Chapter 95 — That God creates things immediately

The doctrine established above necessarily leads to the conclusion that things that cannot be brought into existence except by creation come immediately from God. Thus the heavenly bodies, as is manifest, cannot be produced except by creation. They cannot be said to be made from some preexisting matter, for then they would be capable of generation and corruption, and would also be subject to contrariety. But they are not, as their motion proves. For they move in circles, and circular motion has no contrary. Consequently, the heavenly bodies were produced immediately by God.

Similarly the elements, regarded as complete units, do not come from any preexisting matter. Anything that would thus preexist would have some form. And thus some body, other than the elements, would exist prior to them in the order of material cause. But if the matter existing prior to the elements had a distinct form, one of the elements would have to be prior to the others in the same order, supposing that the preexisting matter had the form of an element. Therefore, the very elements must have been produced immediately by God.

It is even more impossible for non-bodily and invisible substances to be created by someone else, for all such substances are immaterial. Matter cannot exist unless it is subject to dimension, whereby it is capable of being marked off, so that many things can be made from the same matter. Hence immaterial substances cannot be made from preexisting matter. Consequently, they can be produced only by God through creation. For this reason the Catholic faith professes that God is the Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things visible, and also of all things invisible.