Chapter 9.—The Original Cause of All Things is from God.

16. For it is one thing to make and administer the creature from the innermost and highest turning-point of causation, which He alone does who is God the Creator; but quite another thing to apply some operation from without in proportion to the strength and faculties assigned to each by Him, so that what is created may come forth into being at this time or at that, and in this or that way. For all these things in the way of original and beginning have already been created in a kind of texture of the elements, but they come forth when they get the opportunity.381    [This is the same as the theological distinction between substances and their modifications. “The former,” says Howe, “are the proper object of creation strictly taken; the modifications of things are not properly created, in the strictest sense of creation, but are educed and brought forth out of those substantial things that were themselves created, or made out of nothing.”—Germs are originated ex nihilo, and fall under creation proper; their evolution and development takes place according to the nature and inherent force of the germ, and falls under providence, in distinction from creation. See the writer’s Theological Essays, 133–137.—W.G.T.S.] For as mothers are pregnant with young, so the world itself is pregnant with the causes of things that are born; which are not created in it, except from that highest essence, where nothing either springs up or dies, either begins to be or ceases. But the applying from without of adventitious causes, which, although they are not natural, yet are to be applied according to nature, in order that those things which are contained and hidden in the secret bosom of nature may break forth and be outwardly created in some way by the unfolding of the proper measures and numbers and weights which they have received in secret from Him “who has ordered all things in measure and number and weight:”382    Wisd. xi. 20 this is not only in the power of bad angels, but also of bad men, as I have shown above by the example of agriculture.

17. But lest the somewhat different condition of animals should trouble any one, in that they have the breath of life with the sense of desiring those things that are according to nature, and of avoiding those things that are contrary to it; we must consider also, how many men there are who know from what herbs or flesh, or from what juices or liquids you please, of whatever sort, whether so placed or so buried, or so bruised or so mixed, this or that animal is commonly born; yet who can be so foolish as to dare to call himself the creator of these animals? Is it, therefore, to be wondered at, if just as any, the most worthless of men, can know whence such or such worms and flies are produced; so the evil angels in proportion to the subtlety of their perceptions discern in the more hidden seeds of the elements whence frogs and serpents are produced, and so through certain and known opportune combinations applying these seeds by secret movements, cause them to be created, but do not create them? Only men do not marvel at those things that are usually done by men. But if any one chance to wonder at the quickness of those growths, in that those living beings were so quickly made, let him consider how even this may be brought about by men in proportion to the measure of human capability. For whence is it that the same bodies generate worms more quickly in summer than in winter, or in hotter than in colder places? Only these things are applied by men with so much the more difficulty, in proportion as their earthly and sluggish members are wanting in subtlety of perception, and in rapidity of bodily motion. And hence it arises that in the case of any kind of angels, in proportion as it is easier for them to draw out the proximate causes from the elements, so much the more marvellous is their rapidity in works of this kind.

18. But He only is the creator who is the chief former of these things. Neither can any one be this, unless He with whom primarily rests the measure, number, and weight of all things existing; and He is God the one Creator, by whose unspeakable power it comes to pass, also, that what these angels were able to do if they were permitted, they are therefore not able to do because they are not permitted. For there is no other reason why they who made frogs and serpents were not able to make the most minute flies, unless because the greater power of God was present prohibiting them, through the Holy Spirit; which even the magicians themselves confessed, saying, “This is the finger of God.”383    Ex. vii. 12, and viii. 7, 18, 19 But what they are able to do by nature, yet cannot do, because they are prohibited; and what the very condition of their nature itself does not suffer them to do; it is difficult, nay, impossible, for man to search out, unless through that gift of God which the apostle mentions when he says, “To another the discerning of spirits.”384    1 Cor. xii. 10 For we know that a man can walk, yet that he cannot do so if he is not permitted; but that he cannot fly, even if he be permitted. So those angels, also, are able to do certain things if they are permitted by more powerful angels, according to the supreme commandment of God; but cannot do certain other things, not even if they are permitted by them; because He does not permit from whom they have received such and such a measure of natural powers: who, even by His angels, does not usually permit what He has given them power to be able to do.

19. Excepting, therefore, those corporeal things which are done in the order of nature in a perfectly usual series of times, as e.g., the rising and setting of the stars, the generations and deaths of animals, the innumerable diversities of seeds and buds, the vapors and the clouds, the snow and the rain, the lightnings and the thunder, the thunderbolts and the hail, the winds and the fire, cold and heat, and all like things; excepting also those which in the same order of nature occur rarely, such as eclipses, unusual appearances of stars, and monsters, and earthquakes, and such like;—all these, I say, are to be excepted, of which indeed the first and chief cause is only the will of God; whence also in the Psalm, when some things of this kind had been mentioned, “Fire and hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind,” lest any one should think those to be brought about either by chance or only from corporeal causes, or even from such as are spiritual, but exist apart from the will of God, it is added immediately, “fulfilling His word.”385    Ps. cxlviii. 8

CAPUT IX.

16. Causa originalis omnium a Deo. Aliud est enim ex intimo ac summo causarum cardine condere atque administrare creaturam, quod qui facit, solus creator est Deus: aliud autem pro distributis ab illo viribus et facultatibus aliquam operationem forinsecus admovere, ut tunc vel tunc, sic vel sic exeat quod creatur. Ista quippe originaliter ac primordialiter in quadam textura elementorum cuncta jam 0878 creata sunt; sed acceptis opportunitatibus prodeunt. Nam sicut matres gravidae sunt fetibus, sic ipse mundus gravidus est causis nascentium: quae in illo non creantur, nisi ab illa summa essentia, ubi nec oritur, nec moritur aliquid, nec incipit esse, nec desinit. Adhibere autem forinsecus accedentes causas, quae tametsi non sunt naturales, tamen secundum naturam adhibentur, ut ea quae secreto naturae sinu abdita continentur, erumpant et foris creentur quodam modo explicando mensuras et numeros et pondera sua quae in occulto acceperunt ab illo, qui omnia in mensura et numero et pondere disposuit (Sap. XI, 21); non solum mali angeli, sed etiam mali homines possunt, sicut exemplo agriculturae supra docui.

17. Sed ne de animalibus quasi diversa ratio moveat, quod habent spiritum vitae cum sensu appetendi quae secundum naturam sunt, vitandique contraria; etiam hoc est videre quam multi homines noverunt, ex quibus herbis, aut carnibus, aut quarumcumque rerum quibuslibet succis aut humoribus, vel ita positis, vel ita obrutis, vel ita contritis, vel ita commixtis, quae animalia nasci soleant: quorum se quis tam demens audeat dicere creatorem? Quid ergo mirum, si quemadmodum potest nosse quilibet nequissimus homo, unde illi vel illi vermes muscaeque nascantur; ita mali angeli pro subtilitate sui sensus in occultioribus elementorum seminibus norunt, unde ranae serpentesque nascantur, et haec per certas et notas temperationum opportunitates occultis motibus adhibendo faciunt creari, non creant? Sed illa homines quae solent ab hominibus fieri, non mirantur. Quod si quisquam celeritates incrementorum forte miratur, quod illa animantia tam cito facta sunt; attendat quemadmodum et ista pro modulo facultatis humanae ab hominibus procurentur. Unde enim fit ut eadem corpora citius vermescant aestate quam hieme, citius in calidioribus quam in frigidioribus locis? Sed haec ab hominibus tanto difficilius adhibentur, quanto desunt sensuum subtilitates, et corporum mobilitates in membris terrenis et pigris. Unde qualibuscumque angelis vicinas causas ab elementis contrahere, quanto facilius est, tanto mirabiliores in hujusmodi operibus eorum existunt celeritates.

18. Sed non est creator, nisi qui principaliter ista format. Nec quisquam hoc potest, nisi ille penes quem primitus sunt omnium quae sunt mensurae, numeri, et pondera: et ipse est unus creator Deus, ex cujus ineffabili potentatu fit etiam ut quod possent hi angeli si permitterentur, ideo non possint quia non permittuntur. Neque enim occurrit alia ratio cur non potuerint facere minutissimas muscas, qui ranas serpentesque fecerunt, nisi quia major aderat dominatio prohibentis Dei per Spiritum sanctum, quod etiam ipsi magi confessi sunt, dicentes, Digitus Dei est hoc (Exod. VII, 12, et VIII, 7, 18, 19). Quid autem possint per naturam, nec possint per prohibitionem, et quid per ipsius naturae suae conditionem facere non sinantur; homini 0879 explorare difficile est, imo vero impossibile, nisi per illud donum Dei, quod Apostolus commemorat dicens, Alii dijudicatio spirituum (I Cor. XII, 10). Novimus enim hominem posse ambulare, et neque hoc posse si non permittatur, volare autem non posse etiamsi permittatur. Sic et illi angeli quaedam possunt facere, si permittantur ab angelis potentioribus ex imperio Dei: quaedam vero non possunt, nec si ab eis permittantur; quia ille non permittit, a quo illis est talis naturae modus, qui etiam per angelos suos et illa plerumque non permittit, quae concessit ut possint.

19. Exceptis igitur illis, quae usitatissimo transcursu temporum in rerum naturae ordine corporaliter fiunt, sicuti sunt ortus occasusque siderum, generationes et mortes animalium, seminum et germinum innumerabiles diversitates, nebulae et nubes, nives et pluviae, fulgura et tonitrua, fulmina et grandines, venti et ignes, frigus et aestus, et omnia talia: exceptis etiam illis quae in eodem ordine rara sunt, sicut defectus luminum, et species inusitatae siderum, et monstra, et terrae motus, et similia: exceptis ergo istis omnibus, quorum quidem prima et summa causa non est nisi voluntas Dei: unde et in Psalmo, cum quaedam hujus generis essent commemorata, Ignis, grando, nix, glacies, spiritus tempestatis; ne quis ea vel fortuitu, vel causis tantummodo corporalibus, vel etiam spiritualibus, tamen praeter voluntatem Dei existentibus agi crederet, continuo subjecit, Quae faciunt verbum ejus (Psal. CXLVIII, 8):