Essential Faith "It was said that those things in the Creed which refer to creatures belong to faith nonessentially and secondarily. On the contrary, by its nature the consideration of a science extends to everything within the power of the proper means from which it proceeds. But the means of faith is belief in God when He says something. For a believer is moved to assent because he thinks something was said by God. But we should believe God's word not only about first truth, but about any truth. Therefore, any truth is of itself the subject matter and object of faith." (Aquinas & McGlynn, "On Truth, Q.14, 242) The question Aquinas is answering is whether First Truth is the object of faith. Though every truth comes from God as its efficient cause, not every truth is the perfect means to arrive at God. Now faith, according to St. John of the Cross, is the "proximate and proportionate means to union with God." Faith is a theological virtue, which means that its proper object is God alone and not those truths which are accidental to God. If every truth were the object of faith we would be led to believe that God is equally present in every truth, but that is not true, since some truths are greater and truer than others. Temporal creatures change, while God remains the same forever. When we say that God is the true object of faith, He is the essential object of faith and since God is immutable and infinitely perfect in every perfection, God is eternally the object of faith.