Sect. 61The Perfection of the Divine BeingThe Perfection of the Divine Being

I. A being is perfect when it possesses all the qualities of which it is capable, or which are suitable and due to it. Created beings do not receive their perfection with their substance; they acquire it by exerting their own internal energy, or by means of external agents. They thus attain their end, τέλος, which is the completeness of their being, or perfection, τελειότης. The perfection of created beings is always relative; that is to say, it can never embrace more than the good qualities due to a particular class of things, nor can it reach such a high degree that there is not some higher degree possible.

II. Just as God is an absolute Being—that is, without any origin or beginning, independent, necessary, essentially existing—so is He also absolutely all that He can or ought to be by His Nature. He is essentially perfect (αὐτοτέλης); He is self-sufficient for His perfection (αὐτάρκης); He possesses in His Substance, without any internal evolution or external influence, entire perfection.

III. God’s perfection is absolute, not only in the sense that whatever constitutes Divine perfection belongs essentially to Him, but also because His perfection embraces every existing or conceivable-perfection (παντελής). He is the perfect principle of all things, and must therefore be, not only self-sufficient, but also capable of bestowing their perfections on all things, and must possess in Himself every kind of perfection. This existence of all perfections in God, this fulness of being, implies more than the possession of creative power and ideal knowledge. It implies that He possesses in His own perfection, which is the source and exemplar of all created perfection, a real and complete equivalent of this perfection. This equivalent is the fund from which He draws His universal power and universal knowledge. Cf. Exod. 33:14; τὸ πᾶν ἐστιν αὐτός, Ecclus. 43:29; Acts 17:25; Rom. 11:36, etc.

The manner in which the particular perfections of created things exist in the universal perfection of God is expressed in the language of the Schoolmen by the terms “Virtually” and “Eminently.” Created things are not contained in God materially, and do not flow from Him as water from a spring, but are produced by His power (virtus); and, besides, He possesses in Himself a perfect equivalent of their perfections, which is their type or model. Again, God does not contain the perfections of His creatures exactly as they exist outside Him. He contains them in their purity, free from all admixture of imperfection; He contains them in a perfection of a higher character—as, for instance, the sense of vision is included in the higher power of understanding. The manifold perfections of creatures are consequently concentrated in one Divine Perfection, which is not, indeed, a combination of them all, but contains and surpasses them all by reason of its richness and value.

IV. The Divine perfection alone is essential and universal, and is the acme of all perfection (ὑπερτέλης, αὐτὸ τὸ τέλος). There does not exist, nor can we conceive, anything above God by means of which God’s perfection can be measured or defined. His perfection is the principle, and hence the measure and object, of all other perfections, which are indeed perfections only in as far as they resemble and participate in the Divine perfection. Moreover, it can never be exhausted or equalled by created perfections; hence it is incomparable and all-surpassing. Cf. Ps. 34:10; Isai. 44:7, and 40:15–17.