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Objection 1: It seems that the knowledge of God is not the cause of
things. For Origen says, on Rm. 8:30, "Whom He called,
them He also justified," etc.: "A thing will happen not because
God knows it as future; but because it is future, it is on that
account known by God, before it exists."
Objection 2: Further, given the cause, the effect follows. But
the knowledge of God is eternal. Therefore if the knowledge of God
is the cause of things created, it seems that creatures are eternal.
Objection 3: Further, "The thing known is prior to knowledge,
and is its measure," as the Philosopher says (Metaph. x). But
what is posterior and measured cannot be a cause. Therefore the
knowledge of God is not the cause of things.
On the contrary, Augustine says (De Trin. xv), "Not because
they are, does God know all creatures spiritual and temporal, but
because He knows them, therefore they are."
I answer that, The knowledge of God is the cause of things. For
the knowledge of God is to all creatures what the knowledge of the
artificer is to things made by his art. Now the knowledge of the
artificer is the cause of the things made by his art from the fact that
the artificer works by his intellect. Hence the form of the intellect
must be the principle of action; as heat is the principle of heating.
Nevertheless, we must observe that a natural form, being a form that
remains in that to which it gives existence, denotes a principle of
action according only as it has an inclination to an effect; and
likewise, the intelligible form does not denote a principle of action
in so far as it resides in the one who understands unless there is added
to it the inclination to an effect, which inclination is through the
will. For since the intelligible form has a relation to opposite
things (inasmuch as the same knowledge relates to opposites), it
would not produce a determinate effect unless it were determined to one
thing by the appetite, as the Philosopher says (Metaph. ix). Now
it is manifest that God causes things by His intellect, since His
being is His act of understanding; and hence His knowledge must be
the cause of things, in so far as His will is joined to it. Hence
the knowledge of God as the cause of things is usually called the
"knowledge of approbation."
Reply to Objection 1: Origen spoke in reference to that aspect of
knowledge to which the idea of causality does not belong unless the will
is joined to it, as is said above.
But when he says the reason why God foreknows some things is because
they are future, this must be understood according to the cause of
consequence, and not according to the cause of essence. For if things
are in the future, it follows that God knows them; but not that the
futurity of things is the cause why God knows them.
Reply to Objection 2: The knowledge of God is the cause of things
according as things are in His knowledge. Now that things should be
eternal was not in the knowledge of God; hence although the knowledge
of God is eternal, it does not follow that creatures are eternal.
Reply to Objection 3: Natural things are midway between the
knowledge of God and our knowledge: for we receive knowledge from
natural things, of which God is the cause by His knowledge. Hence,
as the natural objects of knowledge are prior to our knowledge, and are
its measure, so, the knowledge of God is prior to natural things,
and is the measure of them; as, for instance, a house is midway
between the knowledge of the builder who made it, and the knowledge of
the one who gathers his knowledge of the house from the house already
built.
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