{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>For whereas there is one form which is given from without\r\nto every bodily substance,—such as the form which is constructed\r\nby potters and smiths, and that class of artists who\r\npaint and fashion forms like the body of animals,—but another\r\nand internal form which is not itself constructed, but,\r\nas the efficient cause, produces not only the natural bodily<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_517\">[Pg 517]</a></span>\r\nforms, but even the life itself of the living creatures, and\r\nwhich proceeds from the secret and hidden choice of an intelligent\r\nand living nature,—let that first-mentioned form be\r\nattributed to every artificer, but this latter to one only, God,\r\nthe Creator and Originator who made the world itself and the\r\nangels, without the help of world or angels. For the same\r\ndivine and, so to speak, creative energy, which cannot be\r\nmade, but makes, and which gave to the earth and sky their\r\nroundness,—this same divine, effective, and creative energy\r\ngave their roundness to the eye and to the apple; and the\r\nother natural objects which we anywhere see, received also\r\ntheir form, not from without, but from the secret and profound\r\nmight of the Creator, who said, \"Do not I fill heaven\r\nand earth?\"<a id=\"FNanchor_563_563\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_563_563\">[563]</a> and whose wisdom it is that \"reacheth from\r\none end to another mightily; and sweetly doth she order all\r\nthings.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_564_564\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_564_564\">[564]</a> Wherefore I know not what kind of aid the angels,\r\nthemselves created first, afforded to the Creator in making\r\nother things. I cannot ascribe to them what perhaps they\r\ncannot do, neither ought I to deny them such faculty as\r\nthey have. But, by their leave, I attribute the creating and\r\noriginating work which gave being to all natures to God, to\r\nwhom they themselves thankfully ascribe their existence.\r\nWe do not call gardeners the creators of their fruits, for we\r\nread, \"Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that\r\nwatereth, but God that giveth the increase.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_565_565\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_565_565\">[565]</a> Nay, not even\r\nthe earth itself do we call a creator, though she seems to be\r\nthe prolific mother of all things which she aids in germinating\r\nand bursting forth from the seed, and which she keeps rooted\r\nin her own breast; for we likewise read, \"God giveth it a\r\nbody, as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed his own\r\nbody.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_566_566\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_566_566\">[566]</a> We ought not even to call a woman the creatress\r\nof her own offspring; for He rather is its creator who said to\r\nHis servant, \"Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew\r\nthee.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_567_567\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_567_567\">[567]</a> And although the various mental emotions of a\r\npregnant woman do produce in the fruit of her womb similar\r\nqualities,—as Jacob with his peeled wands caused piebald\r\nsheep to be produced,—yet the mother as little creates her<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_518\">[Pg 518]</a></span>\r\noffspring, as she created herself. Whatever bodily or seminal\r\ncauses, then, may be used for the production of things, either\r\nby the co-operation of angels, men, or the lower animals, or\r\nby sexual generation; and whatever power the desires and\r\nmental emotions of the mother have to produce in the tender\r\nand plastic fœtus, corresponding lineaments and colours; yet\r\nthe natures themselves, which are thus variously affected, are\r\nthe production of none but the most high God. It is His\r\noccult power which pervades all things, and is present in all\r\nwithout being contaminated, which gives being to all that is,\r\nand modifies and limits its existence; so that without Him\r\nit would not be thus or thus, nor would have any being at\r\nall.<a id=\"FNanchor_568_568\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_568_568\">[568]</a> If, then, in regard to that outward form which the\r\nworkman's hand imposes on his work, we do not say that\r\nRome and Alexandria were built by masons and architects,\r\nbut by the kings by whose will, plan, and resources they were\r\nbuilt, so that the one has Romulus, the other Alexander, for\r\nits founder; with how much greater reason ought we to say\r\nthat God alone is the Author of all natures, since He neither\r\nuses for His work any material which was not made by Him,\r\nnor any workmen who were not also made by Him, and\r\nsince, if He were, so to speak, to withdraw from created things\r\nHis creative power, they would straightway relapse into the\r\nnothingness in which they were before they were created?\r\n\"Before,\" I mean, in respect of eternity, not of time. For\r\nwhat other creator could there be of time, than He who\r\ncreated those things whose movements make time?<a id=\"FNanchor_569_569\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_569_569\">[569]</a></p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK TWELFTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-887"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"0b1c4d73f286c0ee3a778e3db10465d9ac003b1dce3dd9140fd3117acce50517","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"1CO","chapter":3,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"1 Cor. iii. 7","verse":7,"verse_end":7}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_565_565","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_565_565","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_565_565\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_565_565\"><span class=\"label\">[565]</span></a> 1 Cor. iii. 7.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_565_565","text_sha256":"5fc6ce6b3a65b33290c29ef3f83808be33c340fff518cbcf5a1d4fb3ad963973","verified":false,"work_id":null}