Summa contra Gentiles3.83 Chapter LXXXIII. Conclusion of the foregoing

From all that has been proved hitherto, we are able to conclude that as regards the design of the order to be imposed on things, God governs all things by Himself. Wherefore Gregory commenting on Job xxxiv. 13, What other hath He appointed over the earth? says: He who created the world by Himself governs it by Himself: and Boethius says (De Consol. iii. 12): God rules all things by Himself alone. As to the execution, however, He governs the lower by means of the higher things:—bodily things by means of spiritual things: wherefore Gregory says (Dial. iv. 6): In this visible world nothing can be ruled except by means of the invisible creature:—the lower spirits by the higher: wherefore Dionysius says? that the intelligent heavenly substances first of all shed forth the divine enlightenment on themselves, and bestow on us those manifestations which surpass our capacity:—and the lower bodies by the higher: wherefore Dionysius says’ that the sun contributes to the generation of visible bodies, as also to life itself, by means of nourishment, growth and perfection, by cleansing and renewing them.

Of all these together Augustine says (3 De Trin. iv.): As the grosser and lower bodies are ruled in a certain orderly way by bodies of greater subtlety and power: so all bodies are vuled by the rational spirit of life, and the sinful rational spirit by the righteous rational spirit.

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