Chapter 135 — That God is in all things by power, essence, and presence, and disposes all immediately

Thus there is no reason why God should not have knowledge of singular effects, or why he should not directly order them by himself, even though he may carry them out through intermediate causes. However, in the very execution he is, in some fashion, in immediate touch with all effects to the extent that all intermediate causes operate in virtue of the first cause, so that in a certain way he himself appears to act in them all. Thus all the achievements of secondary causes can be attributed to him, as the effect produced by a tool is ascribed to the artisan; for it is more fittingly said that an artisan makes the knife than that a hammer does. God is also in immediate contact with all effects inasmuch as he is the essential cause of their existence, and so far as everything is kept in being by him.

Corresponding to these three immediate modes of influence, God is said to be in everything by essence, power, and presence. He is in everything by his essence inasmuch as the existence of each thing is a certain participation in the divine essence, and thus the divine essence is present to every existing thing to the extent that it has existence, as a cause is present to its proper effect. God is in all things by his power, inasmuch as all things act in virtue of him. And God is in all things by his presence, inasmuch as he directly orders and disposes all things.