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After considering the production of creatures in being we
proceed to the distinction of things. Why? Because the
first property of being is unity, to which is opposed
multitude, which implies the distinction of things.
Hence we treat first in question 47 of the distinction
of things. Here we do not institute a search, as in the
fourth proof for the existence of God, but we proceed
synthetically from first principles, considering that vast
problem, discussed at great length by the Greek
philosophers, especially by Plato, of how the multitude
can proceed from the one, most simple, supreme
principle. The Greek philosophers were not able to solve
the problem, and it appears again in evolutionism. In
question 48 we treat of the distinction between good and
evil. Why? Because good is another property of being.
In this question we are given the definition of
metaphysical evil. Finally, in question 50 we consider
the distinction between spiritual and corporeal creatures.
In these three questions, then, we have a treatise on
the properties of created being. As a complement to these
considerations, we have the treatise on the angels, where
St. Thomas also treats of the creature as such, that
is, whether the created substance is immediately operative
or whether it requires a faculty or an operative
potency.[891]
In the Parisian Codex (in the National Library)
question 47 has only three articles: 1. the multitude
and the distinction of things; 2. their inequality;
3. the unity of the world. The Cassinese Codex,
however, has a fourth article inserted between the second
and third of the Parisian Codex, entitled, whether
there is an order of agents among creatures. This article
was written either by St. Thomas himself or by one of
his disciples and it is based on what is said on this
matter in the "Contra Gentes" (Bk. II,
chap. 42). The Leonine edition gives this article in
small type. At any rate, this article is a complement to
the present question, serving as a preamble to the last
article, and it contains the true teaching of St.
Thomas.
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