D IS
THAT ALL THINGS MAY RETURN TO THE CREATOR AND THAT THERE MAY BE
CONJUNCTION.

In the first place, something shall be said about ends. There are three
things that follow in order, called first end, middle end, and last end;
they are also called end, cause, and effect. These three must be together
in every thing, that it may be anything. For a first end without a middle
end, and at the same time a last end, is impossible; or, what is the same,
an end alone, without a cause and an effect is impossible. Equally
impossible is a cause alone without an end from which and an effect in
which it is, or an effect alone, that is, an effect without its cause
and end. That this is so may be comprehended if it be observed that an
end without an effect, that is, separated from an effect, is a thing
without existence, and therefore a mere term. For in order that an end
may actually be an end it must be terminated, and it is terminated in its
effect, wherein it is first called an end because it is an end. It
appears as if the agent or the efficient exists by itself; but this so
appears from its being in the effect; but if separated from the effect
it would instantly vanish. From all this it is evident that these three,
end, cause, and effect, must be in every thing to make it anything.

168. It must be known further, that the end is everything in the cause,
and also everything in the effect; from this it is that end, cause, and
effect, are called first end, middle end, and last end. But that the end
may be everything in the cause, there must be something from the end [in
the cause] wherein the end shall be; and that the end may be everything
in the effect, there must be something from the end through the cause
[in the effect] wherein the end shall be. For the end cannot be in itself
alone, but it must be in something having existence from it, in which it
can dwell as to all that is its own, and by acting, come into effect,
until it has permanent existence. That in which it has permanent
existence is the last end, which is called effect.

169. These three, namely, end, cause, and effect, are in the created
universe, both in its greatest and least parts. They are in the greatest
and least parts of the created universe, because they are in God the
Creator, who is the Lord from eternity. But since He is Infinite, and
in the Infinite in finite things are one distinctly (as was shown above,
n. 17-22), therefore also these three in Him,