Compendium of Theology

 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

 CONTENTS

 CHAPTER 1

 CHAPTER 2

 CHAPTER 3

 CHAPTER 4

 CHAPTER 5

 CHAPTER 6

 CHAPTER 7

 CHAPTER 8

 CHAPTER 9

 CHAPTER 10

 CHAPTER 11

 CHAPTER 12

 CHAPTER 13

 CHAPTER 14

 CHAPTER 15

 CHAPTER 16

 CHAPTER 17

 CHAPTER 18

 CHAPTER 19

 CHAPTER 20

 CHAPTER 21

 CHAPTER 22

 CHAPTER 23

 CHAPTER 24

 CHAPTER 25

 CHAPTER 26

 CHAPTER 27

 CHAPTER 28

 CHAPTER 29

 CHAPTER 30

 CHAPTER 31

 CHAPTER 32

 CHAPTER 33

 CHAPTER 34

 CHAPTER 35

 CHAPTER 36

 CHAPTER 37

 CHAPTER 38

 CHAPTER 39

 CHAPTER 40

 CHAPTER 41

 CHAPTER 42

 CHAPTER 43

 CHAPTER 44

 CHAPTER 45

 CHAPTER 46

 CHAPTER 47

 CHAPTER 48

 CHAPTER 49

 CHAPTER 50

 CHAPTER 51

 CHAPTER 52

 CHAPTER 53

 CHAPTER 54

 CHAPTER 55

 CHAPTER 56

 CHAPTER 57

 CHAPTER 58

 CHAPTER 59

 CHAPTER 60

 CHAPTER 61

 CHAPTER 62

 CHAPTER 63

 CHAPTER 64

 CHAPTER 65

 CHAPTER 66

 CHAPTER 67

 CHAPTER 68

 CHAPTER 69

 CHAPTER 70

 CHAPTER 71

 CHAPTER 72

 CHAPTER 73

 CHAPTER 74

 CHAPTER 75

 CHAPTER 76

 CHAPTER 77

 CHAPTER 78

 CHAPTER 79

 CHAPTER 80

 CHAPTER 81

 CHAPTER 82

 CHAPTER 83

 CHAPTER 84

 CHAPTER 85

 CHAPTER 86

 CHAPTER 87

 CHAPTER 88

 CHAPTER 89

 CHAPTER 90

 CHAPTER 91

 CHAPTER 92

 CHAPTER 93

 CHAPTER 94

 CHAPTER 95

 CHAPTER 96

 CHAPTER 97

 CHAPTER 98

 CHAPTER 99

 CHAPTER 100

 CHAPTER 101

 CHAPTER 102

 CHAPTER 103

 CHAPTER 104

 CHAPTER 105

 CHAPTER 106

 CHAPTER 107

 CHAPTER 108

 CHAPTER 109

 CHAPTER 110

 CHAPTER 111

 CHAPTER 112

 CHAPTER 113

 CHAPTER 114

 CHAPTER 115

 CHAPTER 116

 CHAPTER 117

 CHAPTER 118

 CHAPTER 119

 CHAPTER 120

 CHAPTER 121

 CHAPTER 122

 CHAPTER 123

 CHAPTER 124

 CHAPTER 125

 CHAPTER 126

 CHAPTER 127

 CHAPTER 128

 CHAPTER 129

 CHAPTER 130

 CHAPTER 131

 CHAPTER 132

 CHAPTER 133

 CHAPTER 134

 CHAPTER 135

 CHAPTER 136

 CHAPTER 137

 CHAPTER 138

 CHAPTER 139

 CHAPTER 140

 CHAPTER 141

 CHAPTER 142

 CHAPTER 143

 CHAPTER 144

 CHAPTER 145

 CHAPTER 146

 CHAPTER 147

 CHAPTER 148

 CHAPTER 149

 CHAPTER 150

 CHAPTER 151

 CHAPTER 152

 CHAPTER 153

 CHAPTER 154

 CHAPTER 155

 CHAPTER 156

 CHAPTER 157

 CHAPTER 158

 CHAPTER 159

 CHAPTER 160

 CHAPTER 161

 CHAPTER 162

 CHAPTER 163

 CHAPTER 164

 CHAPTER 165

 CHAPTER 166

 CHAPTER 167

 CHAPTER 168

 CHAPTER 169

 CHAPTER 170

 CHAPTER 171

 CHAPTER 172

 CHAPTER 173

 CHAPTER 174

 CHAPTER 175

 CHAPTER 176

 CHAPTER 177

 CHAPTER 178

 CHAPTER 179

 CHAPTER 180

 CHAPTER 181

 CHAPTER 182

 CHAPTER 183

 CHAPTER 184

 CHAPTER 185

 CHAPTER 186

 CHAPTER 187

 CHAPTER 188

 CHAPTER 189

 CHAPTER 190

 CHAPTER 191

 CHAPTER 192

 CHAPTER 193

 CHAPTER 194

 CHAPTER 195

 CHAPTER 196

 CHAPTER 197

 CHAPTER 198

 CHAPTER 199

 CHAPTER 200

 CHAPTER 201

 CHAPTER 202

 CHAPTER 203

 CHAPTER 204

 CHAPTER 205

 CHAPTER 206

 CHAPTER 207

 CHAPTER 208

 CHAPTER 209

 CHAPTER 210

 CHAPTER 211

 CHAPTER 212

 CHAPTER 213

 CHAPTER 214

 CHAPTER 215

 CHAPTER 216

 CHAPTER 217

 CHAPTER 218

 CHAPTER 219

 CHAPTER 220

 CHAPTER 221

 CHAPTER 222

 CHAPTER 223

 CHAPTER 224

 CHAPTER 225

 CHAPTER 226

 CHAPTER 227

 CHAPTER 228

 CHAPTER 229

 CHAPTER 230

 CHAPTER 231

 CHAPTER 232

 CHAPTER 233

 CHAPTER 234

 CHAPTER 235

 CHAPTER 236

 CHAPTER 237

 CHAPTER 238

 CHAPTER 239

 CHAPTER 240

 CHAPTER 241

 CHAPTER 242

 CHAPTER 243

 CHAPTER 244

 CHAPTER 245

 CHAPTER 246

 Part Two

 CHAPTER 1

 CHAPTER 2

 CHAPTER 3

 CHAPTER 4

 CHAPTER 5

 CHAPTER 6

 CHAPTER 7

 CHAPTER 8

 CHAPTER 9

 CHAPTER 10

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER 124

GOD'S PLAN OF RULING LOWER CREATURES BY HIGHER CREATURES

We can see from this that lower creatures are ruled by God through the agency of higher creatures. Some creatures are said to be higher, because they are more perfect in goodness. Creatures receive their order of good from God, inasmuch as they are under His rule. Consequently higher creatures have a greater share in the order of divine government than lower creatures. But what has a greater share in any perfection is related to what has a smaller share in that perfection, as act is related to potency, and agent to patient. Therefore higher creatures are related to lower creatures in the order of divine providence as agent is related to patient. Accordingly lower creatures are governed by higher creatures.

             Divine goodness has this characteristic, that it communicates a likeness of itself to creatures. This is the sense in which God is said to have made all things for the sake of His goodness, as is clear from a previous chapter. The perfection of divine goodness entails the double truth that God is good in Himself, and that He leads other beings to goodness. He communicates goodness to creatures under both aspects: they are good in themselves, and some lead others to goodness. In this way God brings some creatures to goodness through other creatures. The latter must be higher creatures; for what receives a likeness of both form and action from some agent, is more perfect than what receives a likeness of form but not of action. Thus the moon, which not only glows with light but also illuminates other bodies, receives light from the sun more perfectly than do opaque bodies, which are merely illuminated but do not illuminate. Accordingly God governs lower creatures by higher creatures.

             Likewise, the good of many is better than the good of an individual, and so is more representative of the divine goodness, which is the good of the whole universe. If a higher creature, which receives more abundant goodness from God, did not cooperate in procuring the good of lower creatures, that abundance of goodness would be confined to one individual. But it becomes common to many by the fact that the more richly endowed creature cooperates in procuring the good of many. Hence the divine goodness requires that God should rule lower creatures by higher creatures.