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PART II - ON CREATION

CHAPTER 1 - ON THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE⁶⁹

HAVING summarily considered the Trinity of God, it is proper to speak next of creation. Briefly, the following must be held. The entire fabric of the universe was brought into existence in time and out of nothingness, by one first Principle, single and supreme, whose power, though immeasurable, has disposed all things by measure and number and weight⁷⁰.

2. In general, then, concerning the production of creatures,^lxi the foregoing must be held, to build up a true concept and avoid error. By saying IN TIME, we exclude the false theory of an eternal universe. By saying OUT OF NOTHINGNESS, we exclude the false theory of an eternal material principle. By saying ONE PRINCIPLE, we exclude the Manichean error of the plurality of principles. By saying SINGLE AND SUPREME, we exclude the error of those who hold that God produced the inferior creatures through the ministry of the spirits. And by adding MEASURE AND NUMBER AND WEIGHT, we indicate that the creature is an effect of the creating Trinity in virtue of a triple causality: efficient, through which creatures are given unity, mode, and measure; examplary, through which they are given truth, species, and number; final, through which they are given goodness, order, and weight. These, as traces of the Creator, are present in all creatures,^lxii whether material or spiritual or composites of both.

3. This should be understood as follows. For the sake of perfect order and repose in things, all must be led back to the one Principle, who necessarily must be first in order to procure REPOSE for other beings, and most perfect in order to procure ADDITIONAL PERFECTIONS⁷¹ for them. Now, a first Principle in whom there is repose can be nothing else but one: hence, if He creates a world, He must bring it forth out of nothingness, since He cannot possibly make it of His own substance. Moreover, creation out of nothingness implies, on the part of the creature, a state of being subsequent upon a state of non-being, and, on the part of the Principle, a boundless productive power, which is found in God alone: necessarily, then, the universe must be created in time by this same boundless power acting in itself and without intermediary.

4. The utterly perfect Principle from whom flows the perfection of all things must act by His own power and law, and for Himself as an end; for in His action He needs none but Himself. Hence, He must be the threefold cause of all creatures: efficient, exemplary, and final. As a result, every creature must bear the same threefold reference to the first Cause: for every one exists by virtue of the efficient cause, is patterned after the exemplary cause, and ordained toward the final cause. For this reason, every creature is one, true, and good; has mode, species, and order;⁷² and has measure, distinct existence [number], and weight - for weight is defined as an orderly tendency.^lxiii All this applies to every creature in general, whether material, spiritual, or composite, as is human nature.

CHAPTER 2 - ON THE ACTUAL PRODUCTION OF PHYSICAL NATURE

1. We shall consider physical nature as regards its actual production, its essence, and its operation.

Concerning production, we must specifically hold that physical nature was brought into existence in six days. In the beginning, before any day, God created the heavens and the earth.⁷³ On the first day, light was made; on the second, the firmament in the midst of the waters; on the third, the waters were separated from the land and gathered into one place; on the fourth, the heavens were adorned with lights; on the fifth, the air and the water were furnished with birds and fishes; on the sixth, the earth was completed with animals and men. On the seventh day, God rested; rested, not from activity and work - He continues to act to this very hour- but from creating any new nature, since all things had been created either in their prototypes, as those things that multiply by generation, or in their seminal principle,^lxiv as the other things that are brought about in a different way.

2. This should be understood as follows. Since all things flow from the first and utterly perfect Principle, who is omnipotent, all-wise, and all-beneficent, their production must reflect the same three attributes or perfections. Therefore, the divine operation which built the fabric of the universe was threefold: creation, properly reflecting omnipotence; division, reflecting wisdom; and provision, reflecting a most generous bounty.

Because creation is out of nothingness, the creative act, foundation of all times and things, came about in the beginning, before any day.^lxv

3. Now, since there is a threefold qualitative distinction between cosmic substances, the act of dividing extended over three days. There is a distinction between the luminous, the translucent, and the

opaque natures, and this was brought about on the first day through the separation of light from darkness. There is a distinction between one translucent nature and the other, and this was brought about on the second day through the separation of the waters. And there is a distinction between translucent and opaque natures, and this was brought about on the third day through the separation of water from land. Later, ⁷⁴we shall see how, through these separations, we are given to understand implicitly the division of the heavenly bodies and of the elements. That is why the division was fittingly accomplished in three days.

4. Since provision parallels division, it also was brought about in three days. For there is a provisioning of the luminous nature, and this occurred on the fourth day through the forming of the stars, the sun, and the moon. There is a provisioning of the translucent nature, and this occurred on the fifth day, when fish and bird were made from the waters to people the water and the air. And there is a provisioning of the opaque nature, that is, of the land, and this occurred on the sixth day when the mammals and reptiles were made, and finally, as the crown of all, man.

5. God could have brought all this about in a single instant. He chose instead to act through time, and step by step, and this for three reasons. First, there was to be a distinct and clear manifestation of power, wisdom, and goodness; second, there was to be fitting correspondence between the days or times and the operations; third, the succession of days was to prefigure all future ages, in the same way as, at creation, the seeds of all future beings were planted. So the distinction of the future times - explained above where we spoke of the seven ages of history⁷⁵ - stemmed, as if from seeds, from the distinction of the seven days. That is why, to the six days of work, there is added one of rest: a day to which no dusk is ascribed-not that this day was not followed by night, but because it was to prefigure the repose of souls that shall have no end.^lxvi

Now, if it should be said, in opposition, that all things were made at once,^lxvii this is simply considering the seven days from the viewpoint of angels.⁷⁶ At any rate, the first manner of speaking is more in keeping with the Scriptures and the opinions of the saints, both before and after blessed Augustine.

CHAPTER 3 - ON THE ESSENCE OF PHYSICAL NATURE

1. Concerning the essence of physical nature, the following must be held. The entire fabric of the physical world consists in the heavenly and the elemental natures. Heavenly nature comprises three main heavens: the empyrean heaven, the crystalline heaven, and the firmament. Beneath the firmament, which is the heaven of stars, are the seven spheres of the planets: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. Elemental nature is divided into four spheres: Fire, Air, Water, and Earth.

Thus, ranging from the highest heaven down to the center, the earth, there are ten heavenly and four elemental spheres,^lxviii which make up in a distinct, perfect, and orderly fashion the whole physical cosmos.

2.  This should be understood as follows. If physical nature was to be complete in itself, reflecting also the manifold wisdom of the first Principle, there had to be a multiplicity of forms, such as appears in minerals, plants, and animals. Therefore, some simple essences had to be first established, the various combinations of which would result in this multiplicity. Such simple essence is the nature that is subject to opposition; and this is elemental nature. There had to be also a nature that, in compounds, would adjust the opposition between the elements. Such nature, itself free from opposition, is that of light and of the supercelestial bodies.^lxix

3.  Since there is no compounding^lxx without active and passive opposition, the opposition in the elements had to be twofold: one, between the active qualities, that is, hot and cold; two, between the passive qualities, that is, wet and dry. Now, any element is both active and passive, and thus has two qualities, one active and the other passive, of which, however, one is always principal and characteristic. That is why there are only four elements, corresponding to the four said qualities in their four combinations.

4.  Now, heavenly nature can be motionless and uniform, and such is the empyrean, for it is pure light. It can be mobile and multiform, and such is the firmament. It can be mobile and uniform, and such is the crystalline heaven, between the empyrean and the stellar. The fourth combination-the motionless and multiform - cannot exist because multiplicity of form leads to varied movements, and not to uniform repose.

5.  Thus, there are three heavens. The first, the empyrean, is luminous throughout; the second, the crystalline, is translucent throughout; the third, the firmament, is a combination of the first two. There being three incorruptible heavens and four variable elements, God designed the seven spheres of the planets for the sake of due connection, concordance, and correspondence. The planets, through their varied movements and incorruptible forms, act as a bond or junction between the inferior elemental spheres and the superior heavenly spheres. Thus, they perfect and complete the universe. The universe itself is organized in numerical proportions.^lxxi It is made up of the ten heavenly and the four elemental spheres. These make the universe so beautiful in its proportions, so complete and orderly, that in its own way it offers an image of its Principle.

CHAPTER 4 - ON THE ACTION AND INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL NATURE

1. As regards the influence of physical nature, the following must be held. The heavens influence the earth and the elements by dividing time into days, months, and years. Indeed, the Scriptures say that the heavens should serve as signs and for the fixing of seasons, days and years⁷⁷. The heavens also influence the efficient production of things that can be generated and corrupted, that is, of mineral, vegetal, and sentient beings, and of the human body.^lxxii Yet they enter into the determination of times and the course of events in such a way that they can never be taken as sure signs of future contingent events, nor can they affect free will through the power of the constellations, which some philosophers call fate.

2. This should be understood as follows. The heavenly bodies, so close to the first Principle, have light, motion, heat, and power: light by reason of their form and species; motion, by reason of the influence upon them of a superior agent; heat, by reason of their influence upon an inferior passive element; power, in all the aforementioned ways. This being so, the heavenly bodies, through their light and motion, determine the divisions of time. The day is measured by sunlight and by the heavenly movements; the month, by the course of the moon along its elliptic path;^lxxiii the years, by the course of the sun along the same path; and the seasons, by the various motions of the planets, their separation and conjunction, their ascent and descent; their regression and state, for it is these things which cause seasonal variations.

3. As the heavenly bodies prompt, promote, and harmonize through power and heat, they influence the production of those things that are generated from the elements. By a process of conciliation remote from equalization, they influence minerals; by a process of conciliation and to some extent equalization, they influence plants; by a process of conciliation that is largely equalization, they influence sentient beings; finally, by a process of conciliation that is full equalization, they influence the human body, which is fitted to receive the most noble form, the soul.^78lxxivAll sentient bodily beings are ordained toward this object and this end: this form fully existing, alive, sensitive, and intellective, by which the sensitive bodily nature of man is to be returned, as in an intelligible circle, to its first Principle in whom it will be completed and beatified.

4.  And because the soul tends to its end through free will, by reason of this freedom it is superior to any physical power. That is why all things are subservient to the soul, whose essential nature it is to be under none but God - not fate or any power deriving from the position of the stars.

5.  Hence, it is undubitably true that we human beings are the end of all existing things.^lxxv All material things are made to serve man, and to enkindle in him the fire of love and praise for the Maker of the universe through whose providence all is governed. Therefore, the fabric of his sensitive body is like a house made for man by the supreme Architect to serve until such time as he may come to the house not made by human hands, . . . in the heavens⁷⁹. Just as the soul, by reason of the body and to gain merit, now lives on earth, so will the body, by reason of the soul and to gain reward, some day live in heaven.

Chapter 5 - On How These Things Are Described in Holy Scripture

1.  It should be clear from what has been said that orderliness exists not only in the way God created things in time and arranged them in space, but also in the way He governs them in their interrelationship. It should be clear, too, that there is order in the way the Scriptures tell us all that we need to know. They do not, however, explicitly describe the different spheres of the heavens and of the elements; they say little or nothing about the motions and effects of the heavenly bodies, or the combinations of the elements and their compounds; and what is more, they say nothing explicitly about the creation of the heavenly spirits in the account of how the present universe was made.

2.  This should be understood as follows. The first Principle opens Himself to our mind through the Scriptures and through creatures. In the book of creatures, He manifests Himself as the effective Principle, and in the book of Scriptures, as the redemptive Principle. Now, the redemptive Principle cannot be known unless the effective Principle also is known. So Scripture, though mainly concerned with the work of redemption, must also deal with the work of creation, as that leads to the knowledge of the first, the effective and redemptive Principle. Hence, this knowledge is both lofty and salutary: lofty, because it is concerned with the effective Principle, the Creator; and salutary, because it is concerned with the redemptive Principle, Christ the Saviour and Mediator.

3.  Again, because this knowledge is lofty as it concerns the first Principle and the supreme Being, it does not lower itself to describing the specific beings of nature, or their motions, powers, and differences. It remains on the general level whereon specific beings are only implied, describing the creation of the world in a general manner, as regards the disposition and effect of luminous, translucent, and opaque natures.

4. Because in the first Principle, who is the object of Scripture, there is the order of nature by virtue of His existence, the order of wisdom by virtue of His providence, and the order of goodness by virtue of His operation; and because the order of nature indicates simultaneous existence and equality,^lxxvi the order of wisdom, priority and posteriority, and the order of operation, superiority and subordination: therefore, to indicate the ORDER OF NATURE, Scripture makes clear how God was to operate. In the beginning, before time was, the luminous, translucent, and opaque natures were brought from non-being into being. This is implied in the words: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, ... and the spirit of God was stirring above the waters⁸⁰. Here, the word heavens implies the luminous nature, the word earth, opaque nature, and the word waters, the transparent or translucent nature, whether subject to opposition or elevated above it. Here, also, is implied the eternal Trinity, that is, the Father under the term God creating, the Son under the term the Beginning, and the Holy Spirit under the term the Spirit of God. It is in this sense that the words He that liveth forever created all things together⁸¹ are to be understood; not as meaning, what poets have fantasied, that He created all in utter chaos, for He so created the threefold nature that the first would be on high, the intermediate in the middle, and the last below; nor as meaning that all three natures were in a state of complete distinctness, for while the heavens were perfect, the earth was still unorganized, and the intermediate nature, holding the middle place, had not yet been brought unto a state of perfect separateness.^82lxxvii

5.  To indicate the ORDER OF WISDOM in disposing, Scripture shows that the threefold nature was not divided and furnished in a single operation. To correspond to the trine-ness of created nature, separation also took three days, and furnishing, another three. Thus, as God in the beginning, before the dawn of time, created a triple nature all at once, even so, when time began its course, he used a triple measure of duration, as it were a triple day, to make a triple division in the triple created nature; and He used another triple day to provide the triply distinct nature with a triple furnishing.⁸³

6.  To indicate the ORDER OF GOODNESS in operating, Scripture shows that the three natures were established in the world according to the norm of superior and inferior, as the dignity and influence of each required.

Because luminous nature is the brightest, its place is the upper sphere. Opaque nature, having the least splendor, belongs in the lower. Translucent nature, being intermediate, belongs in the middle place. Now, both heavenly and elemental natures have something of translucency and transparency;^lxxviii and luminosity also is shared by both. Therefore, it is rightly said that the firmament was established "between the waters." This does not mean that the waters cf. ibid. 1:6 above the firmament^lxxix are fluid, cold, heavy, corruptible: on the contrary, they are subtle, incorruptible, transparent, so sublime as to be free from all opposition. Thus, because of the nobility of their formal constitution, they are of heavenly nature and are to be placed among heavenly things.

7. They are to be placed there also by reason of their power and influence. All physical action of inferior beings receives its rule, origin, and energy from the heavenly nature. Now, there are two active qualities, hot and cold. The heaven of the stars, by reason of its luminosity, is the chief agent of warmth, while another, the crystalline heaven, is the chief agent of cold. And as the heaven of stars is not formally hot, although it acts to produce heat, so the heaven that is called liquid or crystalline is not, in nature, cold. Hence, what the inspired writers say about the waters being put there as a shield against the heat of the higher bodies, and other like statements, are to be taken, not as formal affirmations of essence, but rather as pertaining to efficacy and influence.

And so the establishing of creation in the aforesaid order accords with the order both of creating Wisdom and of divine Scripture, which is lofty knowledge.

8.  Again, because it is salutary knowledge, Scripture does not specify the work of creation except for the sake of the work of reparation. And because the angels were so created that, once fallen, they were beyond redeeming, as will be seen later,⁸⁴ nothing is said explicitly and literally about their creation and fall, since no reparation was to follow.

9.  Yet, because complete silence concerning the creation of the loftiest creatures would have been inconsistent with the loftiness of Scripture, therefore the sacred writings so describe the creation of things as to impart a lofty and salutary knowledge, but in such a way that the literal account of the whole creation is applied symbolically, in a spiritual sense, to the hierarchies of the angels and of the Church. Hence, in the three natures first to be produced, heaven, according to this spiritual reading, refers to the angelic hierarchy, earth to the ecclesiastical, and water to grace, through which both are refreshed.

10. Again, the seven days mean the seven states of the Church through the succession of the seven ages.⁸⁵ The same series of seven also means the seven illuminations⁸⁶ through which the angels rise from the creature to God.^lxxx

Thus, the foregoing reveals the sufficiency and truth of the Scriptures, according to the various opinions of the saints; that is, Augustine and others. Rightly understood, these opinions are not contradictory, but true.

CHAPTER 6 - ON THE PRODUCTION OF THE HEAVENLY SPIRITS

1.  In proper sequence, our next topic is the spiritual, incorporeal nature, that is, the nature of angels. We shall speak of the creation of the heavenly spirits, of the fall of the demons, and of the confirmation of the good angels.

2.  We must know that, at the very instant of their creation, the angels were endowed with four perfections: simplicity of essence; individuality of person; rationality implying memory, intelligence, and will; and freedom of choice for the election of good and the rejection of evil.^lxxxi These four main attributes are accompanied by four others: virtuosity in action, dedication in service, acuteness in understanding, and immutability in the choice of either good or evil.

3.  This should be understood as follows. The first Principle, for the very reason that He is first, brought forth out of nothingness all the things that exist,^lxxxii those that are close to nothingness no less than those that are close to Him. Necessarily, then, He brought forth not only the nature which is at the greatest distance from Him - the physical - but also the one very close to Him, the spiritual and immaterial. This latter nature, being most like God, enjoys simplicity of essence and individuality of person: thus resembling God through its substance, both as specific and as individual.^lxxxiii It possesses also a reflection of the Trinity in the mind through memory, intellect, and will. And in this will, it has freedom: thus resembling God through a power that is both natural and elective, a natural power signed with God's image, an elective power signed with freedom of choice. Never could it deserve the prize of beatifying glory were it not for this freedom of choice in the will; and such freedom can exist only in a rational substance endowed with memory, intellect, and will; and where there is reason, there must also exist "an INDIVIDUAL substance of rational nature,^lxxxiv a substance spiritual and immaterial, and, consequently, simple and free of any quantitative extension.

4. Such a substance, because it is simple, has virtuosity in action; having virtuosity and personal distinctness, it has a distinct service to perform; having simplicity and virtuosity, it has a keen power of discernment; having simplicity and keen discernment, and hence a God-conformed intellect, it has also immutability in its choice of either good or evil.

All these conditions are found in a general sense to accompany the general condition of the heavenly spirits.

Chapter 7 - On the Apostasy of the Demons

1. Concerning the apostasy of the demons, the following must be held. God made all angels good; in an intermediate position, however, between the supreme Good, Himself, and the commutable good, which is creation. If they turned their love to the Good above, they would rise to the state of grace and glory; but if they turned their love to the commutable good, they would fall through this very act into the evil of sin and penalty, for "the shame of sin cannot remain unredressed by the corrective of justice."^lxxxv

The first among the angels, the Bearer of Light, over-proud of his personal glory, craved personal excellence and sought to be elevated even higher through further gifts. Therefore he fell, along with the others who were of one mind with him. Falling, he became impenitent, obstinate, and blind. Shut out from the vision of God, deordinated in his function, he is now bent with all his might upon perverting man with countless temptations.

2.  This should be understood as follows. Since the first Principle is supremely good, He makes nothing that is not good, for from goodness nothing but good proceeds. What the first Principle made, however, is by that very fact less than its Maker and cannot be supremely good. Thus, God created Lucifer good, but not supremely good: his goodness was to be perfected through his choice of the highest Good.

3.  Having free will, Lucifer was able to choose either the supreme Good or his own personal good. The sight of his own beauty and eminence having made him fall in love with himself and his private good, he presumed upon the lofty state already his, to aspire to a further height that he did not possess. Thus, in his presumption, he established himself as his own principle by glorying in himself; in his ambition, he established himself as his own supreme good by seeking his end in himself. Being in fact neither supreme principle nor supreme good, he was bound to fall from his inordinate aspiration; and so were all those who shared it.

4. Since "the shame of sin cannot remain unredressed by the corrective of justice," when he fell into sin, he and his followers lost at once the highest place, the empyrean heaven, and fell into the depth, the gloom of hell. In the freedom of his will, Lucifer had sinned: by the judgment of God, he was punished. Because he was fixed forever after having chosen, he at once became obstinate in evil, and thus blind to truth, lawless in his action, and deficient in his power. His will and action, wickedly averted from God, turned to hating and envying man; his keen mind, averted from true light, turned to deceiving man through false prophecy and fraud; his readiness to serve, averted from true service, turned to seducing man by temptations; his power, lessened and constrained, turned, as much as God permitted, to performing stupendous feats through sudden changes brought about in matter.

Since all this was the disorderly effect of a pride-infected will, the fallen angel perverted everything to feed his pride, expecting men to revere and adore him as if he were God. That is why "all his deeds are evil."^lxxxvi

God, in His justice, allows all these things to happen now, with the purpose of punishing the wicked and glorifying the good, as will appear at the last judgment.

Chapter 8 - On the Confirmation of the Good Angels

1. Concerning the confirmation of the good angels, the following must be held. As the angels who turned away from God were at once fixed in their impenitence, so those who turned toward Him were at once confirmed in their choice through grace and glory; fully enlightened in their intellect through the knowledge of dawn and dusk;⁸⁷ fully strengthened in their faculties of command and execution; and fully ordered in their activities of contemplation and service. And this, on all three levels of the hierarchy: the higher, the intermediate, and the lower. The higher level comprises the Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim; the intermediate, the Dominions, Virtues, and Powers; the lower, the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels. Many of the latter group are sent for service,⁸⁸ appointed to assist and support men by cleansing, illuminating, and perfecting them^lxxxvii as God commands.

2. This should be understood as follows. Because of their express likeness, and of their proximity to the first and supreme Principle, the angels were endowed with a deiform intellect and a will that was irrevocably set after the choice had been made. When they turned to the supreme Good with the help of grace, they were both confirmed and perfected in glory, since now they inclined wholly to God. In WILL they became stable and happy, and in INTELLECT clear-sighted, so that they now understood everything, not only in itself, but also in the creating Art. Thus, they had a knowledge of dusk, and more - a knowledge of dawn, and even more - a knowledge of full daylight, through the fullness and absolute purity of that light in comparison to which every created thing may properly be called darkness.

In their FACULTIES OF COMMAND AND EXECUTION^lxxxviii they were fully strengthened, whether or not they used an assumed body. In their ACTIVITIES they became so perfectly ordered that they could no longer lose this ordination either in ascending to see God, or in descending to serve man. Indeed, since they see God face to face, they move in God wherever they are sent.^lxxxix

3. They indeed move and are moved within a hierarchical order^xc which nature instilled within them and glory brought to full maturity. Glory, by stabilizing free will in the right choice, sharpened their reason, ordered their ministry, and braced their power in the four operations described above.

In the contemplation of God, sharpness of reason serves primarily to worship His majesty, to understand His truth, and to desire His goodness. Accordingly, there are three orders in the first hierarchy, for worship pertains to the Thrones, wisdom to the Cherubim, and benevolence to the Seraphim.

Perfect capacity for action implies the power to command, execute, and implement; the first pertains to the Dominions, the second to the Virtues, and the third to the Powers, whose function it is to repel adverse forces.

Perfect ministry implies the acts of ruling, revealing, and supporting; the first pertains to the Principalities, the second to the Archangels, and the third to the Angels, for they keep guard lest those who are standing fall, and go to the aid of those who have fallen to help them rise.

It is thus evident that all these attributes exist in pure spirits in varying degrees, gradually descending from the highest rank to the lowest; each rank being fittingly named after that which "it has specially received as its charge."^xci

CHAPTER 9 - ON THE PRODUCTION OF THE HUMAN SOUL

1. Having spoken of the material and the spiritual natures, we shall now speak of the nature that is a composite of both. First we shall treat of the soul, then of the body, and finally of man as a whole.

Concerning the rational soul, this in brief must be held according to sacred teaching: the soul is a form endowed with being, life, intelligence, and freedom.

A FORM ENDOWED WITH BEING, not of itself nor as an emanation of the divine nature,^xcii but as brought into being by God through creation out of nothingness.

A FORM ENDOWED WITH LIFE, not through some extrinsic nature, but in its own essence; not for a mortal span, but for eternity.^xciii

A FORM ENDOWED WITH INTELLIGENCE, grasping not only created essence, but also the Creating Essence,^xciv of whom it was made an image through memory, intelligence, and will.^xcv

A FORM ENDOWED ALSO WITH FREEDOM,^xcvi for it is always free from compulsion. In the state of innocence, it was free from misery and sin as well, but in the state of fallen nature this is not so. Freedom from compulsion is nothing else than a joint capacity of will and intellect, the principal faculties of the soul.

2. This should be understood as follows. The supreme Principle, being utterly happy and benevolent, in His sovereign benevolence imparts His happiness to creatures: not only to spiritual creatures close to Him, but also to bodily creatures far removed. However, to the bodily and distant creature, He communicates His happiness indirectly, since divine law provides that "the lower be led to the higher through the intermediate."^xcvii89 Thus, God has granted the possibility of beatitude not only to the independent spirit of an angel but also to the spirit combined with a body, the spirit of man: for the rational soul is a form truly capable of beatitude. Now, there would be no great honor in obtaining the prize of beatitude without meriting it, nor can merit be found in anything except what is voluntarily and freely done.^xcviii Hence, the rational soul had to be self-determining and free from all compulsion, for the will, by its very nature, cannot be forced in any way, although it may become, through guilt, the wretched slave of sin⁹⁰.

3. Again, because a form capable of beatitude is able to receive God through memory, intelligence, and will; and because, being one in essence and trine in power, it is thus an image of the Trinity: therefore, to know God and all [created] things was connatural to the soul which was signed with the image of God. And because beatitude once obtained may never be lost, nothing is capable of beatitude except what is also indissoluble and immortal. By its very nature, then, the rational soul must live an immortal life.

4. Finally, because anything endowed with immortality, but at the same time dependent upon something besides itself for beatitude, is immutable and mutable, immutable as regards the fact of existence, but mutable as regards its quality: therefore the soul, being mutable, proceeds neither from itself nor from the divine essence; and, being immutable and free from decay, it is not made out of some preexisting matter, nor is it engendered through nature. Hence, this form cannot be brought into being by means of birth, for anything that can be born by natural generation is by nature subject to decay.^xcix

These are the obvious reasons why the final end, beatitude, to which the soul is ordained necessarily imposes the aforementioned characteristics upon it.

5. Since a soul capable of beatitude must be immortal, it is so united to the mortal body that it may be separated from it. Hence, the soul is not only a form, but also "this individual substance";^c it is united to the body, not only as a perfection, but also as a mover, so that its essence perfects what its power moves. And since the soul imparts not only being but also life, sensitivity, and intelligence, it must have a vegetative, a sensitive, and an intellective power.

Through its vegetative power, the soul is the principle of generation, nutrition, and growth. It is the principle of quiddity in generation, of quality in nutrition, and of quantity in growth.^ci

Through its sensitive power, it comprehends sensible objects, retains what it has apprehended, combines and sorts what it has retained. It apprehends through the five external senses that correspond to the five principal physical aspects of the world;⁹¹ it retains through memory; it combines and sorts through imagination, which is the foremost collating aptitude.

Through its intellective power, it discerns truth, rejects evil, and desires good. It discerns truth through reason, rejects evil through the irascible appetite, and desires good through the concupiscible appetite.

6.  Again, since discerning the truth is a cognitive act, while rejecting and desiring are affective, the rational faculty is twofold: cognitive and affective.

7.  Furthermore, truth may be known under two aspects: truth as such, and truth as a good - that is, a good either eternal and superior to man, or temporal and inferior to him. Hence, the cognitive power, comprising intellect and reason, is so divided that there is both a speculative and a practical intellect, and also a higher and a lower reason. These distinctions, however, indicate rather a diversity of functions than a diversity of powers.^cii

8.  Finally, an object may be desired in two ways: through instinct, or through deliberate choice. Hence, the affective power is subdivided into instinctive will and elective will, which is will in the proper sense.^ciii Since this elective power is not determined in regard to either of the possible choices, it must proceed from free will. And because such autonomy implies both antecedent deliberation and concomitant volition, freedom of choice is a power of both reason and will, so that, as Augustine explains, it applies to all the aforementioned rational faculties. He says, indeed: "When we speak of freedom of choice, we refer not only to a part of the soul, but most assuredly, to the whole."^civ

The co-operation of these two faculties - reason reflecting upon itself and will acting in conjunction - gives rise to full freedom, the source of merit or demerit accordingly as good or evil is chosen.

CHAPTER 10 - ON THE PRODUCTION OF THE HUMAN BODY

1. True faith teaches us to hold the following about the human body in the original state of creation. The body of the first man, formed out of the dust of the ground,⁹² was created subject to the soul and proportioned to it in its own way. By proportioned, I mean of well-balanced physical constitution, beautiful and highly organized structure, and upright carriage.^cv By subject, I mean obedient to the soul without rebellion, reproducing and reproducible without lust, functioning without defect, wholly exempt from the changes of decay, impervious to death. Appropriately, to the being so formed was given the earthly paradise for a peaceful abode.

Woman was formed out of the side of man, to be his companion and his assistant in immaculate procreation.^cvi They were given the Tree of Life as a means of permanent subsistence and of perfect immutability through perpetual immortality.

2.  This should be understood as follows. As the first Principle is most powerful, wise, and good in the act of creation, and as He manifests these attributes in some way in all that He brings forth, He necessarily manifested them most of all in that creature last in the making but first in rank. For God made man last that in him might clearly appear and shine forth the consummation of the divine works.

3.  That His POWER might thus be revealed in man, God made him out of two completely opposite principles, combined in a single person or nature. These are the body and the soul, the former being a material substance, the latter a spiritual and immaterial one. Within the genus "substance," these two stand farthest apart.

4.  That His WISDOM might be revealed in man, God made the body proportionate in its own way to the soul, the principle of life, motion, and ascension toward beatitude. If the body was to conform to the soul, the giver of life, it had to possess a physical constitution that would be well balanced - not as regards weight or size, but in the equilibrium of natural fitness disposing it for the highest operations of life.^cvii If the body was to conform to the soul that moves it through its manifold powers, it had to be endowed with a manifold organic composition, together with beauty, dexterity, and flexibility, as may be seen in the face and also in the hand, "the organ of organs."^cviii If the body was to conform to the soul as the principle of its ascension toward heaven, it had to stand erect with lifted head. The uprightness of the body's carriage was to betoken the uprightness of the soul.^cix

5.  That, finally, His BOUNTY and benevolence might be revealed in man, God created him free from any stain of sin and any pain or misery. The first Principle being both utterly good and supremely just, He could not in His utter goodness make man otherwise than good, that is, innocent and virtuous; He could not, in His supreme justice, inflict pain upon one wholly without sin.^cx Thus, He made for the rational soul a body so completely obedient that it was free from all actual hostility or rebellion, all propensity to lust, all enfeeblement, all mortal dissolution; a body so entirely parallel to the soul that as the soul, from innocence, was yet liable to fall into sin, so also the body, from impassibility, was yet liable to fall into suffering. The body "had the potency to die or not to die,"^cxi to thrive or to want, to obey the soul or to rise up against it.

6. In that original state, there was to be in the body a production of seed for procreating offspring with the help of the coproducing female sex; a consumption of nutritive fluid through the action of heat; a restoration through the food obtained from the trees of paradise; while the vital moisture itself was nourished, or rather, preserved by the Tree of Life, a tree that had the virtue to do precisely that. Hence, as Augustine writes, it stood "not only as food, but also as a sacrament."^cxii Thus, the actual incorruption and immortality of Adam's body derived principally from the determining and influencing principle, the soul; from the disposing and receiving principle, the good and well-balanced constitution of the body itself; from the nourishing and sustaining principle, the Tree of Life; and, finally, from the principle that preserved it within and protected it without, the governing power of divine Providence.

CHAPTER 11 - ON THE PRODUCTION OF THE WHOLE HUMAN COMPOSITE

1. Concerning the whole man placed in paradise,^cxiii it must be held that he was given a twofold perception, interior and exterior: of the mind and of the flesh. He was given a twofold capacity of motion: imperative in the will, and executive in the body. He was given a twofold good: one visible, the other invisible. He was given a twofold command: that of nature, and that of discipline; the command of nature: "Be fruitful and multiply";⁹³ the command of discipline: "From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you must not eat."⁹⁴

Furthermore, he was given a fourfold assistance comprising knowledge, conscience, synteresis, and grace. All these he received in a degree enabling him to remain and advance in good, and to avoid and reject evil.⁹⁵

2. This should be understood as follows. The first Principle created this perceptible world as a means of self- revelation so that, like a mirror of God or a divine footprint, it might lead man to love and praise his Creator.^cxiv Accordingly, there are two books, one written within, and that is [inscribed by] God's eternal Art and Wisdom; the other written without, and that is the perceptible world.

Now, there existed a creature, the angel, whose inner perception was fitted to the understanding of the inner book. There existed another, the brute animal, whose perception was entirely external. To complete creation it was suitable that there should be made yet another creature whose twofold perception would be fitted to the understanding of both the inner and the outer books: that of Wisdom, and that of its work. And since, in Christ, eternal Wisdom and its work coexist within a single Person, He is called the Book written within and without⁹⁶ for the restoration of the world. To every faculty of perception, there corresponds a motion. Hence, man is moved in two ways: by a rational propensity in the mind, and by a sensual instinct in the flesh.^cxv If these are to be well ordered, the first must command and the second obey, otherwise the natural order is subverted and the soul falls from its position of authority.

4.  Now, to every motion and perception, there corresponds an appetite toward some good. Hence, man was provided with a twofold good: "visible and invisible, temporal and eternal, carnal and spiritual. God has granted the first and promised the second, so that the one would be possessed as a free gift, and the other, sought through merit."^cxvi

5.  A good is given in vain if it is not preserved; it is promised in vain if it is not obtained. Hence, man was given a twofold command: that of nature for the preservation of the good which was given, and that of discipline for the meriting of the good which was promised.^cxvii There is no better way of meriting than pure obedience. Obedience is pure when the command is obligatory of itself, and not for some added reason. Such is a command of discipline. Through this we learn how great is the power of obedience, since it leads our soul to heaven by way of merit, while disobedience casts it down into hell. The command [of discipline] was not given to man as if God had any need of man's submission, but in order to show man how to deserve the crown through pure and willing obedience.

6.  Since man was liable to fall because his human nature had been formed out of nothingness and not yet stabilized by glory, the supremely bountiful God granted him a fourfold assistance, comprising two means of nature and two of grace. Into man's nature He instilled a twofold rectitude: one for right judgment which is RECTITUDE OF CONSCIENCE, and the other for right will which is SYNTERESIS, warning against evil and prompting toward good. Further, He added a twofold perfection of grace: ACTUAL GRACE, which is knowledge enlightening the intellect so that man may know himself, his God, and the world that was made for him; and SANCTIFYING GRACE, which is charity, disposing man to love God above all else, and his neighbor as himself.

And so, before the fall, man was endowed with perfect natural faculties, further adorned with divine grace. It is clear, therefore, that if man did fall, it was by his own misdeed for having refused to obey.

CHAPTER 12 - ON THE COMPLETION AND ORDERING OF THE WHOLE WORLD AFTER ITS CREATION

1.  From this we may gather that the universe is like a book reflecting, representing, and describing its Maker, the Trinity, at three different levels of expression: as a trace, an image, and a likeness. The aspect of trace is found in every creature; the aspect of image, in the intellectual creatures or rational spirits; the aspect of likeness, only in those who are God-conformed. Through these successive levels, comparable to the rungs of a ladder, the human mind is designed to ascend gradually to the supreme Principle who is God.^cxviii

2.  This should be understood as follows. All creatures are related to their Creator and depend upon Him. They may be referred to Him in three different ways: as He is the Principle who creates, the End who motivates, or the Gift who dwells within. All His creatures are referred to Him in the first way, all rational beings in the second, and, in the third, all righteous souls accepted by Him. All creatures, however little they may partake of being, have God for their Principle; all rational beings, however little they may partake of light, are intended to grasp God through knowledge and love; and all righteous and holy souls possess the Holy Spirit as an infused gift.

3.  Now, a creature cannot⁹⁷ have God for its Principle unless it is conformed to Him in oneness, truth, and goodness. Nor can it have God for its End unless it grasps Him through memory, intelligence, and will. Finally, it cannot have God as an infused Gift unless it conforms to Him through the threefold dowry^cxix of faith, hope, and love. The first conformity is distant, the second close, and the third most intimate. That is why the first is called a "trace" of the Trinity, the second an "image," and the third a "likeness."

4.  The rational spirit is placed midway between the beings which conform in the first way and those which conform in the last; so that the first manner of conforming is below the rational spirit, the second within it, and the third above it. Thus, in the state of innocence, when the image had not yet been distorted but was conformed to God through grace, the book of creation sufficed to enable man to perceive the light of divine Wisdom. He was then so wise that, seeing all things in themselves, he also saw them in their proper genus as well as in God's creating Art. For this accords with the triple manner in which creatures exist: in matter, that is, in their own nature; in the created intellect, and in the eternal Art. In this, they conform to the three scriptural expressions: Let it be; God made it; and it was made⁹⁸.^99cxx

5.  For this triple vision, man was endowed with a triple eye, as explained by Hugh of St. Victor: the eye of flesh, of reason, and of contemplation;^cxxi the eye of flesh, to see the world and what it contains; the eye of reason, to see the soul and what it contains; the eye of contemplation, to see God and that which is within Him. Through the eye of the flesh, man was to see the things outside him; with the eye of reason, the things within him; with the eye of contemplation, the things above him. Now, the eye of contemplation cannot see with perfect clearness, except through glory, which man may lose through sin, but restore through grace, faith,^cxxii and the study of Scripture. By these means, the human soul is cleansed, enlightened, and perfected for the contemplation of heavenly things, unto which fallen man cannot reach unless he first admits his insufficiency and blindness; and this he cannot do unless he remembers the downfall of human nature.

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