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Objection 1: It seems that God cannot do better than He does.
For whatever God does, He does in a most powerful and wise way.
But a thing is so much the better done as it is more powerfully and
wisely done. Therefore God cannot do anything better than He does.
Objection 2: Further, Augustine thus argues (Contra Maximin.
iii, 8): "If God could, but would not, beget a Son His
equal, He would have been envious." For the same reason, if God
could have made better things than He has done, but was not willing so
to do, He would have been envious. But envy is far removed from
God. Therefore God makes everything of the best. He cannot
therefore make anything better than He does.
Objection 3: Further, what is very good and the best of all cannot
be bettered; because nothing is better than the best. But as
Augustine says (Enchiridion 10), "each thing that God has made
is good, and, taken all together they are very good; because in them
all consists the wondrous beauty of the universe." Therefore the good
in the universe could not be made better by God.
Objection 4: Further, Christ as man is full of grace and truth,
and has the Spirit without measure; and so He cannot be better.
Again created happiness is described as the highest good, and thus
cannot be better. And the Blessed Virgin Mary is raised above all
the choirs of angels, and so cannot be better than she is. God cannot
therefore make all things better than He has made them.
On the contrary, It is said (Eph. 3:20): "God is able to
do all things more abundantly than we desire or understand."
I answer that, The goodness of anything is twofold; one, which is
of the essence of it---thus, for instance, to be rational pertains
to the essence of man. As regards this good, God cannot make a thing
better than it is itself; although He can make another thing better
than it; even as He cannot make the number four greater than it is;
because if it were greater it would no longer be four, but another
number. For the addition of a substantial difference in definitions is
after the manner of the addition of unity of numbers (Metaph. viii,
10). Another kind of goodness is that which is over and above the
essence; thus, the good of a man is to be virtuous or wise. As
regards this kind of goodness, God can make better the things He has
made. Absolutely speaking, however, God can make something else
better than each thing made by Him.
Reply to Objection 1: When it is said that God can make a thing
better than He makes it, if "better" is taken substantively, this
proposition is true. For He can always make something else better
than each individual thing: and He can make the same thing in one way
better than it is, and in another way not; as was explained above.
If, however, "better" is taken as an adverb, implying the manner
of the making; thus God cannot make anything better than He makes
it, because He cannot make it from greater wisdom and goodness. But
if it implies the manner of the thing done, He can make something
better; because He can give to things made by Him a better manner of
existence as regards the accidents, although not as regards the
substance.
Reply to Objection 2: It is of the nature of a son that he should
be equal to his father, when he comes to maturity. But it is not of
the nature of anything created, that it should be better than it was
made by God. Hence the comparison fails.
Reply to Objection 3: The universe, the present creation being
supposed, cannot be better, on account of the most beautiful order
given to things by God; in which the good of the universe consists.
For if any one thing were bettered, the proportion of order would be
destroyed; as if one string were stretched more than it ought to be,
the melody of the harp would be destroyed. Yet God could make other
things, or add something to the present creation; and then there would
be another and a better universe.
Reply to Objection 4: The humanity of Christ, from the fact that
it is united to the Godhead; and created happiness from the fact that
it is the fruition of God; and the Blessed Virgin from the fact that
she is the mother of God; have all a certain infinite dignity from the
infinite good, which is God. And on this account there cannot be
anything better than these; just as there cannot be anything better
than God.
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