{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Of these two blessings, then, which we have said flow from\r\nGod's goodness, as from a fountain, towards our nature, vitiated\r\nby sin and condemned to punishment, the one, propagation,\r\nwas conferred by God's benediction when He made those first\r\nworks, from which He rested on the seventh day. But the\r\nother, conformation, is conferred in that work of His wherein\r\n\"He worketh hitherto.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_1017_1017\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1017_1017\">[1017]</a> For were He to withdraw His efficacious\r\npower from things, they should neither be able to go\r\non and complete the periods assigned to their measured movements,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_524\">[Pg 524]</a></span>\r\nnor should they even continue in possession of that\r\nnature they were created in. God, then, so created man that\r\nHe gave him what we may call fertility, whereby he might\r\npropagate other men, giving them a congenital capacity to\r\npropagate their kind, but not imposing on them any necessity\r\nto do so. This capacity God withdraws at pleasure from individuals,\r\nmaking them barren; but from the whole race He\r\nhas not withdrawn the blessing of propagation once conferred.\r\nBut though not withdrawn on account of sin, this power of\r\npropagation is not what it would have been had there been\r\nno sin. For since \"man placed in honour fell, he has become\r\nlike the beasts,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_1018_1018\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1018_1018\">[1018]</a> and generates as they do, though the little\r\nspark of reason, which was the image of God in him, has not\r\nbeen quite quenched. But if conformation were not added\r\nto propagation, there would be no reproduction of one's kind.\r\nFor even though there were no such thing as copulation, and\r\nGod wished to fill the earth with human inhabitants, He\r\nmight create all these as He created one without the help\r\nof human generation. And, indeed, even as it is, those who\r\ncopulate can generate nothing save by the creative energy\r\nof God. As, therefore, in respect of that spiritual growth\r\nwhereby a man is formed to piety and righteousness, the\r\napostle says, \"Neither is he that planteth anything, neither\r\nhe that watereth, but God that giveth the increase,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_1019_1019\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1019_1019\">[1019]</a> so also\r\nit must be said that it is not he that generates that is anything,\r\nbut God that giveth the essential form; that it is not\r\nthe mother who carries and nurses the fruit of her womb that\r\nis anything, but God that giveth the increase. For He alone,\r\nby that energy wherewith \"He worketh hitherto,\" causes the\r\nseed to develope, and to evolve from certain secret and invisible\r\nfolds into the visible forms of beauty which we see.\r\nHe alone, coupling and connecting in some wonderful fashion\r\nthe spiritual and corporeal natures, the one to command, the\r\nother to obey, makes a living being. And this work of His\r\nis so great and wonderful, that not only man, who is a rational\r\nanimal, and consequently more excellent than all other animals\r\nof the earth, but even the most diminutive insect, cannot be<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_525\">[Pg 525]</a></span>\r\nconsidered attentively without astonishment and without praising\r\nthe Creator.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTY-SECOND.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-828"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"212f3008cfaed72121159c790eab40fc261dc4cb80a4c3b239231f6c73d27d12","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"PSA","chapter":49,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Ps. xlix. 20","verse":20,"verse_end":20}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_1018_1018","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_1018_1018","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_1018_1018\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_1018_1018\"><span class=\"label\">[1018]</span></a> Ps. xlix. 20.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_1018_1018","text_sha256":"c132b54cf119f68aa75ffb1c9e55425af8b88154028049b41fcb140ed82ad12c","verified":false,"work_id":null}