1 Objection 1: It seems that the knowledge of God is discursive. For the knowledge of God is not habitual knowledge, but actual knowledge. Now the Philosopher says Topic. ii): The habit of knowledge may regard many things at once; but actual understanding regards only one thing at a time. Therefore as God knows many things, Himself and others, as shown above Articles 2, 5), it seems that He does not understand all at once, but discourses from one to another.
1 Ad septimum sic proceditur. Videtur quod scientia Dei sit discursiva. Scientia enim Dei non est secundum scire in habitu, sed secundum intelligere in actu. Sed secundum philosophum, in II Topic., scire in habitu contingit multa simul, sed intelligere actu unum tantum. Cum ergo Deus multa cognoscat, quia et se et alia, ut ostensum est, videtur quod non simul omnia intelligat, sed de uno in aliud discurrat.
2 Objection 2: Further, discursive knowledge is to know the effect through its cause. But God knows things through Himself; as an effect is known) through its cause. Therefore His knowledge is discursive.
2 Praeterea, cognoscere effectum per causam est scire discurrentis. Sed Deus cognoscit alia per seipsum, sicut effectum per causam. Ergo cognitio sua est discursiva.
3 Objection 3: Further, God knows each creature more perfectly than we know it. But we know the effects in their created causes; and thus we go discursively from causes to things caused. Therefore it seems that the same applies to God.
3 Praeterea, perfectius Deus scit unamquamque creaturam quam nos sciamus. Sed nos in causis creatis cognoscimus earum effectus, et sic de causis ad causata discurrimus. Ergo videtur similiter esse in Deo.
4 On the contrary, Augustine says De Trin. xv), God does not see all things in their particularity or separately, as if He saw alternately here and there; but He sees all things together at once.
4 Sed contra est quod Augustinus dicit, in XV de Trin., quod Deus non particulatim vel singillatim omnia videt, velut alternante conspectu hinc illuc, et inde huc; sed omnia videt simul.
5 I answer that, In the divine knowledge there is no discursion; the proof of which is as follows. In our knowledge there is a twofold discursion: one is according to succession only, as when we have actually understood anything, we turn ourselves to understand something else; while the other mode of discursion is according to causality, as when through principles we arrive at the knowledge of conclusions. The first kind of discursion cannot belong to God. For many things, which we understand in succession if each is considered in itself, we understand simultaneously if we see them in some one thing; if, for instance, we understand the parts in the whole, or see different things in a mirror.
Now God sees all things in one thing), which is Himself. Therefore God sees all things together, and not successively. Likewise the second mode of discursion cannot be applied to God. First, because this second mode of discursion presupposes the first mode; for whosoever proceeds from principles to conclusions does not consider both at once; secondly, because to discourse thus is to proceed from the known to the unknown. Hence it is manifest that when the first is known, the second is still unknown; and thus the second is known not in the first, but from the first.
Now the term discursive reasoning is attained when the second is seen in the first, by resolving the effects into their causes; and then the discursion ceases. Hence as God sees His effects in Himself as their cause, His knowledge is not discursive.
5 Respondeo dicendum quod in scientia divina nullus est discursus. Quod sic patet. In scientia enim nostra duplex est discursus. Unus secundum successionem tantum, sicut cum, postquam intelligimus aliquid in actu, convertimus nos ad intelligendum aliud. Alius discursus est secundum causalitatem, sicut cum per principia pervenimus in cognitionem conclusionum. Primus autem discursus Deo convenire non potest. Multa enim, quae successive intelligimus si unumquodque eorum in seipso consideretur, omnia simul intelligimus si in aliquo uno ea intelligamus, puta si partes intelligamus in toto, vel si diversas res videamus in speculo. Deus autem omnia videt in uno, quod est ipse, ut habitum est. Unde simul, et non successive omnia videt. Similiter etiam et secundus discursus Deo competere non potest. Primo quidem, quia secundus discursus praesupponit primum, procedentes enim a principiis ad conclusiones, non simul utrumque considerant. Deinde, quia discursus talis est procedentis de noto ad ignotum. Unde manifestum est quod, quando cognoscitur primum, adhuc ignoratur secundum. Et sic secundum non cognoscitur in primo, sed ex primo. Terminus vero discursus est, quando secundum videtur in primo, resolutis effectibus in causas, et tunc cessat discursus. Unde, cum Deus effectus suos in seipso videat sicut in causa, eius cognitio non est discursiva.
6 Reply to Objection 1: Altogether there is only one act of understanding in itself, nevertheless many things may be understood in one medium), as shown above.
6 Ad primum ergo dicendum quod, licet sit unum tantum intelligere in seipso, tamen contingit multa intelligere in aliquo uno, ut dictum est.
7 Reply to Objection 2: God does not know by their cause, known, as it were previously, effects unknown; but He knows the effects in the cause; and hence His knowledge is not discursive, as was shown above.
7 Ad secundum dicendum quod Deus non cognoscit per causam quasi prius cognitam, effectus incognitos, sed eos cognoscit in causa. Unde eius cognitio est sine discursu, ut dictum est.
8 Reply to Objection 3: God sees the effects of created causes in the causes themselves, much better than we can; but still not in such a manner that the knowledge of the effects is caused in Him by the knowledge of the created causes, as is the case with us; and hence His knowledge is not discursive.
8 Ad tertium dicendum quod effectus causarum creatarum videt quidem Deus in ipsis causis, multo melius quam nos, non tamen ita quod cognitio effectuum causetur in ipso ex cognitione causarum creatarum, sicut in nobis. Unde eius scientia non est discursiva.