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67 Article 8 The eighth thing to be asked is whether God operates in nature by creating, which is to ask whether creation is mingled with the work of nature. And it seems that it is.1 obj. 1. In On the Trinity III, Augustine says, The apostle Paul, distinguishing God creating and forming things inwardly from the operations of nature which are conducted outwardly, takes a metaphor from agriculture and says, I planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase.2 obj. 2. But one might reply that creation here is meant loosely as any kind of making. On the contrary, Augustine on the authority of the Apostle intends in these words to distinguish the operation of the creature from the operation of God. But this distinction will not be made if creation is taken in the general sense of any kind of making (since in this sense even nature creates, for it makes something, as was shown above),3 but only if creation is taken in the proper sense. Therefore the words must be understood with creation taken properly. obj. 3. In the same passage Augustine adds, Just as in our life only God can form the mind for justification, while even men can proclaim the gospel outwardly ..., so in the creation of visible things God operates inwardly, [unlike] the outward operations of good or evil angels and men or any animals whatsoever ... thus he makes use of the nature of things in which he creates all things just as a farmer cultivates the earth.4 But he forms our 1. For a parallel discussion of this question, see ST I, Q. 45, a. 8. 2. Augustine, The Trinity, III 8. 3. In article 7. 4. Sicut in ipsa vita nostra mentem justificando formare non potest nisi Deus, predicare autem extrinsecus evangelium etiam homines possunt ..., ita creationem rerum visibilium Deus interius operatur, exteriores autem operationes bonorum sive malorum angelorum vel hominum vel quorumcunque animalium ... ita rerum nature adhibet in qua creat omnia quemadmodum terre agriculturam. Augustine, The Trinity, III 8. I am following Stephen McKenna’s translation of Augustine in taking justificando as a dative and in reading quemadmodum terre agriculturam as “as a farmer cultivates the earth.” In The Trinity, the complete passage reads, “Sicut ergo in ipsa vita nostram mentem justificando formare non potest nisi Deus, predicare autem evangelium extrinsecus et homines possunt, non solum boni per veritatem , sed etiam mali per occasionem: ita creationem rerum visibilium Deus 68 On Creation minds through justification by creation in the proper sense, for grace is said to be through creation. Therefore he also creates natural forms by creation properly speaking. obj. 4. It may be replied that natural forms have a cause in the subject while grace does not, and so grace is created in the proper sense while natural forms are not. On the contrary, as the gloss on Genesis I says, To create is to make something from nothing.5 Now this preposition “from” sometimes connotes a relation to an efficient cause, as in Romans XI: From whom all things [are], through whom all things [are];6 but sometimes [it connotes] a relation to a material cause, as we find in Tobit XIII, All its surrounding walls [made] from stone brilliant and fine.7 And so when something is said to be made from nothing, relation to an efficient cause is not negated, for thus God would not be the efficient cause of created things, but relation to a material cause is negated. Now natural forms have efficient causes in their subjects, and in this they differ from grace. But they also have matter in which they are, which also is true of grace. Therefore the nature8 of creation does not belong more to grace than to natural forms because of having a cause in the subject. obj. 5. Artificial forms do not have a cause in the subject, but they are totally from without. Therefore, if grace is said to be created because it does not have a cause in the subject, it stands to reason that artificial forms are created. obj. 6. That which has no matter on its part9 cannot be made from matter. But forms do not have matter on their part, since form is distinct from both matter and the composite, as is clear in the beginning of On the Soul II.10 Therefore since forms are made, for they have a beginning of existence, it seems that they are not...

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