327. ALL THINGS CREATED BY THE LORD ARE USE; THEY ARE USES IN THE ORDER, DEGREE, AND RESPECT IN WHICH THEY HAVE RELATION TO MAN, AND THROUGH MAN TO THE LORD, FROM WHOM [THEY ARE].
In respect to this it has been shown above: That from God the Creator nothing can take form except uses (n. 308); that the uses of all created things ascend by degrees from outmost things to man, and through man to God the Creator, from whom they are (n. 65-68); that the end of creation takes form in outmosts, which end is, that all things may return to God the Creator, and that there may be conjunction (n. 167-172); that things are uses so far as they have regard to the Creator (n. 307); that the Divine must necessarily have being and form in other things created by itself (n. 47-51); that all things of the universe are recipients according to uses, and this according to degrees (n. 58); that the universe, viewed from uses, is an image of God (n. 59); and many other things. From all which this- truth is plain, that all things created by the Lord are uses, and that they are uses in that order, degree, and respect in which they have relation to man, and through man to the Lord from whom [they are]. It remains now that some things should be said in detail respecting uses.