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Objection 1: It would seem that the human body was not produced by
God immediately. For Augustine says (De Trin. iii, 4), that
"corporeal things are disposed by God through the angels." But the
human body was made of corporeal matter, as stated above (Article
1). Therefore it was produced by the instrumentality of the angels,
and not immediately by God.
Objection 2: Further, whatever can be made by a created power, is
not necessarily produced immediately by God. But the human body can
be produced by the created power of a heavenly body; for even certain
animals are produced from putrefaction by the active power of a heavenly
body; and Albumazar says that man is not generated where heat and cold
are extreme, but only in temperate regions. Therefore the human body
was not necessarily produced immediately by God.
Objection 3: Further, nothing is made of corporeal matter except by
some material change. But all corporeal change is caused by a movement
of a heavenly body, which is the first movement. Therefore, since
the human body was produced from corporeal matter, it seems that a
heavenly body had part in its production.
Objection 4: Further, Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. vii,
24) that man's body was made during the work of the six days,
according to the causal virtues which God inserted in corporeal
creatures; and that afterwards it was actually produced. But what
pre-exists in the corporeal creature by reason of causal virtues can be
produced by some corporeal body. Therefore the human body was produced
by some created power, and not immediately by God.
On the contrary, It is written (Ecclus. 17:1): "God
created man out of the earth."
I answer that, The first formation of the human body could not be by
the instrumentality of any created power, but was immediately from
God. Some, indeed, supposed that the forms which are in corporeal
matter are derived from some immaterial forms; but the Philosopher
refutes this opinion (Metaph. vii), for the reason that forms
cannot be made in themselves, but only in the composite, as we have
explained (Question 65, Article 4); and because the agent must
be like its effect, it is not fitting that a pure form, not existing
in matter, should produce a form which is in matter, and which form is
only made by the fact that the composite is made. So a form which is
in matter can only be the cause of another form that is in matter,
according as composite is made by composite. Now God, though He is
absolutely immaterial, can alone by His own power produce matter by
creation: wherefore He alone can produce a form in matter, without
the aid of any preceding material form. For this reason the angels
cannot transform a body except by making use of something in the nature
of a seed, as Augustine says (De Trin. iii, 19). Therefore
as no pre-existing body has been formed whereby another body of the
same species could be generated, the first human body was of necessity
made immediately by God.
Reply to Objection 1: Although the angels are the ministers of
God, as regards what He does in bodies, yet God does something in
bodies beyond the angels' power, as, for instance, raising the
dead, or giving sight to the blind: and by this power He formed the
body of the first man from the slime of the earth. Nevertheless the
angels could act as ministers in the formation of the body of the first
man, in the same way as they will do at the last resurrection by
collecting the dust.
Reply to Objection 2: Perfect animals, produced from seed, cannot
be made by the sole power of a heavenly body, as Avicenna imagined;
although the power of a heavenly body may assist by co-operation in the
work of natural generation, as the Philosopher says (Phys. ii,
26), "man and the sun beget man from matter." For this reason,
a place of moderate temperature is required for the production of man
and other animals. But the power of heavenly bodies suffices for the
production of some imperfect animals from properly disposed matter: for
it is clear that more conditions are required to produce a perfect than
an imperfect thing.
Reply to Objection 3: The movement of the heavens causes natural
changes; but not changes that surpass the order of nature, and are
caused by the Divine Power alone, as for the dead to be raised to
life, or the blind to see: like to which also is the making of man
from the slime of the earth.
Reply to Objection 4: An effect may be said to pre-exist in the
causal virtues of creatures, in two ways. First, both in active and
in passive potentiality, so that not only can it be produced out of
pre-existing matter, but also that some pre-existing creature can
produce it. Secondly, in passive potentiality only; that is, that
out of pre-existing matter it can be produced by God. In this
sense, according to Augustine, the human body pre-existed in the
previous work in their causal virtues.
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