the matter for the form,
since the parts are, as it were, the matter of the whole. Furthermore,
the whole man is on account of an extrinsic end, that end being the
fruition of God. So, therefore, in the parts of the universe also
every creature exists for its own proper act and perfection, and the
less noble for the nobler, as those creatures that are less noble than
man exist for the sake of man, whilst each and every creature exists
for the perfection of the entire universe. Furthermore, the entire
universe, with all its parts, is ordained towards God as its end,
inasmuch as it imitates, as it were, and shows forth the Divine
goodness, to the glory of God. Reasonable creatures, however, have in
some special and higher manner God as their end, since they can attain
to Him by their own operations, by knowing and loving Him. Thus it is
plain that the Divine goodness is the end of all corporeal things.

Reply Obj. 1: In the very fact of any creature possessing being, it
represents the Divine being and Its goodness. And, therefore, that
God created all things, that they might have being, does not exclude
that He created them for His own goodness.

Reply Obj. 2: The proximate end does not exclude the ultimate end.
Therefore that corporeal creatures were, in a manner, made for the
sake of the spiritual, does not prevent their being made on account
of God's goodness.

Reply Obj. 3: Equality of justice has its place in retribution, since
equal rewards or punishments are due to equal merit or demerit. But
this does not apply to things as at first instituted. For just as an
architect, without injustice, places stones of the same kind in
different parts of a building, not on account of any antecedent
difference in the stones, but with a view to securing that perfection
of the entire building, which could not be obtained except by the
different positions of the stones; even so, God from the beginning,
to secure perfection in the universe, has set therein creatures of
various and unequal natures, according to His wisdom, and without
injustice, since no diversity of merit is presupposed.
_______________________

THIRD ARTICLE [I, Q. 65, Art. 3]

Whether Corporeal Creatures Were Produced by God Through the Medium
of the Angels?

Objection 1: It would seem that corporeal creatures were produced by
God through the medium of the angels. For, as all things are governed
by the Divine wisdom, so by it were all things made, accordin