Chapter 100 — That God effects all things on account of an end

We showed above that God has brought things into existence, not through any necessity of his nature, but by his intellect and will. Any agent that works in this way acts for an end, for the end is the principle of the operative intellect. Accordingly, everything that is made by God necessarily exists for the sake of an end.

Moreover, things were produced by God in the best way; for it belongs to the best being to do everything in the best way. But it is better for a thing to be made for an end than to be made without the intention of an end; for in things that are made, the character of goodness in them comes from their end. Therefore, things were made by God for an end.

An indication of this is also seen in effects produced by nature. None of them is in vain; rather, all are for an end. But it is absurd to say that things produced by nature are better ordered than is the very constituting of nature by the first agent, since the entire order of nature is derived from the latter. Clearly, therefore, things produced by God exist for an end.