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With good cause, therefore, does the true religion recognize and
proclaim that the same God who created the universal cosmos, created
also all the animals, souls as well as bodies. Among the terrestrial
animals man was made by Him in His own image, and, for the reason I
have given, was made one individual, though he was not left solitary.
For there is nothing so social by nature, so unsocial by its
corruption, as this race. And human nature has nothing more
appropriate, either for the prevention of discord, or for the healing
of it, where it exists, than the remembrance of that first parent of
us all, whom God was pleased to create alone, that all men might be
derived from one, and that they might thus be admonished to preserve
unity among their whole multitude. But from the fact that the woman
was made for him from his side, it was plainly meant that we should
learn how dear the bond between man and wife should be. These works of
God do certainly seem extraordinary, because they are the first
works. They who do not believe them, ought not to believe any
prodigies; for these would not be called prodigies did they not happen
out of the ordinary course of nature. But, is it possible that
anything should happen in vain, however hidden be its cause, in so
grand a government of divine providence? One of the sacred Psalmists
says, "Come, behold the works of the Lord, what prodigies He hath
wrought in the earth." Why God made woman out of man's side, and
what this first prodigy prefigured, I shall, with God's help, tell
in another place. But at present, since this book must be concluded,
let us merely say that in this first man, who was created in the
beginning, there was laid the foundation, not in. deed evidently,
but in God's foreknowledge, of these two cities or societies, so far
as regards the human race. For from that man all men were to be
derived, some of them to be associated with the good angels in their
reward, others with the wicked in punishment; all being ordered by the
secret yet just judgment of God. For since it is written, "All the
paths of the Lord are mercy and truth," neither can His grace be
unjust, nor His justice cruel.
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