rther, as Augustine says (De Vera Relig. 29), a living
substance is better than a substance that does not live. If,
therefore, things which in themselves have not life, are life in God,
it seems that things exist more truly in God than themselves. But this
appears to be false; since in themselves they exist actually, but in
God potentially.

Obj. 4: Further, just as good things and things made in time are
known by God, so are bad things, and things that God can make, but
that never will be made. If, therefore, all things are life in God,
inasmuch as known by Him, it seems that even bad things and things
that will never be made are life in God, as known by Him, and this
appears inadmissible.

_On the contrary,_ (John 1:3, 4), it is said, "What was made, in Him
was life." But all things were made, except God. Therefore all things
are life in God.

_I answer that,_ In God to live is to understand, as before stated
(A. 3). In God intellect, the thing understood, and the act of
understanding, are one and the same. Hence whatever is in God as
understood is the very living or life of God. Now, wherefore, since
all things that have been made by God are in Him as things understood,
it follows that all things in Him are the divine life itself.

Reply Obj. 1: Creatures are said to be in God in a twofold sense. In
one way, so far are they are held together and preserved by the
divine power; even as we say that things that are in our power are in
us. And creatures are thus said to be in God, even as they exist in
their own natures. In this sense we must understand the words of the
Apostle when he says, "In Him we live, move, and be"; since our
being, living, and moving are themselves caused by God. In another
sense things are said to be in God, as in Him who knows them, in
which sense they are in God through their proper ideas, which in God
are not distinct from the divine essence. Hence things as they are in
God are the divine essence. And since the divine essence is life and
not movement, it follows that things existing in God in this manner
are not movement, but life.

Reply Obj. 2: The thing modelled must be like the model according to
the form, not the mode of being. For sometimes the form has being of
another kind in the model from that which it has in the thing
modelled. Thus the form of a house has in the mind of the architect
immaterial and intelligible being; but in the house that exists
outside his mind, material a