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Objection 1: It would seem that the woman was not formed immediately
by God. For no individual is produced immediately by God from
another individual alike in species. But the woman was made from a man
who is of the same species. Therefore she was not made immediately by
God.
Objection 2: Further, Augustine (De Trin. iii, 4) says that
corporeal things are governed by God through the angels. But the
woman's body was formed from corporeal matter. Therefore it was made
through the ministry of the angels, and not immediately by God.
Objection 3: Further, those things which pre-exist in creatures as
to their causal virtues are produced by the power of some creature, and
not immediately by God. But the woman's body was produced in its
causal virtues among the first created works, as Augustine says
(Gen. ad lit. ix, 15). Therefore it was not produced
immediately by God.
On the contrary, Augustine says, in the same work: "God alone,
to Whom all nature owes its existence, could form or build up the
woman from the man's rib."
I answer that, As was said above (Article 2, ad 2), the
natural generation of every species is from some determinate matter.
Now the matter whence man is naturally begotten is the human semen of
man or woman. Wherefore from any other matter an individual of the
human species cannot naturally be generated. Now God alone, the
Author of nature, can produce an effect into existence outside the
ordinary course of nature. Therefore God alone could produce either a
man from the slime of the earth, or a woman from the rib of man.
Reply to Objection 1: This argument is verified when an individual
is begotten, by natural generation, from that which is like it in the
same species.
Reply to Objection 2: As Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. ix,
15), we do not know whether the angels were employed by God in the
formation of the woman; but it is certain that, as the body of man was
not formed by the angels from the slime of the earth, so neither was
the body of the woman formed by them from the man's rib.
Reply to Objection 3: As Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. ix,
18): "The first creation of things did not demand that woman
should be made thus; it made it possible for her to be thus made."
Therefore the body of the woman did indeed pre-exist in these causal
virtues, in the things first created; not as regards active
potentiality, but as regards a potentiality passive in relation to the
active potentiality of the Creator.
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