this truth is reduced to the article in which we confess God to be omnipotent.

IT IS DOUBTED whether this conclusion can be proved by natural reason? Marsilius, in 1 Quaest., 42, ar. 2, says that by no efficacious reason can it be shown that God has infinite power. And he proves it: for if the infinity of the divine power could be gathered by some natural reason, it would be most of all from creation; but from that it cannot be proved: therefore. The minor is clear: since creation is not known by the light of nature: therefore. Second, from the created effects which we know by natural light we can only gather that the divine power is infinite syncategorematically: therefore. The antecedent is proved: for all the effects which God produces are without qualification finite, nor can it be that God produce effects that are without qualification infinite, except only syncategorematically: therefore. It is confirmed: for from the fact that our intellect can know not so many that there are not more, it is not gathered that it has a virtue infinite without qualification, but only syncategorematically: therefore, from the fact that God can produce effects not so many that there are not more, it is only gathered that the power is infinite syncategorematically. To the first it is answered that since creation is the action of the first cause of all nature, it is also knowable by the light of nature; indeed I consider that by natural reason it is demonstrated that the universe could not have proceeded from God otherwise than through creation. Some, even from the school of St. Thomas, think that creation is a supernatural action, and not knowable by the light of nature. For which opinion there can be no other reason than that creation exceeds the powers of any other cause apart from God Himself, and requires an infinite virtue in its cause. But that reason is altogether ineffective: for although creation does not belong to particular causes, yet since it belongs to the first natural cause, namely God, as He is the author of nature, it must of necessity be reckoned natural; and this appears clearly in the creation of the rational soul: for who can say that the creation of the rational soul, which is necessary for the generation of any man whatever, is a supernatural action going outside the whole order of nature? Therefore to the argument I say that from creation it can evidently be gathered by natural light that God has infinite power. To the second it is answered that, from the fact that God can produce infinite perfections formally distinct — infinite, indeed, syncategorematically, that is, not so many that there are not more — in the intention of production, it is evidently gathered that the power of God is infinite without qualification, since for God to have power to produce infinite perfections in this way it is necessary that no perfection be wanting to Him: for if God lacked some perfection, then I could point out some perfection which God could not create nor communicate to creatures, since He did not have it beforehand in Himself: from which it comes about that for producing infinite effects syncategorematically there is required without qualification an infinite virtue. To the confirmation it is answered that our intellect can have infinite intellections syncategorematically from its natural virtue, but those do not differ except numerically and materially: but from a numerical and material multiplication of effects an infinite perfection in the power cannot be gathered; for fire, through the finite heat which it has, can burn infinite combustible things, if they be applied to it; the infinity, therefore, of any power must be weighed from infinite effects formally diverse — infinite at least syncategorematically. But our intellect cannot have infinite intellections, even syncategorematically, which differ formally: therefore. But you will say: Our intellect can know one divine perfection and another, and so on to infinity; but these perfections, in order to our intellect, differ not only materially, but also in account, and consequently the intellections by which it understands these perfections, if they be considered separately, differ formally: therefore it has infinite virtue. It is answered that our intellect, if it be considered only according to the powers connatural to it, cannot know the infinite perfections of God, even syncategorematically, but only the limited perfections which it can gather through created effects. But if it can know the infinite perfections of God, that is through the supernatural light of faith added to its nature. Second, it is answered that from the fact that an effective power can produce infinite effects syncategorematically it is well gathered that it is infinite without qualification: for that it does not produce one effect infinite without qualification, that comes about because it is repugnant on the part of the thing that there be any infinite effect; but from the sole fact that the intellect can know infinite perfections syncategorematically, an infinite perfection without qualification is not gathered from that, unless it know infinite things at once: for since a cognition of this kind is not repugnant in itself, as is clear in God, who has it by comprehending Himself, if the intellect cannot have a cognition of this kind, that comes about from the fact that it is not a power infinite without qualification. But how in the soul of Christ the Lord there is power to cause grace, without limit of intension in the gratification and justification of infinite men, if they existed, and whether this argues an infinite power, is not for the present place to dispute, but belongs to the third part.