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Objection 1: It would seem that the world will never be renewed.
For nothing will be but what was at some time as to its species:
"What is it that hath been? the same thing that shall be"
(Eccles. 1:9). Now the world never had any disposition other
than it has now as to essential parts, both genera and species.
Therefore it will never be renewed.
Objection 2: Further, renewal is a kind of alteration. But it is
impossible for the universe to be altered; because whatever is altered
argues some alterant that is not altered, which nevertheless is a
subject of local movement: and it is impossible to place such a thing
outside the universe. Therefore it is impossible for the world to be
renewed.
Objection 3: Further, it is stated (Gn. 2:2) that "God .
. . rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had
done," and holy men explain that "He rested from forming new
creatures." Now when things were first established, the mode imposed
upon them was the same as they have now in the natural order.
Therefore they will never have any other.
Objection 4: Further, the disposition which things have now is
natural to them. Therefore if they be altered to another disposition,
this disposition will be unnatural to them. Now whatever is unnatural
and accidental cannot last for ever (De Coelo et Mundo i).
Therefore this disposition acquired by being renewed will be taken away
from them; and thus there will be a cycle of changes in the world as
Empedocles and Origen (Peri Archon. ii, 3) maintained, and
after this world there will be another, and after that again another.
Objection 5: Further, newness of glory is given to the rational
creature as a reward. Now where there is no merit, there can be no
reward. Since then insensible creatures have merited nothing, it
would seem that they will not be renewed.
On the contrary, It is written (Is. 65:17): "Behold I
create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be
in remembrance"; and (Apoc. 21:1): "I saw a new heaven and
a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth was gone."
Further, the dwelling should befit the dweller. But the world was
made to be man's dwelling. Therefore it should befit man. Now man
will be renewed. Therefore the world will be likewise.
Further, "Every beast loveth its like" (Ecclus. 13:19),
wherefore it is evident that likeness is the reason of love. Now man
has some likeness to the universe, wherefore he is called "a little
world." Hence man loves the whole world naturally and consequently
desires its good. Therefore, that man's desire be satisfied the
universe must needs also be made better.
I answer that, We believe all corporeal things to have been made for
man's sake, wherefore all things are stated to be subject to him
[Ps. 8:5, seqq.]. Now they serve man in two ways, first, as
sustenance to his bodily life, secondly, as helping him to know God,
inasmuch as man sees the invisible things of God by the things that are
made (Rm. 1:20). Accordingly glorified man will nowise need
creatures to render him the first of these services, since his body
will be altogether incorruptible, the Divine power effecting this
through the soul which it will glorify immediately. Again man will not
need the second service as to intellective knowledge, since by that
knowledge he will see God immediately in His essence. The carnal
eye, however, will be unable to attain to this vision of the
Essence; wherefore that it may be fittingly comforted in the vision of
God, it will see the Godhead in Its corporeal effects, wherein
manifest proofs of the Divine majesty will appear, especially in
Christ's flesh, and secondarily in the bodies of the blessed, and
afterwards in all other bodies. Hence those bodies also will need to
receive a greater inflow from the Divine goodness than now, not indeed
so as to change their species, but so as to add a certain perfection of
glory: and such will be the renewal of the world. Wherefore at the
one same time, the world will be renewed, and man will be glorified.
Reply to Objection 1: Solomon is speaking there of the natural
course: this is evident from his adding: "Nothing under the sun is
new." For since the movement of the sun follows a circle, those
things which are subject to the sun's power must needs have some kind
of circular movement. This consists in the fact that things which were
before return the same in species but different in the individual (De
Generat. i). But things belonging to the state of glory are not
"under the sun."
Reply to Objection 2: This argument considers natural alteration
which proceeds from a natural agent, which acts from natural
necessity. For such an agent cannot produce different dispositions,
unless it be itself disposed differently. But things done by God
proceed from freedom of will, wherefore it is possible, without any
change in God Who wills it, for the universe to have at one time one
disposition, and another at another time. Thus this renewal will not
be reduced to a cause that is moved, but to an immovable principle,
namely God.
Reply to Objection 3: God is stated to have ceased on the seventh
day forming new creatures, for as much as nothing was made afterwards
that was not previously in some likeness [FP, Question 73,
Article 1] either generically, or specifically, or at least as in a
seminal principle, or even as in an obediential potentiality [FP,
Question 115, Article 2, ad 4; TP, Question 11,
Article 1]. I say then that the future renewal of the world
preceded in the works of the six days by way of a remote likeness,
namely in the glory and grace of the angels. Moreover it preceded in
the obediential potentiality which was then bestowed on the creature to
the effect of its receiving this same renewal by the Divine agency.
Reply to Objection 4: This disposition of newness will be neither
natural nor contrary to nature, but above nature (just as grace and
glory are above the nature of the soul): and it will proceed from an
everlasting agent which will preserve it for ever.
Reply to Objection 5: Although, properly speaking, insensible
bodies will not have merited this glory, yet man merited that this
glory should be bestowed on the whole universe, in so far as this
conduces to man's increase of glory. Thus a man merits to be clothed
in more splendid robes, which splendor the robes nowise merited
themselves.
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