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The City of God

Chapter 25.--That God Alone is the Creator of Every Kind of Creature, Whatever Its Nature or Form.

For whereas there is one form which is given from without to every bodily substance,--such as the form which is constructed by potters and smiths, and that class of artists who paint and fashion forms like the body of animals,--but another and internal form which is not itself constructed, but, as the efficient cause, produces not only the natural bodily forms, but even the life itself of the living creatures, and which proceeds from the secret and hidden choice of an intelligent and living nature,--let that first-mentioned form be attributed to every artificer, but this latter to one only, God, the Creator and Originator who made the world itself and the angels, without the help of world or angels. For the same divine and, so to speak, creative energy, which cannot be made, but makes, and which gave to the earth and sky their roundness,--this same divine, effective, and creative energy gave their roundness to the eye and to the apple; and the other natural objects which we anywhere see, received also their form, not from without, but from the secret and profound might of the Creator, who said, "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" ¹ and whose wisdom it is that "reacheth from one end to another mightily; and sweetly doth she order all things." ² Wherefore I know not what kind of aid the angels, themselves created first, afforded to the Creator in making other things. I cannot ascribe to them what perhaps they cannot do, neither ought I to deny them such faculty as they have. But, by their leave, I attribute the creating and originating work which gave being to all natures to God, to whom they themselves thankfully ascribe their existence. We do not call gardeners the creators of their fruits, for we read, "Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase." ³ Nay, not even the earth itself do we call a creator, though she seems to be the prolific mother of all things which she aids in germinating and bursting forth from the seed, and which she keeps rooted in her own breast; for we likewise read, "God giveth it a body, as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed his own body." ⁴ We ought not even to call a woman the creatress of her own offspring; for He rather is its creator who said to His servant, "Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee." ⁵ And although the various mental emotions of a pregnant woman do produce in the fruit of her womb similar qualities,--as Jacob with his peeled wands caused piebald sheep to be produced,--yet the mother as little creates her offspring as she created herself. Whatever bodily or seminal causes, then, may be used for the production of things, either by the cooperation of angels, men, or the lower animals, or by sexual generation; and whatever power the desires and mental emotions of the mother have to produce in the tender and plastic foetus corresponding lineaments and colors; yet the natures themselves, which are thus variously affected, are the production of none but the most high God. It is His occult power which pervades all things, and is present in all without being contaminated, which gives being to all that is, and modifies and limits its existence; so that without Him it would not be thus, or thus, nor would have any being at all. ⁶ If, then, in regard to that outward form which the workman's hand imposes on his work, we do not say that Rome and Alexandria were built by masons and architects, but by the kings by whose will, plan, and resources they were built, so that the one has Romulus, the other Alexander, for its founder; with how much greater reason ought we to say that God alone is the Author of all natures, since He neither uses for His work any material which was not made by Him, nor any workmen who were not also made by Him, and since, if He were, so to speak, to withdraw from created things His creative power, they would straightway relapse into the nothingness in which they were before they were created? "Before," I mean, in respect of eternity, not of time. For what other creator could there be of time, than He who created those things whose movements make time? ⁷

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXVI: Omnem naturam et omnem speciem uniuersae creaturae nonnisi opere dei fieri atque formari.

Cum enim alia sit species, quae adhibetur extrinsecus cuicumque materiae corporali, sicut operantur homines figuli et fabri atque id genus opifices, qui etiam pingunt et effingunt formas similes corporibus animalium; alia uero, quae intrinsecus efficientes causas habet de secreto et occulto naturae uiuentis atque intellegentis arbitrio, quae non solum naturales corporum species, uerum etiam ipsas animantium animas, dum non fit, facit: supra dicta illa species artificibus quibusque tribuatur; haec autem altera nonnisi uni artifici, creatori et conditori deo, qui mundum ipsum et angelos sine ullo mundo et sine ullis angelis fecit. qua enim ui diuina et, ut ita dicam, effectiua, quae fieri nescit, sed facere, accepit speciem, cum mundus fieret, rutunditas caeli et rutunditas solis: eadem ui diuina et effectiua, quae fieri nescit, sed facere, accepit speciem rutunditas oculi et rutunditas pomi et ceterae figurae naturales, quas uidemus in rebus quibusque nascentibus non extrinsecus adhiberi, sed intima creatoris potentia, qui dixit: caelum et terram ego inpleo, et cuius sapientiae est, quae adtingit a fine usque ad finem fortiter et disponit omnia suauiter. proinde facti primitus angeli cuiusmodi ministerium praebuerint creatori cetera facienti nescio; nec tribuere illis audeo quod forte non possunt, nec debeo derogare quod possunt. creationem tamen conditionemque omnium naturarum, qua fit ut omnino naturae sint, eis quoque fauentibus illi deo tribuo, cui se etiam ipsi debere quod sunt cum gratiarum actione nouerunt. non solum igitur agricolas non dicimus fructuum quorumque creatores, cum legamus: neque qui plantat est aliquid neque qui rigat, sed qui incrementum dat deus; sed ne ipsam quidem terram, quamuis mater omnium fecunda uideatur, quae germinibus erumpentia promouet et fixa radicibus continet, cum itidem legamus: deus illi dat corpus quomodo uoluerit et unicuique seminum proprium corpus. ita nec feminam sui puerperii creatricem appellare debemus, sed potius illum qui cuidam famulo suo dixit: priusquam te formarem in utero, noui te. et quamuis anima sic uel sic affecta praegnantis ualeat aliquibus uelut induere qualitatibus fetum, sicut de uirgis uariatis fecit Iacob, ut pecora colore uaria gignerentur: naturam tamen illam, quae gignitur, tam ipsa non fecit, quam nec ipsa se fecit. quaelibet igitur corporales uel seminales causae gignendis rebus adhibeantur, siue operationibus angelorum aut hominum aut quorumque animalium siue marium feminarumque mixtionibus; quaelibet etiam desideria motusue animae matris ualeant aliquid liniamentorum aut colorum aspergere teneris mollibus que conceptibus: ipsas omnino naturas, quae sic uel sic in suo genere afficiantur, non facit nisi summus deus, cuius occulta potentia cuncta penetrans incontaminabili praesentia facit esse quidquid aliquo modo est, in quantumcumque est; quia nisi faciente illo non tale uel tale esset, sed prorsus esse non posset. quapropter si in illa specie, quam forinsecus corporalibus opifices rebus inponunt, urbem Romam et urbem Alexandriam non fabros et architectos, sed reges, quorum uoluntate consilio imperio fabricatae sunt, illam Romulum, illam Alexandrum habuisse dicimus conditores: quanto potius nonnisi deum debemus conditorem dicere naturarum, qui neque ex ea materia facit aliquid, quam ipse non fecerit, nec operarios habet, nisi quos ipse creauerit; et si potentiam suam, ut ita dicam, fabricatoriam rebus subtrahat, ita non erunt, sicut ante quam fierent non fuerunt. sed ante dico aeternitate, non tempore. quis enim alius creator est temporum, nisi qui fecit ea, quorum motibus currerent tempora?