According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas
God, then, is the universal Cause of all existence, for all the beings of the world are the effects of His power. "All, then, must possess something of God within themselves, not any portion of His substance, but a likeness of and participation in His goodness," after the manner of a foot-print or image. Moveover, since the effects of the Divine activity are different in different creatures, and the Divine benefits are far from being equally distributed—whether we consider the order of nature or of grace—it follows that those which have a greater share in the blessings of the Creator are by that very fact nearer and more united to God and richer in their possession of Him. In turn, "God as active principle, exists more perfectly in those creatures which are more indebted to His munificence, for as He is present directly and immediately by virtue of His activity, He is consequently more closely united to the beings in whom He has worked the greatest things." If God's substance, so simple and single and indivisible, knowing neither separation nor division, cannot be anywhere unless it be there entirely, it is not the same with His operation and His all-embracing power, which, while free to realise itself externally in the measure it judges right, is brought by a multitude of ways into contact with different creatures.
