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A MORAL EXPOSITION of the divine works which were made by God in the first six days.1
MORALIS EXPLANATIO divinorum operum, quae sex primis diebus a Deo facta sunt.
Hac de re satis acute, docteque disputat Hugo de sancto Victore, libro primo de Sacramentis, parte prima, capite decimotertio, et sequentibus: nos, quae magis ad rem videntur facere, magisque notabilia sunt, hic strictim attingemus. Principio igitur, quemadmodum primus mundi status incompositus, inordinatus, et tenebrosus, significabat statum hominis in peccato permanentis, ita status mundi pulcherrimis illis operibus sex dierum dispositus, ornatus, et decoratus, significavit statum hominis iusti ex peccato ad Dei gratiam translati. Primo die creata est lux, et distincta dies a nocte: et primum etiam, quod in iustificatione hominis in eo creatur, est lumen intellectuale, vel fidei si fuerit infidelis, vel si fidelis est, singularis quaedam illuminatio mentis, qua vere cognoscit et aestimat status sui turpitudinem, miseriam, et periculum, et quodnam sit summum bonum sibi sequendum, quod item verum malum sibi fugiendum, ne sit de numero eorum, quibus minatur Deus per Isaiam, cap. 5. Vae qui malum bonum, et bonum malum: ponentes tenebras lucem, et lucem tenebras.
On this matter Hugh of St Victor disputes acutely and learnedly enough, in the first book On the Sacraments, part one, chapter thirteen and following; we shall here briefly touch on the things which seem more to the purpose and are more notable. In the first place, then, just as the first state of the world—shapeless, disordered, and dark—signified the state of man remaining in sin, so the state of the world, arranged, adorned, and decorated by those most beautiful works of the six days, signified the state of the just man, translated from sin to the grace of God. On the first day light was created, and day distinguished from night: and the first thing too that is created in man in his justification is the intellectual light—either of faith, if he was an unbeliever, or, if he is a believer, a certain singular illumination of mind, by which he truly knows and esteems the foulness, misery, and danger of his state, and what is the highest good to be followed by him, and likewise what is the true evil to be fled by him, lest he be of the number of those whom God threatens through Isaiah, chapter 5: Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness.2
Annotavit Hugo, lucem primo die creatam, significare rectam mentis intentionem, quam habere debet, quicunque vult bene operari: et haec praegredi debet omne opus, omnemque actionem nostram, eamque Dominus in Evangelio appellavit oculum et lumen, Si oculus tuus, inquit, fuerit simplex, totum corpus tuum lucidum erit; et paulo post, Si ergo lumen quod in te est tenebrae sunt, ipsae tenebrae, quanta erunt? Nec tantum dixit Deus lucem esse bonam, sed etiam singula opera quae fecit in luce, iudicavit esse bona, Siquidem ad bene operandum, ut inquit Hugo, duplici opus est bonitate et rectitudine: una quidem ipsius lucis, id est, intentionis; altera ipsius operis, ut ipsum per se bonum sit. Potest enim quispiam bona intentione malum opus facere, ut si quis furetur, ut det eleemosinam: et contra bonum opus facere, sed mala intentione, ut largiri eleemosynam inanis gloriae causa.
Hugh noted that the light created on the first day signifies the right intention of the mind, which whoever wishes to act well ought to have: and this ought to precede every work and every action of ours, and this the Lord in the Gospel called the eye and the light: If thy eye, he says, be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome; and a little after, If then the light that is in thee be darkness, the darkness itself, how great shall it be? Nor did God say only that the light was good, but he also judged each single work which he made in the light to be good; since, for acting well, as Hugh says, there is need of a twofold goodness and rectitude: one of the light itself, that is, of the intention; the other of the work itself, that it be good in itself. For a man can, with a good intention, do an evil work—as if one should steal in order to give alms; and on the contrary do a good work, but with an evil intention—as to bestow alms for the sake of vainglory.3
Secundo die perficitur iustus secundum affectum, sicut primo die secundum intellectum. Namque secundo die aqua quae prius circumquaque operiebat, et obruebat terram, divisa est in aquam coelestem et terrestrem interposito firmamento. Et aqua quidem secundum tropologiam significat cupiditatem, amorem, et appetitum hominis: in peccatore autem omnis appetitus tam rationalis quam sensitivus, circum terram versatur, id est, in amore et cupi...
On the second day the just man is perfected according to his affection, as on the first day according to his intellect. For on the second day the water which before covered and overwhelmed the earth on every side was divided into the heavenly and the earthly water, the firmament being interposed. And the water, according to the tropological sense, signifies the desire, love, and appetite of man: but in the sinner every appetite, both rational and sensitive, is occupied around the earth, that is, in the love and desire...4
...cupiditate rerum terrenarum plane defixus est. Verum, cum peccator iustificatur, fit divisio amoris: nam iustus ut sensu concupiscit terrena ita spiritus caelestia, unde oritur intestinum illud et perpetuum dissidium, et certamen inter carnem et spiritum, de quo Paulus ad Galatas 5. Caro concupiscit adversus spiritum, etc. ut non quaecumque vultis, illa faciatis. et ad Romanos 7. Condelector legi Dei secundum interiorem hominem, haec est aqua caelestis: Video autem aliam legem in membris meis repugnantem legi mentis meae, et captivantem me in lege peccati, haec est aqua terrestris, et subdit, Mente igitur servio legi Dei, carne autem legi peccati. Firmamentum vero inter duas istas aquas interpositum, est vigor rationis a Deo illuminatae, timor divinae legis, divinique iudicii, quae non sinunt illas duas aquas, id est, illos duos amores invicem permisceri atque confundi.
...is plainly fixed in the desire of earthly things. But when the sinner is justified, there comes a division of love: for the just man, as by the senses he desires earthly things, so by the spirit desires heavenly things; whence arises that inward and perpetual strife and conflict between the flesh and the spirit, of which Paul speaks to the Galatians 5: The flesh lusteth against the spirit, etc., so that you do not the things that you would. And to the Romans 7: I am delighted with the law of God according to the inward man—this is the heavenly water: But I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin—this is the earthly water; and he adds: Therefore I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. But the firmament interposed between those two waters is the vigor of reason illumined by God, the fear of the divine law and of the divine judgment, which do not allow those two waters—that is, those two loves—to be mingled and confounded with one another.5
Tertio die duae res perfectae sunt. Etenim aqua obruens terram, ita unum in locum segregata est, ut remanserit terra partim aquis subiacens, partim illis supereminens. Similiter etiam in homine iustificato, concupiscentia carnalis, quae antea eum obruebat et dominatu suo tenebat oppressum, sic per Dei gratiam separatur, ut iustus partim subiaceat concupiscentiis, scilicet quantum ad earum sensum, et primos motus, atque titillationes, quas vix quisquam mortalem vitam agens, effugere potest, partim ei superemineat, videlicet quantum ad consensum et deliberatam oblectationem, nec tantum resistit concupiscentiis, sed carnem etiam cogit servire spiritui, servans illud Pauli praeceptum, Non regnet peccatum in vestro mortali corpore, ut obediatis concupiscentiis eius, ad Romanos sexto: et illud eiusdem ad Galatas quinto: Qui sunt Christi, carnem suam crucifixerunt cum vitiis et concupiscentiis. Nec vero terra, aquis duntaxat tertio illa die detecta et siccata est, sed ex se protulit omnia stirpium et herbarum genera. Similiter quoque animus viri iusti a vitiis et cupiditatibus terrenis segregatus atque purgatus, procreat bona et sancta opera, etiam corporalia, quae per corporis membra perficiuntur, uti sunt opera misericordiae corporalis et officia virtutum, quae in regendo moderandoque appetitu, tam concupiscibili quam irascibili versantur: velut est Temperantia et Fortitudo. Itaque completur in viro iusto, id quod Paulus scripsit ad Romanos, capite sexto dicens: Sicut exhibuistis membra vestra servire immunditiae et iniquitati ad iniquitatem; ita nunc exhibete membra vestra servire iustitiae in sanctificationem.
On the third day two things were perfected. For the water that overwhelmed the earth was so gathered into one place that the earth remained partly lying beneath the waters, partly standing out above them. Likewise too in the justified man, the carnal concupiscence which before overwhelmed him and held him oppressed under its dominion is so separated by the grace of God that the just man partly lies beneath the concupiscences—namely as to the sensation of them, and the first motions and titillations, which scarcely anyone living a mortal life can escape—and partly stands out above them, namely as to consent and deliberate enjoyment; and he not only resists the concupiscences, but also compels the flesh to serve the spirit, keeping that precept of Paul: Let not sin reign in your mortal body, so as to obey the lusts thereof (Romans 6); and that other of the same to the Galatians 5: They that are Christ's have crucified their flesh, with the vices and concupiscences. Nor indeed was the earth on that third day only uncovered and dried from the waters, but it brought forth of itself all the kinds of plants and herbs. Likewise too the soul of the just man, separated and purged from earthly vices and desires, brings forth good and holy works, even corporal ones, which are accomplished through the members of the body—such as the works of corporal mercy and the offices of the virtues which are occupied in ruling and moderating the appetite, both the concupiscible and the irascible: such as Temperance and Fortitude. And so there is fulfilled in the just man what Paul wrote to the Romans, chapter six, saying: As you have yielded your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, so now yield your members to serve justice unto sanctification.6
Quarto die in caelo creantur et locantur astra: et in homine iusto, sicut per gratiam iustificationis, purgatur animus a concupiscentiis, sic per eandem gratiam, pars hominis suprema, mens videlicet atque voluntas illuminatur, exornatur, ac decoratur per dona Dei supernaturalia, quae spiritualiter id praestant animo nostro, quod astra corporaliter ipsi caelo, et Solem quidem dixerim animae nostrae...
On the fourth day the stars are created and set in the heaven; and in the just man, as by the grace of justification the soul is purged of concupiscences, so by the same grace the highest part of man—namely the mind and the will—is illumined, adorned, and decorated by the supernatural gifts of God, which do for our soul spiritually what the stars do bodily for the heaven itself; and the Sun, indeed, I would call to our soul...7
...nostrae charitatem: quemadmodum enim sol est maximum omnium syderum, ceterisque lucem impertitur, ita charitas effecta est ad omnes alias virtutes: Luna quae condita est in solatium noctis et remedium tenebrarum, significat spem, quae in rebus arduis et adversis hominem firmat atque sustentat. Fides significatur astro Veneris, quod Luciferum seu Hesperum appellamus: sicut enim Lucifer, solis ortum praecurrit et post eius occasum remanet, sic fides, et ante ortum charitatis et post eius occasum manere potest. Quatuor alii Planetae denotant quatuor virtutes morales, non humanas, sed divinitus infusas: nec eas quae sunt in parte sensitiva, sed quae sunt in parte rationali. Stella Saturni temperantiam, Iovis iustitiam, Martis fortitudinem, Mercurii prudentiam: Innumerabiles aliae, quae in octavo caelo sunt stellae, denotant innumerabilia Dei dona et auxilia singularia, crebrasque illuminationes et inspirationes, quibus hominem Deus subinde movet ac promovet, a malo liberat, et in bono confirmat.
...charity: for just as the sun is the greatest of all the stars, and imparts light to the rest, so charity is directed toward all the other virtues. The Moon, which was made for the solace of the night and the remedy of darkness, signifies hope, which in arduous and adverse matters strengthens and sustains a man. Faith is signified by the star of Venus, which we call Lucifer or Hesperus: for as Lucifer runs before the rising of the sun and remains after its setting, so faith can remain both before the rising of charity and after its setting. The four other Planets denote the four moral virtues—not human, but divinely infused; and not those which are in the sensitive part, but those which are in the rational part. The star of Saturn [denotes] temperance, of Jupiter justice, of Mars fortitude, of Mercury prudence. Innumerable other stars which are in the eighth heaven denote the innumerable gifts and singular helps of God, and the frequent illuminations and inspirations by which God from time to time moves and advances a man, frees him from evil, and confirms him in good.8
Reliquis tribus diebus generata sunt tria genera animalium, pisces, aves, et terrestres animantes: quibus figurantur tria genera, seu tres gradus iustorum, qui in Ecclesia Christi versantur. Quidam sunt imperfectissimi, vitam agentes saecularem, negociis curisque saecularibus implicati, similes nempe piscium qui in aquas demersi vitam degunt. Hi tamen quia sensum, motum, et vitam habent, id est, rectam fidem, synceram charitatem, et bona opera, sunt Dei animalia. Alii sunt velut terrestres animantes, qui licet in saeculo vivant, vitam tamen agunt non saecularem sed spiritualem, virtutum praestantia et excellentium operum copia, ceteris praecellentes, quemadmodum terrestres animantes perfectione sensus, vitae, ac motus, piscibus antecellunt. Denique sunt nonnulli absolutissimae virtutis ac sanctitatis viri, qui contemptis rebus terrenis, omnibusque mundanarum rerum curis atque cogitationibus abiectis, totos se Dei cultui, obsequio, et servitio dicarunt, tanquam aves ad sublimia evolantes; quorum scilicet conversatio in caelis est, et mens animusque in divinarum rerum meditatione perpetuo versatur. Post ceteras animantes, ultimo loco creatus est homo, ad imaginem Dei. Oportet enim virum iustum tandiu in frangendis cupiditatibus, sedandis perturbationibus, fraenandisque appetitionibus, denique in omnium virtutum officiis colendis tractandisque perseveranter versari, quo ad totus evadat rationalis intellectualis; et imago Dei quam flagitiis deformaverat atque obscuraverat, ad similitudinem eius, cum qua Deus ab initio eum creaverat, reformetur atque renovetur.
On the remaining three days were generated three kinds of animals—fishes, birds, and land animals—by which are figured three kinds, or three grades, of the just who are in the Church of Christ. Some are most imperfect, living a worldly life, entangled in secular business and cares, like indeed the fishes which pass their life sunk in the waters. Yet these, because they have sense, motion, and life—that is, right faith, sincere charity, and good works—are God's animals. Others are like the land animals, who, although they live in the world, yet lead a life not secular but spiritual, surpassing the rest by the excellence of their virtues and the abundance of their excellent works—just as the land animals excel the fishes in the perfection of sense, life, and motion. Finally there are some men of the most absolute virtue and holiness, who, despising earthly things and casting away all the cares and thoughts of worldly matters, have dedicated themselves wholly to the worship, service, and ministry of God, like birds flying up to the heights; whose conversation, namely, is in heaven, and whose mind and soul is occupied perpetually in the meditation of divine things. After the other living creatures, in the last place, man was created, to the image of God. For the just man must persevere so long in breaking his desires, calming his perturbations, and bridling his appetites, and finally in cultivating and practicing the offices of all the virtues, until he becomes wholly rational and intellectual; and the image of God, which he had deformed and obscured by his crimes, may be reformed and renewed to the likeness of him with which God had created him from the beginning.9
And God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good. — Verse 31.10
Vidit Deus cuncta quae fecerat, et erant valde bona. — Vers. 31.
Verba haec Mosis ad duas quaestiones, quas ipsa pariunt ex se, tractandas nos vocant. Primo disquirendum est, cur factis operibus superiorum sex dierum, de unoquoque separatim dictum est, Vidit Deus quod esset bonum: consummata vero omnium rerum fabrica, de universis dicitur, Vidit Deus cuncta quae fecerat, et erant valde bona; haec enim variationis locutionis, et hoc orationis incrementum, indicat subesse aliquid hisce verbis cognitu observatuque dignum. Sciendum igitur est, res a Deo conditas, duobus modis considerari posse: vel unam quamlibet per se ac proprie, vel communiter et coniuncte cum reliquis, prout videlicet omnes mundum integrant et consummant, vel prout ad usus et commoditates hominum pertinent, vel prout ad immensam Dei cunctorum opificis potentiam bonitatem, et sapientiam exprimendam, et quodammodo repraesentandam mortalibus referuntur. Utramque considerationem brevibus explicemus:
These words of Moses call us to treat two questions which they themselves beget. First it must be inquired why, when the works of the foregoing six days were made, it was said of each one separately, God saw that it was good; but when the fabric of all things was consummated, it is said of them all, God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good. For this variation of expression, and this increase of the phrase, indicates that there lies hidden in these words something worthy to be known and observed. It must therefore be known that the things created by God can be considered in two ways: either each single one in itself and properly, or commonly and conjointly with the rest—namely as they all make up and consummate the world, or as they pertain to the uses and conveniences of men, or as they are referred to the expressing, and in a manner representing to mortals, the immense power, goodness, and wisdom of God, the maker of all. Let us explain both considerations briefly:11
In qualibet re, si ipsa per se consideretur, duplex cernitur bonitas, altera substantialis, altera accidentalis: Illa, salva rei natura et specie, nec augeri nec minui quicquam potest: etenim quiditates rerum omnium, auctore Aristotele, similes sunt numerorum, quorum adiecta detractave quacumque unitate, continuo species commutatur. Altera est bonitas accidentalis, quae salva integraque rei natura, aliquatenus variari potest. Hanc autem, triplicem possumus distinguere: prima vocetur bonitas status: quaelibet enim res, generabilis et corruptibilis praesertim quae sunt de numero viventium, initio sunt in statu imperfecto, paulatim vero et quasi per gradus quosdam ad perfectiorem statum procedunt. Indicia perfecti status duo sunt, finis scilicet et terminus naturalis incrementi: accretio namque naturalis paulatim rem promovet et perducit ad mensuram corporis perfectam, statui viventis perfecto congruentem, quo adepto, viventium cessat accretio. Illud quoque indicium est perfecti status, si res sui similem rem aliam possit efficere. Sic enim placuit Aristoteli in libro quarto Meteororum, definire ac determinare rationem perfecti viventis, cum est videlicet idoneum potensque sui simile generare. Altera bonitas accidentalis in proprietatibus et accidentibus rei versatur, si quae cuique rei naturaliter conveniunt, suo quodque in genere perfectum fuerit. Ter-...
In any thing whatever, if it be considered in itself, a twofold goodness is discerned: one substantial, the other accidental. The former, while the nature and species of the thing remains, can neither be increased nor diminished at all; for the quiddities of all things, on the authority of Aristotle, are like numbers, of which, any unit being added or subtracted, the species is at once changed. The other is accidental goodness, which, the nature of the thing remaining whole and entire, can in some measure be varied. And this we can distinguish into three. Let the first be called the goodness of state: for any thing whatever that is generable and corruptible—especially those which are of the number of living things—is at first in an imperfect state, but gradually, and as it were through certain degrees, proceeds to a more perfect state. The signs of the perfect state are two: namely the end and natural limit of growth—for natural increase gradually advances and brings the thing to the perfect measure of body, suited to the perfect state of the living thing; which being attained, the growth of living things ceases. This too is a sign of the perfect state, if the thing can produce another thing like itself. For so it pleased Aristotle, in the fourth book of the Meteorology, to define and determine the nature of the perfect living thing—namely when it is fit and able to generate its like. The other accidental goodness is occupied in the properties and accidents of the thing, if the things that naturally suit each thing be each perfect in its kind. The third...12
...tia bonitas posita est, in propria cuiuslibet rei operatione, per quam unumquodque finem suum ultimum adipiscitur: quae si perfecta fuerit, rem quoque, cuius operatio est perfectam esse, et arguit et facit. Secundum has tres bonitates, Deus in exordio mundi res omnes fecit non bonas modo, sed etiam optimas: quippe condidit eas in statu perfecto, et in omnibus accidentibus et proprietatibus perfectis: denique tales ut essent perquam idoneae ad omnes suas actiones et munera perfecte obeunda et explenda.
...third [goodness] is placed in the proper operation of each thing, by which each attains its ultimate end; which, if it be perfect, both argues and makes the thing whose operation it is to be perfect. According to these three goodnesses, God at the beginning of the world made all things not only good, but even best: for he founded them in a perfect state, and with all their accidents and properties perfect; finally such that they were thoroughly fit for performing and fulfilling perfectly all their actions and functions.13
Altero modo, ut diximus, res omnes considerari possunt in commune, ea nimirum ratione ut ex illarum complexione contextuque, haec rerum omnium universitas, quam mundum appellamus, efficitur. Haec autem universitas rerum, usque adeo insignem et eximiam bonitatem et decorem accepit a Deo, ut eius comparatione, propria cuiusvis rei bonitas perexigua et nullius propemodum momenti existimari possit. Sed quaenam sunt, quae eiusmodi universitatis rerum bonitatem declarant? multa sane, eaque praeclara. Principio, id ostendit tanta rerum, quae in mundo continentur varietas, quantam non sensibus modo, sed nec animo quidem et cogitatione perlustrare et comprehendere possumus. Si enim advertas animum ad ea quae in mundo sunt, alia reperies incorporea, uti Angelos, alias res corporatas, et tertium inter haec, hominum genus interiectum. Rursus Angelorum varietas novem in ordines distinguitur, et, si est vera Beati Thomae opinio, cum fere innumerabiles sint Angeli, ne duo quidem unius speciei esse possunt. Corpora, sunt alia quidem extra generationem et interitum, ut caeli et sydera, quorum varietatem et pulchritudinem sine ulla satietate miramur, quae autem Lunae gyro, coercentur, corpora generationis et interitus capacia, tripartita sunt, hoc est, inanima, et viventia, praeter quae, sensu motuque praedita. Porro quis colligere possit omnem, quae in hominibus est, varietatem, in forma et vultu, in ingressu, in voce, ingenio, lingua, studiis, moribus legibus, institutis et religionibus?
In the other way, as we said, all things can be considered in common, namely in this respect, that from their combination and connection there is made this whole of all things which we call the world. And this whole of things received from God so notable and surpassing a goodness and beauty that, by comparison with it, the proper goodness of any single thing can be esteemed very small and of almost no moment. But what are the things which declare this goodness of the whole of things? Many indeed, and those excellent. In the first place, this is shown by the great variety of things which are contained in the world, so great that we can survey and comprehend it not only not by the senses, but not even by the mind and thought. For if you turn your mind to the things that are in the world, you will find some incorporeal, such as the Angels; others corporeal; and a third kind set between these, the race of men. Again, the variety of the Angels is distinguished into nine orders; and, if the opinion of Blessed Thomas is true, since the Angels are almost innumerable, not even two can be of one species. Of bodies, some are beyond generation and decay, as the heavens and the stars, whose variety and beauty we admire without any satiety; but those which are bounded within the orbit of the Moon, bodies capable of generation and decay, are of three kinds: the inanimate, the living, and besides these, those endowed with sense and motion. Furthermore, who could gather up all the variety that is in men—in form and face, in gait, in voice, in talent, in tongue, in pursuits, in manners, laws, institutions, and religions?14
Huic varietati adiuncta est, quasi comes, principalis mundi decor et ornamentum, ordo, et aptissima pulcherrimaque rerum omnium dispositio: qua si careret mundus, ne ille quo vastior mole esset, pleniorque atque multiformior, eo sane deformior esset ad speciem, ad motum impeditior, impotentior ad effectum, ad sui tutelam invalidior, et ad diuturnitatem infirmior. Ordo autem mundi in eo cernitur, quod omnes eius partes aptum sibi congruentemque locum tenent et servant, quod pro ratione nobilitatis et dignitatis rerum, aliae res sunt inferiores, aliae superiores, quaedam inter has mediae, et aliae per alias aguntur, servantur ac reguntur. Hunc ordinem tanti aestimavit Aristoteles, ut extremo Metaphysicae libro duodecimo, maximum et supremum Universi bonum, in ordine et dispositione collocaverit.
To this variety is joined, as a companion, the chief ornament and adornment of the world: order, and the most fitting and most beautiful disposition of all things. If the world lacked this, then, the more vast it was in mass, and the fuller and more manifold, the more deformed indeed it would be in appearance, the more hindered in motion, the more powerless to effect, the weaker in its self-protection, and the feebler as to duration. And the order of the world is discerned in this: that all its parts hold and keep a place fit and agreeable to themselves; that, according to the measure of the nobility and dignity of things, some things are lower, others higher, some midway between these, and some are acted upon, preserved, and ruled by others. This order Aristotle so highly esteemed that, in the last book of the Metaphysics, the twelfth, he placed the greatest and supreme good of the Universe in its order and disposition.15
Tertium mundi bonum, est plenitudo eius et universitas rerum, Omnia enim mundus amplexu suo continet, ob idque appellatur Universum. verum oportet hoc loco animadvertere, quinque modis posse intelligi omnia esse in mundo: Primo secundum generales gradus rerum, qui quatuor sunt, esse, vivere, sentire, et intelligere: tum secundum cuiuslibet horum graduum genera omnia, et species subalternas: deinde quod nihil sit uspiam, nihilque factum sit...
The third good of the world is its fullness and the universality of things; for the world contains all things in its embrace, and on that account is called the Universe. But here it must be noted that 'all things are in the world' can be understood in five ways: First, according to the general grades of things, which are four—to be, to live, to sense, and to understand; then according to all the genera of each of these grades, and the subaltern species; next, that there is nothing anywhere, and nothing has been made...16
...sit a Deo, quod non in mundo contineatur, et ad mundum aliquo modo pertineat, ad hoc secundum species infimas rerum, denique secundum individua cuiusque speciei. Primis tribus modis intelligendum est omnia esse in mundo, non autem duobus ultimis: complures namque species infimae, processu ac decursu temporis, quae non fuerant in exordio mundi, posterius aut ex diversarum specierum commistione, aut per solertiam et industriam hominum extiterunt, hodieque atque consequentibus saeculis complures aliae, quae antea non fuerant exorientur. Universitas autem individuorum cuiusque speciei, ut simul in mundo sit, fieri non potest, erit tamen per intervalla temporum: alia enim nascentur ex aliis, et prioribus per interitum abeuntibus, per novam generationem posteriora succedent.
...made by God which is not contained in the world and does not in some way pertain to the world; fourthly, according to the lowest species of things; and finally, according to the individuals of each species. In the first three ways it must be understood that all things are in the world, but not in the last two; for many lowest species, in the process and lapse of time, which had not existed at the beginning of the world, afterward came into existence, either from the mingling of diverse species or by the skill and industry of men; and today, and in the ages to follow, many others, which did not exist before, will arise. But the totality of the individuals of each species cannot exist all at once in the world; yet it will exist through intervals of time: for some will be born of others, and as the earlier pass away through death, the later will succeed by new generation.17
Quartum Universi bonum est, omnium partium eius inter se miranda commixtio atque connexio, tam arcta non modo secundum quantitatem, ut nihil sit usquam inane et vacuum: sed etiam in serie contextuque naturalium specierum, videlicet ut nulla sit interruptio: id enim foedius esset et alienius a mundi praestantia, quam interiecto vacuo, ipsorum corporum interpolatio et disiunctio. Quintum bonum est, naturalis convenientia aliarum rerum cum aliis, itemque naturalis discordia et repugnantia inter alias, quas Graeci vocant συμπαθείας et ἀντιπαθείας: quarum rerum, sapientibus summae admirationis et insatiabilis voluptatis est contemplatio: Cur nimirum magnes ferrum trahat, non itidem lapidem aut lignum: unde tanta inter vitem et brassicam inimicitia extitit? qui fieri possit, ut sexquipedalis modo piscis Remora, adhaerescens carinae navigii quantumvis magni et incitatissimo cursu acti, cohibeat omnem eius vim et impetum, ac immobile reddat? et mille alia rerum prodigia et naturae miracula. Sextum bonum est, pulchritudo mundi ex mirabili proportione rerum omnium, tum inter se, tum cum ipso mundo efflorescens, nec aliter inter se habens quam pulchritudo humani corporis, quae ex concinna decentique membrorum omnium compositione et ratione existit.
The fourth good of the Universe is the wondrous commingling and connection of all its parts among themselves, so close not only as to quantity—that there be nowhere anything void and empty—but also in the series and connection of the natural species, namely that there be no interruption; for that would be uglier and more foreign to the excellence of the world than the interpolation and disjunction of the bodies themselves with an intervening void. The fifth good is the natural agreement of some things with others, and likewise the natural discord and repugnance among others, which the Greeks call sympatheiai and antipatheiai (sympathies and antipathies); the contemplation of which things is, to the wise, a matter of the highest admiration and insatiable delight: why, namely, the magnet draws iron, but not likewise a stone or wood; whence arose so great an enmity between the vine and the cabbage; how it can come about that a fish but a foot and a half long, the Remora, clinging to the keel of a ship however great and driven at the swiftest course, restrains all its force and impetus and renders it motionless?—and a thousand other prodigies of things and marvels of nature. The sixth good is the beauty of the world, blossoming from the wondrous proportion of all things, both among themselves and with the world itself, having itself no otherwise than the beauty of the human body, which exists from the harmonious and seemly composition and proportion of all the members.18
Septimum bonum est, optima mundi administratio, moderatio et rectio, qua nihil est, ad contemplandum mirabilius atque iucundius, huius autem gubernationis praestantia, multis ex rebus liquido cernitur. Primo quidem, quod Deus non minus large et abundanter, minimis ac vilissimis quibusque rebus, quam maximis et nobilissimis consuluit, et quaecumque vel necessaria vel opportuna erant ad vitam cuiusque tuendam finemque consequendum, sapientissime ac liberalissime comparavit. Deinde, omnia summi opificis providentia teneri et agi indicio sunt, quaecumque nullo sensu cognitioneve praedita, per certas vias directo tendunt, et sine errore ullo, nisi perquam raro, ad finem suum perveniunt, perinde atque et actiones suas et fines perfecte cognoscerent. Hoc etiam demonstrat...
The seventh good is the most excellent administration, moderation, and ruling of the world, than which there is nothing more wonderful and pleasant to contemplate; and the excellence of this governance is clearly discerned from many things. First, indeed, that God provided for the smallest and meanest things no less amply and abundantly than for the greatest and noblest, and most wisely and most liberally furnished whatever was either necessary or opportune for preserving the life of each and attaining its end. Then, all things are signs that they are held and moved by the providence of the supreme Maker—whatever, endowed with no sense or cognition, tend directly by fixed ways, and without any error (save very rarely) attain their end, just as though they perfectly knew both their actions and their ends. This too is shown...19
...strat, aequabilitas rerum, quae cernitur in universo: constat enim mundus ex rebus contrariis, et inter se pugnantibus, ex aequo tamen ita temperatis, ut vires suas vicissim frangendo, et sese aliquatenus corrumpendo, ea rerum inter se repugnantia, non solum exitio non sit mundo, sed etiam saluti et ornamento. Etenim ingeniis et viribus inter se discordantia et dimicantia, supremi Opificis moderatione, ad bonum universi tuendum concordi foedere conspirant et congruunt. Quam rem Boetius lib. 4. de Consolatione philosophiae, metro sexto elegantissimis versibus exposuit:
...the evenness of things which is discerned in the universe: for the world is composed of things contrary and mutually warring, yet so equally tempered that, by breaking each other's forces in turn and corrupting themselves somewhat, that mutual repugnance of things is not only no destruction to the world, but even its preservation and adornment. For things discordant and contending among themselves in their natures and forces, by the moderation of the supreme Maker, conspire and agree in a harmonious bond to preserve the good of the universe. This matter Boethius, in the fourth book of the Consolation of Philosophy, the sixth meter, set forth in most elegant verses:20
By this concord [God] tempers the elements in balanced measures, so that, though warring, the moist yield in turns to the dry, and the cold join faith with the flames; that the hanging fire rise on high, and the heavy earth sink down by its weight. From these same causes the flower-bearing year breathes forth its scents in the warm spring; the fervid summer dries the corn (Ceres); autumn returns heavy with fruits; and the falling rain waters the winter. This tempering nourishes and brings forth whatever breathes life in the world; the same, snatching it away, hides and bears it off, drowning in final death the things that had arisen.21
Hac concordia temperat aequis Elementa modis, ut pugnantia, Vicibus, cedant humida siccis, Iungantque fidem frigora flammis, Pendulus ignis surgat in altum, Terraeque graves pondere sidant. Hisdem causis vere tepenti Spirat florifer annus odores, Aestas Cererem fervida siccat, Remeat pomis gravis autumnus, Hyemem defluxus irrigat imber. Haec temperies alit ac profert Quicquid vitam spirat in orbe: Eadem rapiens condit, et aufert, Obitu mergens orta supremo.
Ac licet caelestes, et dignitate naturae, et immortalitate multum praestant rebus sublunaribus: sunt tamen et pauci numero, et infoecundi atque impotentes procreandi alios sui similes: quibus duabus rebus, sublunarium corporum ignobilitas et mortalitas satis compensatur. Animalium quoque imbecilliora, et praedam ceterorum, natura fecit longe numerosiora, foecundioraque; cum et pauca sint minusque foecunda nobiliora, et quae aliorum interitu, vitam suam agunt et sustentant. Quid quod potior in mundo habetur ratio boni communis, quam privati et particularis, sicut in quavis optime constituta republica et communitate fieri solet, certe debet. Hanc ob causam usu venit, ut quod grave est contra naturae suae vim et impetum ascendat sursum, videlicet ne quid in mundo vacet et inane sit: Ut quaedam animalia vitae suae detrimento nobilioribus alimenta praebeant, ne illorum species occidant: ut aqua, quae secundum naturae ordinem, et amplior et superior quam terra esse debebat, propter utilitatem stirpium et animantium, et minorem habeat molem, et inferiorem humilioremque locum obtineat.
And although the celestial things much excel the sublunary, both in dignity of nature and in immortality, yet they are also few in number, and barren and unable to procreate others like themselves; by which two things the ignobility and mortality of the sublunary bodies is sufficiently compensated. The weaker of the animals too, and those that are prey to the rest, nature made far more numerous and more fertile—since the nobler ones are both few and less fertile, and live and sustain their life by the death of others. What of this, that in the world the account of the common good is held stronger than that of the private and particular—as is wont, and certainly ought, to happen in any best-constituted commonwealth and community? For this cause it comes to pass that what is heavy, against the force and impetus of its own nature, ascends upward—namely, lest anything in the world be void and empty; that certain animals, to the detriment of their own life, afford food to nobler ones, lest the species of the latter perish; that the water, which according to the order of nature ought to be both ampler and higher than the earth, on account of the benefit of plants and animals both has a smaller mass and holds a lower and humbler place.22
Quinetiam quae videntur mala, et vero naturae sunt vitia et defectus,...
Moreover, the things that seem evils, and are indeed faults and defects of nature,...23
...defectus, ad ornatum et decorem mundi ea pertinent. Sunt autem tria malorum genera, quaedam omnino naturalia, quae videlicet contingunt rebus cognitione carentibus, uti sunt defectus naturales et monstra: quae non solum proveniunt ex necessitate materiae, sed in id ordinata sunt, ut aperte demonstrent, quantum inter res incorruptibiles et corruptibiles, inter caelestes et terrenas, inter divinas et humanas intersit: et per huiusmodi vitia et defectus caelestium rerum indeficiens bonitas, inviolabilis ordo, et illibata omni aevo pulchritudo clarius appareat. Facit etiam ad mundi absolutionem et complementum, ut non solum in eo sint res incorruptibiles, sed etiam corruptibiles; quae si deessent, cum earum plurima sint genera, non esset profecto mundus perfectus, et omnibus numeris absolutus, nec Universi appellationem ei iure asserere possemus.
...defects, pertain to the adornment and beauty of the world. Now there are three kinds of evils. Some are wholly natural, namely those which befall things lacking cognition, such as natural defects and monsters; which not only arise from the necessity of matter, but are ordained to this end, that they may plainly show how great is the difference between incorruptible and corruptible things, between celestial and earthly, between divine and human; and that through such faults and defects the unfailing goodness, the inviolable order, and the beauty of the celestial things, unimpaired through all time, may more clearly appear. It also makes for the completion and fulfillment of the world that there be in it not only incorruptible things, but also corruptible ones; which, if they were lacking—since there are very many kinds of them—the world would assuredly not be perfect and complete in all its numbers, nor could we rightly claim for it the name of Universe.24
Alia sunt mala humana, quae nimirum solis hominibus, inter ea quae sub caelo versantur, evenire possunt. Rursus haec bipertito dividuntur, in mala poenae, et mala culpae: illa duplici nomine censentur bona: nam per ea satisfit iustitiae Dei, qua vindicantur hominum scelera: et saepenumero conducunt ad emendationem et correctionem hominum: sunt enim velut amarae quaedam medicinae profligandis vitiis, conservandisque virtutibus admodum efficaces, atque salutares. Mala culpae, vere ac simpliciter mala sunt, nec in se quicquam habent boni, haec sunt peccata: tanta est tamen Dei bonitas, sapientia, et potentia, ut ea quoque ad bonum aliquod ordinentur et proficiant. Deus enim tam bonus est ut velit; tam potens ut possit; tam sapiens ut sciat eiusmodi omnia mala convertere in bonum, ut etiam quae nec facit ipse, nec vult fieri, ad id tamen quod facturus est, mirabiliter applicet et adaptet. Aut enim peccata condonat, quo eximiam clementiam et misericordiam suam ostendit: aut vindicat, et suppliciis aeternis castigat, et in eo rectitudinem et rigorem iustitiae suae demonstrat, facitque ut electis suis etiam peccata proficiant in bonum; scilicet ut ex lapsu surgant humiliores et cautiores, et ad bona opera alacriores atque ferventiores. Illustre huius rei argumentum simul et exemplum, Adami peccatum nobis exhibet: quod quam grave fuerit, quam longe lateque virus et exitium diffuderit, quam severe vindicatum fuerit, in confesso est apud omnes, hoc tamen tantum malum, quae Dei est bonitas et potentia, ad maximum bonum et praeclarissimum Dei operum mirabiliter conversum est, ad incarnationem videlicet, passionem, et mortem Filii Dei. Ut non inconsulte aut temere, quodam loco exclamet Gregorius: O felix culpa, quae talem ac tantum meruit habere Redemptorem.
Other evils are human, which, namely, can befall only men among the things that are under heaven. Again, these are divided into two: evils of penalty, and evils of fault. The former are esteemed good on two counts: for by them satisfaction is made to the justice of God, by which the crimes of men are avenged; and they often lead to the amendment and correction of men—for they are like certain bitter medicines, very effective and wholesome for routing vices and preserving virtues. Evils of fault are truly and simply evils, and have in themselves nothing of good; these are sins. Yet so great is the goodness, wisdom, and power of God that even these are ordained and made to profit toward some good. For God is so good that he wills, so powerful that he can, and so wise that he knows, to convert all such evils into good; so that even what he himself neither does nor wills to be done, he nevertheless wonderfully applies and adapts to that which he is about to do. For either he pardons sins, whereby he shows his surpassing clemency and mercy; or he avenges them, and chastises them with eternal punishments, and therein demonstrates the rectitude and rigor of his justice; and he makes even sins profit unto good for his elect—namely that from their fall they may rise humbler and more cautious, and more eager and fervent toward good works. An illustrious argument and example of this matter Adam's sin presents to us: how grave it was, how far and wide it spread its poison and ruin, how severely it was avenged, is agreed among all; yet this so great evil, by the goodness and power of God, was wonderfully converted into the greatest good and the most illustrious of God's works—namely to the Incarnation, Passion, and death of the Son of God. So that not unadvisedly or rashly does Gregory exclaim in a certain place: O happy fault, which merited to have so great and so excellent a Redeemer!25
Ad extremum, vel ipsa rerum humanarum inaequalitas, quae omni seculo multos offendit, et transversos egit, ob id existimantes, aut certe ambigentes, nulla Dei cura, et respectu humanas res geri et evenire, quod cernerent fere bonis male esse, malis autem bene; haec, inquam,...
Finally, even the very inequality of human affairs, which in every age has offended many and led them astray—on that account supposing, or at least doubting, that human affairs are conducted and come about by no care and regard of God, because they saw that it generally goes ill with the good but well with the wicked—this inequality, I say,...26
...quam, rerum inaequalitas optimam esse mundi gubernationem arguit: propterea enim sic Deus agit cum hominibus, ne odium vitiorum et studium cultusque virtutum essent mercenaria, sed gratuita, nec alio quam ad Deum referrentur. Prodest item eiusmodi inaequalitas cordato, et prudenti viro, ut intelligat, extincto corpore superesse animum, alteramque vitam post obitum expectandam esse, in qua convenienter hominum factis, ab omnium arbitro et iudice Deo, et praemia et supplicia dispensentur. Sed hoc argumentum docte et copiose ex sensu Philonis Iudaei tractavit Eusebius, libro tertio, de praeparatione Evangelica, capite ultimo, et Beatus Augustinus libro primo, de Civitate Dei, capite octavo, et proxime sequentibus: verum disertissime inter Philosophos, Seneca, in eo libro quem inscripsit: Cur bonis mala et malis bona eveniant, si est providentia.
...this inequality of things argues that the government of the world is most excellent; for God deals thus with men so that the hatred of vices and the zeal and worship of the virtues should not be mercenary, but gratuitous, and referred to nothing other than to God. Such inequality is profitable also to the wise and prudent man, that he may understand that, the body being extinguished, the soul survives, and that another life is to be expected after death, in which, fittingly to the deeds of men, both rewards and punishments are dispensed by God, the arbiter and judge of all. But this argument Eusebius treated learnedly and copiously, drawn from the mind of Philo the Jew, in the third book of the Preparation for the Gospel, the last chapter, and Blessed Augustine in the first book of the City of God, the eighth chapter and those next following; but, most eloquently among the philosophers, Seneca, in that book which he entitled: Why evils befall the good and goods the wicked, if there is providence.27
Pulchre autem docet Augustinus libro undecimo, de Civitate Dei, capite 18. commistionem bonorum et malorum in mundo, ad eius ornatum et pulchritudinem pertinere.
And Augustine beautifully teaches, in the eleventh book of the City of God, chapter 18, that the commingling of goods and evils in the world pertains to its adornment and beauty.28
“For God,” he says, “would not create any—I do not say of the Angels, but even of men—whom he foreknew would be evil, unless he equally knew to what uses of good things he would put them, and so would grace the order of the ages, as a most beautiful poem, even by certain as it were antitheses. For antitheses—which are called among the ornaments of style most elegant—are in Latin termed 'opposites,' or, as it is more expressly said, 'counter-placed.' By these antitheses the Apostle Paul too, in the second Epistle to the Corinthians, sweetly explains that passage where he says: By the armor of justice on the right hand and on the left; by glory and dishonor; by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true, etc. As, therefore, those contraries set against contraries render a beauty of speech, so, by a certain eloquence not of words but of things, the beauty of the world is composed by the opposition of contraries. Most plainly is this set down in the book of Ecclesiasticus in this manner: Against evil is good, and against death is life: so against the godly is the sinner. And so look upon all the works of the Most High, two and two, one against one.” Thus Augustine.29
Neque enim, inquit, Deus ullum, non dico Angelorum, sed vel hominum crearet, quem malum futurum esse praescisset, nisi pariter nosset quibus eos bonorum usibus commodaret, atque ita ordinem seculorum tanquam pulcherrimum carmen, etiam ex quibusdam quasi antithetis honestaret: Antitheta enim, quae appellantur in ornamentis elocutionis sunt decentissima, quae Latine appellantur opposita, vel quod expressius dicitur, contraposita. His antithetis etiam Paulus Apostolus in secunda ad Corinthios Epistola illum locum suaviter explicat, ubi dicit, Per arma iustitiae a dextris et a sinistris, per gloriam et ignobilitatem, per infamiam et bonam famam, ut seductores et veraces, etc. Sicut ergo ista contraria contrariis opposita sermonibus, pulchritudinem reddunt: ita quadam non verborum, sed rerum eloquentia, contrariorum oppositione, saeculi pulchritudo componitur. Apertissime hoc positum est in libro Ecclesiastici hoc modo: Contra malum bonum est, et contra mortem vita: sic contra pium peccator. Et sic intuere in omnia opera Altissimi bina et bina, unum contra unum. Haec Augustinus.
Porro universitas rerum, duas ob causas condita est: praecipue quidem propter Dei gloriam, deinde vero etiam propter usum hominis. Conditus enim est mundus, ut per eum, Dei potentia, bonitas, et sapientia pernotesceret homini, et tam mirabili spectaculo incitaretur et erudiretur, ad cognoscendum, amandum, et colendum Deum. Quod egregie praestat mundus, dicente Paulo: Invisibilia Dei per ea quae facta sunt intellecta, conspiciuntur: sempiterna quoque eius virtus et divinitas: et David inquit: Caeli enarrant gloriam Dei: et in cap. decimotertio libri Sapientiae scriptum est: A magnitudine speciei et creaturae, cognoscibiliter poterit creator horum videri. Fabrica enim huius mundi manifeste ostendit omnipotentiam Dei, qua ex nihilo cuncta, puncto temporis, solo iussu perfecit: et sapientiam qua res a se conditas, summa ratione designavit et disposuit, atque incredibili prudentia gubernat: bonitatem quoque per quam non modo...
Furthermore, the universe of things was founded for two causes: chiefly indeed for the glory of God, but then also for the use of man. For the world was founded so that through it the power, goodness, and wisdom of God might become known to man, and that by so wondrous a spectacle he might be stirred and instructed to know, love, and worship God. This the world excellently provides, as Paul says: The invisible things of God are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made: his eternal power also, and divinity; and David says: The heavens declare the glory of God; and in the thirteenth chapter of the book of Wisdom it is written: By the greatness of the beauty and of the creature, the creator of these may knowably be seen. For the fabric of this world manifestly shows the omnipotence of God, by which he completed all things out of nothing, in a point of time, by his command alone; and the wisdom by which he marked out and disposed the things he founded with the highest reason, and governs them with incredible prudence; and the goodness too, by which not only...30
...quae non erant, ex nihilo producta sunt ad esse, sed etiam postquam facta sunt, quasi manu sua sustentat, sicut ait Paulus ad Hebraeos primo: Portans omnia verbo virtutis suae. Esse autem res omnes corporatas, et quae sub sensum cadunt, ad hominum usus et commoditates a Deo ordinatas, et Philosophia docet, et traditur in sacris litteris, et res ipsa confirmat: sicut longa oratione, probat Balbus apud Ciceronem, libro secundo de Natura deorum. Perlustret lector animo, omnia quae in hoc mundo aspectabili et corporato continentur, nullam profecto rem inveniet, quae non quodammodo ad usum aliquem hominum conferat: videre est, aliquas pertinere ad humanae vitae necessitates et commoditates: alias referri ad varias hominum delectationes et voluptates, alias esse in remedia morborum et sanitatis praesidia, multas ad exemplum et imitationem esse propositas; omnes conducere ad scientiam rerum percipiendam, praesertim vero ad concipiendam animo, Dei notitiam, amorem atque religionem. Status quoque mundi, mire congruit cum statu hominis, qui duplex est, alter praesentis vitae obiectus vanitati et corruptioni; huius persimilis est mundi status in volubilitate et instabilitate positus: alter post diem iudicii et resurrectionem, plenus incorruptionis et gloriae: ad cuius similitudinem etiam mundus hic reformabitur atque renovabitur, ut Paulus docet in Epist. ad Rom. capite octavo.
...the things that were not were produced out of nothing into being, but also, after they were made, he sustains them as it were with his own hand, as Paul says to the Hebrews in the first [chapter]: Upholding all things by the word of his power. And that all the corporeal things, and those which fall under sense, were ordained by God for the uses and conveniences of men, both Philosophy teaches, and it is handed down in the sacred writings, and the thing itself confirms—as Balbus, in Cicero, in the second book On the Nature of the Gods, proves in a long discourse. Let the reader survey in his mind all the things contained in this visible and corporeal world; he will assuredly find no thing which does not in some way contribute to some use of men: it is to be seen that some pertain to the necessities and conveniences of human life; others are referred to various delights and pleasures of men; others are remedies of diseases and safeguards of health; many are set forth for example and imitation; all conduce to the gaining of the knowledge of things, but especially to the conceiving in the mind the knowledge, love, and worship of God. The state of the world too marvelously agrees with the state of man, which is twofold: the one, of the present life, exposed to vanity and corruption—to this the state of the world, set in mutability and instability, is most similar; the other, after the day of judgment and the resurrection, full of incorruption and glory—to the likeness of which this world too will be reformed and renewed, as Paul teaches in the Epistle to the Romans, the eighth chapter.31
Ad extremum, quae Deus operatur in mundo, praeter eius ordinem et usitatum cursum, et supra omnem vim et potestatem naturae creatae, perspicue declarant Deum esse immensae potentiae, nec mundum esse opus Dei, virtuti eius par et aequale: non agere Deum ex necessitate naturae, nec in agendo alligatum esse causis secundis, atque in omnibus rebus esse illam, quam Theologi appellant potentiam obedientialem erga Deum, per quam ita sunt omnia imperio Dei, voluntatique subiecta, ut in illis et per illa, quicquid Deo collibuerit, sive sit praeter eorum naturam, sive supra, sive etiam contra, nulla repugnantia, nullaque difficultate ac mora continuo efficiatur. Confirmat haec omnia mirifice, Beatus Bernardus, Sermone tertio in die Pentecostes, ubi hunc in modum scribit,
Finally, the things which God works in the world, beyond its order and accustomed course, and above all the force and power of created nature, plainly declare that God is of immense power, and that the world is not a work of God equal and matched to his power; that God does not act from a necessity of nature, nor is bound in acting to second causes; and that in all things there is that which the theologians call the 'obediential potency' toward God, by which all things are so subject to the command and will of God that in them and through them, whatever shall please God—whether it be beside their nature, or above it, or even against it—is at once brought about with no repugnance, no difficulty, and no delay. All this Blessed Bernard wonderfully confirms, in the third sermon on the day of Pentecost, where he writes in this manner:32
“Three things we ought to ponder in the great work of this world: namely, what it is, how it is, and to what end it was established. And in its being indeed the inestimable power of [its maker over] things is commended, in that so many, so great, in so manifold a fashion, so magnificently they were created. Surely in the very mode of it singular wisdom shines forth, in that some things were set on high, some below, some in the middle, most orderly. But if you meditate on the end for which it was made, there meets you a kindness so useful, a usefulness so kind, that it could overwhelm even the most ungrateful by the multitude and the greatness of its benefits. For most powerfully were all things created out of nothing, most wisely the beautiful, most kindly the useful. Yet we know that from the beginning there have been, and we still see that there are, many among the sons of men who, sunk in the lower goods of this sensible world with their whole sensuality...”33
Tria in magno huius mundi opere cogitare debemus, videlicet quid sit, quomodo sit, ad quid sit constitutus. Et in esse quidem, rerum inaestimabilis potentia commendatur, quod tam multa, tam magna, tam multipliciter, tam magnifice sunt creata. Sane in modo ipso sapientia singularis elucet, quod haec quidem sursum, haec vero deorsum, haec in medio ordinatissime sint locata. Si vero ad quid factus sit mediteris, occurrit tam utilis benignitas, tam benigna utilitas, quae etiam ingratissimos quosque multitudine et magnitudine beneficiorum possit obruere. Potentissime siquidem ex nihilo omnia, sapientissime pulchra, benignissime utilia sunt creata. Verumtamen et fuisse novimus ab initio, et adhuc multos esse videmus in filiis hominum, qui in bonis inferioribus sensibilis mundi huius, tota sensualitate depressi...
“...sunk down, gave themselves wholly to the things that were made, careless in what manner or to what end they were made. What shall we call these but carnal? I think them now very few; yet we read that there were sometimes some whose highest study and sole concern was to investigate the mode and order of the things made—so much that most of them not only feigned to inquire into the usefulness of things, but even magnanimously despised those very things, content with the scantiest and meanest food. These indeed call themselves Philosophers; but by us they are more rightly called curious and vain. To both of these, therefore, there have succeeded more prudent men—men who, namely, leaping over both what the things made are and how they were made, bent the keen edge of the mind to see for what end they were made. Nor did it escape them that, since God made all things for himself, [he made] all things for his own [elect]. Yet in one way for himself, in another for his own: for in that it is said 'All things for himself,' the preventing origin is commended; but in that it is said 'All things for his own,' the following fruit is rather expressed. He made all things for himself, namely by gratuitous goodness; all things for his elect, namely for their benefit: so that the former is the efficient cause, the latter the end. These are the spiritual men, so using this world as not using it, but in the simplicity of their heart seeking God, not even greatly tracing out in what manner this worldly machine was turned: the first filled with pleasure, the second with vanity, the third with truth.” Thus Bernard.34
...depressi, totos se dederunt his quae facta sunt, quonam modo vel ad quid facta negligentes. Quid istos nisi carnales dicamus? Paucissimos esse iam arbitror, legimus tamen nonnullos quandoque fuisse, quibus summum studium fuit atque unica solicitudo modum et ordinem investigare factorum, adeo ut plerique non modo utilitatem rerum perquirere dissimulaverint, sed et ipsas magnanimiter spreverint, cibo paucissimo vilissimoque contenti. Ipsi quidem sese Philosophos vocant: sed a nobis curiosi et vani rectius appellantur. Utrisque igitur successerunt, viri prudentiores, utrisque qui nimirum et quae facta sunt quomodo facta sunt transilientes, intenderunt aciem mentis ut ad quid facta sint viderent. Nec latuit eos, quoniam omnia propter semetipsum fecit Deus, omnia propter suos. Aliter tamen propter se, aliter propter suos: in eo quippe quod dicitur, Omnia propter se praeveniens commendatur origo: in eo autem quod dicitur, Omnia propter suos magis exprimitur fructus sequens. Omnia fecit propter semetipsum gratuita videlicet bonitate: Omnia propter electos suos, pro eorum scilicet utilitate: ut illa quidem efficiens causa sit, haec finis. Hi sunt spirituales viri sic utentes hoc mundo tanquam non utentes, sed in simplicitate cordis sui quaerentes Deum, ne illud quidem magnopere vestigante quonam modo mundialis haec machina volveretur: primi voluptate, secundi vanitate, tertii veritate impleti. Haec Bernardus.
Altera quaestio quae ex iisdem istis verbis oritur, duas habet difficultates: An mundus melior potuerit fieri quam est factus: et cur non ante creatum hominem, sed statim post eius creationem dictum est, Vidit Deus cuncta quae fecerat, et erant valde bona; quasi solius hominis expectaretur creatio, ut id vere dici posset. Priorem difficultatem attingit Beatus Thomas, prima parte quaest. 24. art. 4. Subtiliter autem et enucleate tractat Bonaventura, in 1. Senten. distin. 44. eodemque loco, alii complures scholastici: nos paucis verbis expediemus. Arbitramur potuisse mundum hunc fieri meliorem quam est factus, quattuor modis. Primo secundum quantitatem, hoc tam secundum magnitudinem quam secundum numerum: nam et Caeli elementaque potuerunt fieri maiora quam sunt: et potuit Deus facere multo plures Caelos, et in his plura grandiora et splendidiora sydera. Deinde, secundum plenitudinem et universitatem rerum: etenim infimae rerum species, longe plures quam sunt, creari potuerunt. Ad hoc, secundum durationem, potuit enim ita fieri mundus ut antiquior esset quam hic est, et futurus esset diuturnior. Postremo, secundum perfectionem accidentalem rerum naturalium; quae perfectio magis magisque potest amplificari. Ex adverso autem negamus, mundum potuisse fieri meliorem aliis quinque modis. Primo, secundum substantialem rerum perfectionem, quae nullatenus augeri potest. Postea secundum ordinem et dispositionem partium mundi et aliorum quae in eo sunt: quem ordinem usque adeo bonum existimamus, ut meliorem esse posse, atque huic mundo convenientiorem et decentiorem non putemus. Deinde, in regimine et guber-...
The second question which arises from these same words has two difficulties: whether the world could have been made better than it was made; and why it was said not before the creation of man, but immediately after his creation, God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good—as if the creation of man alone were awaited, that this might be truly said. The former difficulty Blessed Thomas touches, in the first part, question 24, article 4. Subtly and clearly Bonaventure treats it, in the first book of the Sentences, distinction 44, and in the same place very many other scholastics; we shall dispatch it in a few words. We judge that this world could have been made better than it was made in four ways. First, as to quantity, this both as to magnitude and as to number: for the heavens and the elements could have been made larger than they are; and God could have made far more heavens, and in them more, larger, and more splendid stars. Then, as to the fullness and universality of things: for far more lowest species than there are could have been created. Besides, as to duration: for the world could have been so made that it were older than this one is, and would be more long-lasting. Lastly, as to the accidental perfection of natural things, which perfection can be amplified more and more. But on the contrary we deny that the world could have been made better in five other ways. First, as to the substantial perfection of things, which can in no way be increased. Then as to the order and disposition of the parts of the world and of the other things that are in it—which order we esteem so good that we do not think one could be better, or more fitting and seemly to this world. Then, in the rule and govern-...35
...et gubernatione mundi, quae optima et praestantissima est. Praeterea, secundum proportionem et convenientiam, atque aptitudinem partium mundi inter se et cum ipso mundo. Ad extremum, respectu eius finis propter quem mundus est a Deo factus: eius enim comparatione aliter mundus fieri melius, nec debuit nec potuit.
...and in the rule and governance of the world, which is most excellent and most surpassing. Besides, as to the proportion, agreement, and fitness of the parts of the world among themselves and with the world itself. Finally, in respect of that end for which the world was made by God: for in comparison with that, the world neither ought nor could have been made better in any other way.36
Alteram difficultatem breviter ad hunc modum explicare possumus. Vera et propria ratio, cur non ante creatum hominem, sed statim post dictum est: Vidit Deus cuncta quae fecerat, et erant valde bona, illa est, quod id dici non debuit, nec vero potuit nisi consummatis iam omnibus mundi operibus: extremus autem cunctorum Dei operum, factus est homo, quare non debuit illud dici nisi ante creato homine. Adiici possunt aliae causae nec ineptae nec contemnendae. Prima, homo est quodammodo finis omnium, et in omnia potestatem et imperium a Deo accepit. Secunda, quaecumque a Deo sunt facta, inveniuntur in homine dupliciter, vel secundum esse reale, prout in uno homine omnes gradus aliarum rerum continentur: habet enim homo esse cum inanimis commune, vitam cum stirpibus, sensum motumque cum animantibus, mentem atque intelligentiam cum Angelis; vel secundum esse intelligibile, est enim anima rationalis, ut Aristoteles tradit in tertio libro de anima quodammodo omnia, habet enim in se imagines et similitudines rerum omnium quas intelligit, et intelligens fit quodammodo similis rebus intellectis. Tertia, homo est ligamen et vinculum et nexus Universi, in eo enim consociantur inter se atque coniunguntur res incorporeae cum corporeis, et immortales cum mortalibus. Quarta, status mundi, tam nunc quam post diem iudicii conformatur ad statum hominis, sicut paulo superius ostendimus. Quinta, propter hominem simul et Deum Christum Iesum, creaturae omnes per hominem erant deificandae: nam propter unionem hypostaticam verbi cum humana natura, deificata Christi humanitate, una quoque omnes creaturae, quae in ea continentur, mirabiliter sunt deificatae. Liquet igitur ex his, quemadmodum creato homine, ingens quaedam multiplicis bonitatis et excellentiae accessio ad ceteras omnes res facta sit.
The second difficulty we can briefly explain in this manner. The true and proper reason why it was said not before the creation of man, but immediately after, God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good, is this: that it ought not, indeed could not, be said until all the works of the world were now consummated; but the last of all the works of God was man made, wherefore it ought not to be said except with man already created. Other reasons, neither inept nor to be despised, can be added. First, man is in a certain way the end of all, and received from God power and dominion over all. Second, whatever things were made by God are found in man in two ways: either according to real being, inasmuch as in the one man all the grades of the other things are contained—for man has being in common with inanimate things, life with plants, sense and motion with animals, mind and intelligence with the Angels; or according to intelligible being, for the rational soul, as Aristotle hands down in the third book On the Soul, is in a certain way all things, since it has in itself the images and likenesses of all the things it understands, and in understanding becomes in a certain way like to the things understood. Third, man is the ligament and bond and connection of the Universe, for in him the incorporeal things are associated and joined with the corporeal, and the immortal with the mortal. Fourth, the state of the world, both now and after the day of judgment, is conformed to the state of man, as we showed a little above. Fifth, for the sake of man together with God, Christ Jesus, all creatures were to be deified through man; for, on account of the hypostatic union of the Word with human nature, the humanity of Christ being deified, together also all the creatures which are contained in it are wonderfully deified. It is clear, therefore, from these things, how, man being created, a certain great accession of manifold goodness and excellence was made to all the other things.37
God completed on the seventh day his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had done. — Chapter 2, Verse 2.38
Complevit Deus die septimo opus suum quod fecerat, et requievit die septimo ab universo opere quod patrarat. — Cap. 2, Vers. 2.
Septuaginta Interpretes habent hoc loco, Deum complevisse opus suum die sexto: at Hebraice est die septimo, idemque habet Chaldaica paraphrasis et vulgata translatio Latina: Sanctus Hieronymus in libro de Traditionibus Hebraicis ita scribit, citans hunc locum secundum LXX.
The Seventy Translators have in this place that God completed his work on the sixth day; but in the Hebrew it is on the seventh day, and the same has the Chaldee paraphrase and the Vulgate Latin translation. Saint Jerome, in his book On the Hebrew Traditions, writes thus, citing this passage according to the Septuagint:39
“And God finished, on the sixth day, his works which he made. For 'on the sixth day' the Hebrew has 'the seventh day.' We shall therefore press hard upon the Jews, who glory in the rest of the Sabbath, [showing] that already then, at the beginning, the Sabbath was dissolved, since God works on the Sabbath, completing his works on it, and blessing that very day because on it he completed all things.” Thus Jerome.40
Et consummavit Deus in die sexta, opera sua quae fecit. Pro die sexta in Hebraeo diem septimam habet. Arctabimus igitur Iudaeos, qui de otio Sabbathi gloriantur, quod iam tunc in principio, Sabbathum dissolutum sit, dum Deus operatur in Sabbatho, complens opera sua in eo, et benedicens ipsi diei, quia in illo universa compleverit. Sic Hieronymus.
Verum haec discrepantia est verborum magis quam sententiarum: utrumque enim verum est, utrumque eandem habet sententiam. Etenim mundus absolutus est die 6. videlicet inclusive, die autem septimo exclusive, Sexto namque die, ultimum opus mundi factum est, quo perfecto mundus est consummatus, die autem septimo vacavit Deus a fabricatione mundi. Nam quod ait Catharinus, die septimo creatam esse mulierem, id videtur sacris litteris alienum: quippe sub finem primi capitis Moses describens hominis creationem, docet Deum sexto die creasse hominem, et masculum et foeminam fecisse. Absolutis item cunctis mundi operibus, tradit Deum vidisse cuncta quae fecerat, et erant valde bona. Et mox subdit, Et factum est vespere et mane dies sextus. In Exodo quoque capite vigesimo et trigesimoprimo manifeste scriptum est, Deum sex diebus condidisse omnia, quae sunt in mundo: in die autem septimo vacasse ab operando: Initio etiam secundi capitis libri Geneseos Moses inquit Deum complevisse opus suum die septimo, quia in eo cessavit ab omni opere quod patraverat. Quod autem Septuaginta Interpretes sic intelligendi sint, ut nos exposuimus, patet considerando verba eorum quae sunt in principio secundi capitis: Sic autem se habent, Perfecit Deus in die sexta opera sua quae fecit: et requievit Deus in die septima ab omnibus operibus suis quae fecit. Quo intellegere licet secundum ipsos, Deum sexto die complevisse opera sua, faciendo tunc ultimum opus, die autem septimo complevisse, scilicet tunc primum vacando ab effectione et molitione mundi.
But this divergence is of words rather than of meanings; for both are true, both have the same sense. For the world was completed on the sixth day, namely inclusively, but on the seventh exclusively: for on the sixth day the last work of the world was made, which being perfected, the world was consummated; but on the seventh day God ceased from the fabrication of the world. As for what Catharinus says, that the woman was created on the seventh day, that seems foreign to the sacred writings; for at the end of the first chapter Moses, describing the creation of man, teaches that God created man on the sixth day, and made them male and female. And likewise, all the works of the world being finished, he relates that God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good. And soon he adds, And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. In Exodus too, in the twentieth and thirty-first chapters, it is plainly written that God founded in six days all the things that are in the world, but on the seventh day ceased from working. And at the beginning of the second chapter of Genesis Moses says that God completed his work on the seventh day, because on it he rested from all the work which he had done. And that the Seventy Translators are to be understood as we have expounded is plain by considering their words at the beginning of the second chapter; for they stand thus: God perfected on the sixth day his works which he made, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works which he made. Whence one may understand, according to them, that God completed his works on the sixth day by then making the last work, but completed them on the seventh day, namely by then first ceasing from the making and contriving of the world.41
Ponderavit Caietanus illa verba, Complevit Deus die septima opus suum quod fecerat. Non enim inquit Deum complevisse opus suum simpliciter et praecise, ne videlicet putaret quispiam Deum fecisse quicquid poterat et quantumcumque poterat: cum enim Deus infinitae sit potentiae ad agendum, nunquam facit tantum quantum potest facere, sed quocumque facto, aliud et aliud in infinitum potest facere. Dicitur igitur complere opus, quia facit quantum intenderat et statuerat facere, et quantum ratio operis postulat, et quia vacat ab agendo.
Cajetan weighed those words, God completed on the seventh day his work which he had made. For he does not say that God completed his work simply and precisely—lest, namely, anyone should think that God made whatever he could and as much as he could: for since God is of infinite power for acting, he never makes only as much as he can make, but, whatever be made, he can make other and other things without end. He is said therefore to 'complete' the work because he makes as much as he had intended and determined to make, and as much as the nature of the work requires, and because he rests from acting.42
Quod autem dicitur, Deum requievisse die septimo ab universo opere quod patraverat: non est sic accipiendum, ut intelligamus Deum more nostro, ex fabricatione mundi quasi lassum et defatigatum cepisse requiem a labore: Siquidem in Scriptura, Requiescere saepe non aliud significat, quam cessationem et vacationem ab agendo. Exempla in divinis litteris passim sunt obvia. illustre est illud in Apocalypsi capite quarto, de sanctis animalibus,...
But as for what is said, that God rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had done: it is not to be taken so that we should understand God, after our manner, as having, from the fabrication of the world, as it were weary and worn out, taken rest from labor. For in Scripture, 'to rest' often signifies nothing other than cessation and ceasing from acting. Examples are everywhere ready at hand in the divine writings. An illustrious one is that in the Apocalypse, chapter four, concerning the holy living creatures,...43
...Et requiem non habebant, ait Ioannes, die ac nocte dicentia, Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus omnipotens, pro eo quod est, nunquam cessabant aut intermittebant dicere illa verba, alioqui maxima et unica requies est beatorum, perpetuo Deum laudare. Similem habet intellectum illud Isaiae capite primo: Quiescite agere perverse, discite benefacere. Et capite secundo: Quiescite ab homine, cuius spiritus in naribus eius est, hoc est desistite eum offendere. Et in libro Iosue capite quinto pro eo quod Latine legimus, Defecit manna, postquam comederunt de frugibus terrae, Hebraice est, Quievit manna. Et in libro Ecclesiastici capite decimooctavo: Cum consummaverit homo, tunc incipiet, et cum quieverit, operabitur. Sic hoc loco, sumi nomen quietis declarat Moses mox subiungens, Deum benedixisse diei septimo, quod in ipso cessaverat ab omni opere quod creaverat.
...And they had no rest, says John, day and night saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty—meaning that they never ceased or left off saying those words; for otherwise the greatest and only rest of the blessed is to praise God perpetually. A similar sense has that passage of Isaiah, chapter one: Cease to do perversely, learn to do well. And in chapter two: Cease from the man whose breath is in his nostrils—that is, leave off offending him. And in the book of Joshua, chapter five, for what we read in Latin, The manna failed after they had eaten of the fruits of the land, the Hebrew has, The manna rested. And in the book of Ecclesiasticus, chapter eighteen: When a man hath finished, then shall he begin; and when he hath rested, he shall work. So in this place, that the word 'rest' is taken [in this sense] Moses declares, immediately adding that God blessed the seventh day because on it he had ceased from all the work which he had created.44
Aristobulus, ut libri decimitertii de Praeparatione Evangelica capite sexto refert Eusebius, prodidit, propterea dictum esse septimo die quievisse Deum, quod conditis a se rebus, quietem indidit, hoc est, stabilitatem, permanentiam, perpetuitatem, ordinemque ratum, fixum et immutabilem: vel quod quaecumque facere decreverat, prorsus ita ut destinaverat perfecta fuerint. Sicut dixit David, Omnia quaecumque voluit Dominus, fecit in Caelo, et in terra, in mari, et in omnibus abyssis: et alio loco, Magna opera Domini, exquisita in omnes voluntates eius. Ne quisquam vero suspicaretur ita cessasse Deum ab operando, ut nihil amplius in posterum operaretur, signate dixit Moses, cessasse illum ab omni opere quod patraverat, hoc est, a fabrica et molitione mundi, quam sex diebus absoluit, ut nihil quod ad integritatem et ornatum mundi pertineret, ultra sex illos dies factum sit. Hoc autem propterea Moses addidit, ut manifestum esset cuivis, fabricam mundi sex illis diebus fuisse omnino completam: alioqui Deus non amovisset manum ab opere, quoad ei quasi fastigium imposuisset: non enim decebat tantum opus inchoatum et imperfectum dimittere.
Aristobulus, as Eusebius reports in the thirteenth book of the Preparation for the Gospel, chapter six, handed down that God is said to have rested on the seventh day because, the things being founded by him, he implanted rest in them—that is, stability, permanence, perpetuity, and a settled, fixed, and immutable order; or because whatever he had decreed to make was wholly perfected just as he had purposed. As David said, All things whatsoever the Lord pleased he hath done, in heaven, in earth, in the sea, and in all the deeps; and in another place, Great are the works of the Lord, sought out according to all his wills. But lest anyone should suspect that God so ceased from working that he would work nothing more thereafter, Moses said expressly that he ceased from all the work which he had done—that is, from the fabric and contriving of the world, which he finished in six days—so that nothing pertaining to the completeness and adornment of the world was made beyond those six days. And Moses added this so that it might be manifest to anyone that the fabric of the world was entirely completed in those six days; otherwise God would not have removed his hand from the work until he had, as it were, set the crown upon it: for it was not fitting to leave so great a work begun and imperfect.45
Ex his palam est, alienam esse huic loco quaestionem, illam quam Theologi quidam tractare solent, quomodo tradat Moses Deum septimo die requievisse ab omni opere, Cum Dominus noster dixerit Iudaeis, ut memorat Ioannes c. 5. Pater meus usque modo operatur, et ego operor? Quam quaestionem ita enodavit Augustinus libro 4. de Genesi ad litteram cap. 12.
From these things it is plain that the question which certain theologians are wont to treat is foreign to this place: namely, how Moses hands down that God rested on the seventh day from all work, when our Lord said to the Jews, as John records in chapter 5, My Father worketh until now, and I work? Which question Augustine thus unraveled in the fourth book On Genesis according to the Letter, chapter 12.46
“It can be understood,” he says, “that God rested from founding the kinds of creatures, because he founded no new kinds beyond [the six days]; but thenceforth, even until now and beyond, he works the administration of those same kinds which were then established. For on the seventh day his power did not cease from the governance of the heaven and the earth and all the things he had founded—otherwise they would at once dissolve. For the power of the Creator, and the might of him who is omnipotent and holds all things, is the cause of subsisting to every creature; and if this might should ever cease from ruling the things that were created, at the same time their form would cease, and all nature would collapse. For it is not, as with the structure of a building—when one has built it, and...”47
Potest, inquit, intelligi, Deum requievisse a condendis generibus creaturae, quia ultra iam non condidit aliqua genera nova: deinceps autem usque nunc et ultra operatur eorumdem generum administrationem, quae tunc instituta sunt: non enim die septimo potentia eius a Caeli et terrae omniumque rerum quas condiderat gubernatione cessavit, alioquin continuo dilaberentur. Creatoris namque potentia, et omnipotentis atque omnitenentis virtus, causa subsistendi est omni creaturae. Qua virtus ab eis quae creata sunt regendis, si aliquando cessaret, simul et illorum cessaret species, omnisque natura concideret. Neque enim, sicut structura aedium, cum fabricaverit quis, et...
“...one departs, and, he ceasing and departing, his work yet stands: so could the world stand even for the twinkling of an eye, if God should withdraw from it his rule. Accordingly, that the Lord says, My Father worketh until now, shows a certain continuation of his work, by which he holds together and administers the whole creation.” Thus Augustine resolved the question.48
...quis, et abscedit, atque illo cessante atque abscedente stat opus eius: ita mundus vel ictu oculi stare poterit, si ei Deus regimen sui subtraxerit. Proinde et quod Dominus ait, Pater meus usque nunc operatur: continuationem quandam operis eius, qua universam creaturam continet atque administrat, ostendit. Sic Augustinus quaestionem soluit.
Subtilius autem et distinctius eandem explicant alii Theologi. Aiunt Deum post sex illos primos dies, quibus mundus fabricatus et absolutus est, nihil fecisse omnino novum, et quod non in operibus illorum sex dierum aliquo modo contineretur, scilicet aut materialiter, ut Eva in costa Adae (siquidem putant quidam ut supra retuli, Euam die septimo esse creatam) aut causaliter et effective, sicut omnia individua cuiusque speciei in primis illis individuis, secundum quamlibet speciem in exordio mundi productis: aut potentialiter, velut animalia quae generantur ex commistione diversarum specierum, in illis speciebus unde generantur: aut virtualiter, ut ea quae fiunt ex putri materia; continebantur enim in virtutibus stellarum et elementorum aliorumque corporum, quibus eas virtutes Deus indidit, cum mundum est architectatus: aut secundum similitudinem speciei, quemadmodum omnes animae rationales deinceps creatae seu creandae, quodammodo erant in prima anima Adae, omnes namque sunt eiusdem speciei: gloria item beatorum hominum, praefulsit in gloria sanctorum Angelorum: et gloria humanorum corporum, futura post resurrectionem, quodammodo praeluxit in claritate et gloria Caeli empyrei. Haec isti docent, vere quidem et docte, quis negat? at, quantum ad hunc locum attinet, supervacanee nec satis apte. Non enim Moses ait, Deum septimo die requievisse ab omni opere simpliciter, sed cum hac adiunctione, Ab omni opere quod patraverat, videlicet sex primis diebus: ut sensus sit, Deum fabricam mundi absoluisse sex diebus: quapropter die septimo destitisse fabricare amplius mundum.
But other theologians explain the same more subtly and distinctly. They say that God, after those first six days in which the world was fabricated and finished, made nothing at all new, and nothing which was not in some way contained in the works of those six days: namely, either materially, as Eve in the rib of Adam (since some think, as I reported above, that Eve was created on the seventh day); or causally and effectively, as all the individuals of each species [were contained] in those first individuals produced according to each species at the beginning of the world; or potentially, as the animals generated from the mingling of diverse species [were contained] in those species from which they are generated; or virtually, as the things that come to be from putrid matter—for they were contained in the powers of the stars and the elements and other bodies, in which God implanted those powers when he framed the world; or according to a likeness of species, as all the rational souls thereafter created or to be created were in a certain way in the first soul of Adam, for all are of the same species; likewise the glory of the blessed men shone forth beforehand in the glory of the holy Angels; and the glory of human bodies, to come after the resurrection, in a certain way shone forth beforehand in the brightness and glory of the empyrean Heaven. These things they teach truly indeed and learnedly—who denies it? But, as far as this passage is concerned, superfluously and not aptly enough. For Moses does not say that God rested on the seventh day from all work simply, but with this addition, From all the work which he had done—namely in the first six days: so that the sense is, that God finished the fabric of the world in six days, and therefore on the seventh day ceased to fabricate the world any further.49
Verum de hac Dei quiete, multa pie eruditeque philosophantur Patres, Beatus Augustinus libro quarto de Genesi ad litteram, capite decimoquinto, et Beda in Hexameron, propterea, inquiunt, dictum esse Deum quievisse die septimo ab operibus suis, non autem in operibus suis: ut intelligeremus, Deum non esse adductum ad res creandas, ulla necessitate vel indigentia, sed sua duntaxat bonitate ac munificentia, scilicet ut bona sua etiam cum aliis communicaret. Non igitur requievit in opere suo, ex illo utilitatem ullam aut voluptatem capiens, sed requievit ab opere, hoc est, perfecto opere requievit, nempe in seipso, sicut ante creationem mundi, et ex omni aeternitate in seipso requiescebat, se solo fruens et se solo contentus ac beatus. Sic habent supradicto loco Augustini verba:
But concerning this rest of God the Fathers philosophize much, piously and learnedly: Blessed Augustine, in the fourth book On Genesis according to the Letter, chapter fifteen, and Bede in the Hexameron, say that it was said God rested on the seventh day 'from' his works, but not 'in' his works—so that we might understand that God was not led to create things by any necessity or need, but only by his own goodness and munificence, namely that he might communicate his goods to others also. He did not therefore rest in his work, taking from it any benefit or pleasure, but rested from his work—that is, the work being perfected, he rested, namely in himself; as before the creation of the world, and from all eternity, he rested in himself, enjoying himself alone, and content and blessed in himself alone. Thus stand Augustine's words in the aforesaid place:50
“For surely, because it is a fault and an infirmity of the soul to be so delighted in its own works that...”51
Nimirum ergo quia vitium est et infirmitas animae, ita suis operibus delectari, ut...
“...that it rather rests in them than from them in itself—whereas without doubt there is something better in [the soul], by which they were made, than the things that were made. It is intimated to us by this Scripture, in which God is said to have rested from all his works which he made, that he was delighted by no work of his as though he had needed the making of it, or would be less if he had not made it, or more blessed when he had made it. For since whatever is from him is so from him that it owes to him that it is, while he himself owes to no one [the fact] that he is blessed, he set himself, by loving, before the things he made: not sanctifying the day on which he began them to be made, nor the day on which he perfected them, lest his joy should seem to be increased by their being made or having been made, but the day on which he rested from them in himself. And he himself indeed never lacked this rest, but he showed it to us through the seventh day: thereby also signifying that his rest is not perceived save by the perfect, since, for its imitation, he appointed no day but the one which followed the perfection of all things.” Thus Augustine.52
...ut potius in ipsis quam in se requiescat ab eis: cum proculdubio melius aliquid in illa sit, quo ea facta sunt, quam quae facta sunt. Insinuatur nobis per hanc Scripturam qua dicitur requievisse Deus ab omnibus operibus suis quae fecit, nullo opere suo sic delectatus, quasi faciendi eius eguerit, vel minor futurus nisi fecisset, vel beatior cum fecisset. Quia enim ex illo ita est quiquid ex illo est, ut ei debeat quod est, ipse autem nulli quod ex ipso est, debeat quod beatus est, se rebus quas fecit diligendo praeposuit: non sanctificans diem quo ea facienda inchoavit, nec illum quo ea perfecit, ne illis vel faciendis vel factis auctum eius gaudium videretur, sed eum quo ab ipsis in seipso requievit. Et ipse quidem nunquam ista requie caruit, sed nobis eam per diem septimum ostendit: hinc etiam significans non percipi requiem suam nisi a perfectis, cum ad eam imitandam non deputavit diem nisi qui perfectionem rerum omnium sequebatur. Haec Augustinus.
Alii tradunt quietem hanc Dei in septimo die post effectionem mundi, fuisse figuram quietis Christi in sepulchro, die sabbathi, postquam die sexto opus nostrae redemptionis per passionem et mortem suam consummasset. Nos quoque post laborem sex dierum praesentis vitae requiescemus septimo die in altera vita, sicut ait Ioannes in Apocalypsi capite decimoquarto, A modo iam dicit Spiritus, ut requiescant a laboribus suis. Nobis quoque non est feriandum ab opere et labore tota hac vita, quoad perveniamus ad Sabbathum, nec opera nostra completa erunt, aut gratia consummata, quoad illuc fuerit perventum. Vetabat Deus olim die Sabbathi, ignem accendi in domibus Iudaeorum ad parandum cibum, quinetiam colligi manna eo die prohibebat: illud, necessitates praesentis vitae, hoc laboriosam et solicitam divinae gratiae acquisitionem adumbrat: quorum neutrum opus erit in altera vita. Verum de caelesti sabbathismo sanctorum, multa Paulus in Epistola ad Hebraeos divine disputat.
Others hand down that this rest of God on the seventh day after the making of the world was a figure of the rest of Christ in the sepulchre, on the Sabbath day, after on the sixth day he had consummated the work of our redemption by his passion and death. We too, after the labor of the six days of the present life, shall rest on the seventh day in the other life, as John says in the Apocalypse, chapter fourteen: From henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors. Nor are we to keep holiday from work and labor in all this life, until we come to the Sabbath; nor will our works be complete, or grace consummated, until it be reached. God of old forbade fire to be kindled on the Sabbath day in the houses of the Jews for preparing food, and likewise forbade the gathering of manna on that day: the former adumbrates the necessities of the present life, the latter the laborious and anxious acquisition of divine grace—neither of which will be a work in the other life. But concerning the heavenly sabbatism of the saints, Paul disputes much and divinely in the Epistle to the Hebrews.53
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he had ceased from all his work which God created and made. — Chapter 2, Verse 3.54
Et benedixit Deus diei septimo, et sanctificavit illum: quia in ipso cessaverat ab omni opere suo quod creavit Deus ut faceret. — Cap. 2, Vers. 3.
Quilibet priorum sex dierum, habuit opus aliquod a Deo factum, quare ne ob id septimus dies existimaretur ociosus et ignobilis, singularem illi Deus benedictionem impertivit: videlicet ut ostenderet diem hunc Indicem esse perfectionis et absolutionis Universi. Voluit autem Deus hoc die desistere et vacare ab operando, quo indicaret omnia quae ad perficiendum mundi opificium pertinebant, sex superioribus diebus esse...
Each of the prior six days had some work made by God; wherefore, lest on that account the seventh day should be thought idle and ignoble, God bestowed on it a singular blessing—namely to show that this day is the Index of the perfection and completion of the Universe. And God willed on this day to cease and rest from working, that he might indicate that all the things pertaining to the perfecting of the world's fabric were, in the six preceding days...55
...facta et completa: et quia opus perficere et absolvere, melius ac nobilius est quam inchoare et facere, propterea maiori honore diem septimum quam superiores sex dies dignatus est Deus, atque ad hunc modum supradicta Mosis verba, Theodoretus quaestione vicesimaprima in Genesim interpretatur. Quoniam autem Deum benedicere alicui, non aliud est quam benefacere, et quidem large et abundanter: Deum benedixisse diei septimo arguit diem hunc multis et egregiis Dei beneficiis, et praeclarissimis factis esse honestatum atque decoratum.
...made and completed; and because to perfect and complete a work is better and nobler than to begin and make it, therefore God deemed the seventh day worthy of greater honor than the preceding six days; and in this manner Theodoret interprets the aforesaid words of Moses, in the twenty-first question on Genesis. And since for God to bless someone is nothing other than to do good, and that largely and abundantly, that God blessed the seventh day shows that this day was honored and adorned by many and excellent benefits of God, and by most illustrious deeds.56
Certe diem hunc septimum exemit Deus ab omni labore et servili opere, ita ut ceteri dies in operando et laborando consumerentur, hic autem dies esset vacationis et requietis. Hunc diem applicuit Deus ad cultum suum, ut in hoc nimirum homines a laboribus et curis terrenis feriati, meditationi rerum divinarum, sacrarumque rerum tractationi, vacuo et libero animo studere et vacare possent. Hoc die per omnes Synagogas exponebatur lex Mosis, et verbum Dei explicabatur, ut traditur in Actis Apostolorum, capite decimoquinto: Ab hoc die ceteri omnes hebdomadae dies numerabantur et nominabantur; apud Iudaeos enim, prima Sabbathi dicebatur dies Dominicus, secunda Sabbathi dies Lunae, tertia Sabbathi dies Martis, et itidem deinceps. Erat dies hic optatissimus servis, ancillis, mercenariis, et aliis qui laborando et serviendo duriter vitam agebant: in eo namque requies ab omni labore dabatur omnibus.
Certainly God exempted this seventh day from all labor and servile work, so that the other days were spent in working and laboring, but this day was one of leisure and rest. This day God applied to his own worship, that on it, namely, men, keeping holiday from earthly labors and cares, might be able to study and devote themselves, with an empty and free mind, to the meditation of divine things and the handling of sacred matters. On this day, throughout all the Synagogues, the law of Moses was expounded, and the word of God explained, as is related in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter fifteen. From this day all the other days of the week were numbered and named; for among the Jews, the first of the Sabbath was called the Lord's day, the second of the Sabbath the day of the Moon, the third of the Sabbath the day of Mars, and so on in like manner. This day was most desired by male and female servants, hired laborers, and others who passed a hard life in laboring and serving; for on it rest from all labor was given to all.57
Ad huius diei similitudinem quilibet septimus annus erat annus quietis terrae: et transactis septem hebdomadibus annorum, ultimus septimae hebdomadis annus, initium dabat Iubilaeo, quo nihil erat apud Iudaeos optatius, latius, et dulcius. Danieli quoque per septuaginta annorum septimanas, tempus Messiae adventus definitum fuit. Denique multis ac praeclaris rebus, in Scriptura septenarium numerum consecratum et nobilitatum reperimus: de cuius numeri virtutibus et laudibus, cum alii copiose disseruerunt, tum multa subtiliter et accurate in libro de mundi opificio tradit Philo: lege item quae de eo scripsit Eusebius, libro decimotertio, de Praeparatione Evangelica, capite septimo, et ante eum, Clemens Alexandrinus, libro sexto Stromatum. Beda in Hexameron, et ante Bedam Augustinus libro primo de Genesi contra Manichaeos, capite decimotertio, sex dies quibus mundus est conditus, adaptant ad sex mundi aetates, convenientiam quae est inter quemlibet illorum dierum et quamcunque aetatem mundi, nec inepte nec inscite declarantes.
After the likeness of this day, every seventh year was a year of rest for the land; and when seven weeks of years had passed, the last year of the seventh week gave the beginning to the Jubilee, than which nothing among the Jews was more desired, more joyful, and more sweet. To Daniel too, by the seventy weeks of years, the time of the Messiah's coming was determined. Finally, by many illustrious things in Scripture we find the number seven consecrated and ennobled; of which number's virtues and praises, while others have discoursed copiously, Philo too hands down many things subtly and accurately in the book On the Making of the World. Read likewise what Eusebius wrote of it in the thirteenth book of the Preparation for the Gospel, chapter seven, and before him Clement of Alexandria in the sixth book of the Stromata. Bede in the Hexameron, and before Bede Augustine in the first book On Genesis against the Manichees, chapter thirteen, adapt the six days in which the world was founded to the six ages of the world, declaring, neither ineptly nor unskilfully, the agreement that exists between each of those days and each age of the world.58
Sed qua ratione Deus sanctificavit diem Sabbathi? In divina Scriptura, sanctificare idem significat quod separare a pollutione, immunditia, et profano usu, et ad Dei cultum applicare: sic sanctificabantur primogenita, vasa templi, vestes sacerdotales, ipsique Levitae. Sanctificavit igitur diem Sabbathi, quia cum reliquos...
But in what way did God sanctify the Sabbath day? In divine Scripture, to sanctify means the same as to separate from pollution, uncleanness, and profane use, and to apply to the worship of God: thus were sanctified the firstborn, the vessels of the temple, the priestly vestments, and the Levites themselves. He sanctified, therefore, the Sabbath day, because, while the remaining [days]...59
...liquos dies destinasset labori, hunc assignavit otio et quieti, suoque cultui addixit: itaque aliis diebus, quodlibet opus facere, et quantumlibet, et quomodolibet laborare et operari licebat, tanquam dies illi essent profani et ignobiles: septimo autem die ut sacro, religioso, venerabili, rerumque divinarum tractationi dicato, non opus servile facere, non civilia negocia expedire, non durum aut gravem laborem suscipere licebat.
...had destined the remaining days to labor, he assigned this one to leisure and rest, and consecrated it to his own worship: and so on the other days it was permitted to do any work whatever, and to labor and toil as much and in whatever manner one would, as though those days were profane and ignoble; but on the seventh day, as on a day sacred, religious, venerable, and dedicated to the handling of divine things, it was not permitted to do servile work, nor to dispatch civil business, nor to undertake hard or heavy labor.60
Sed quaestio est, an ex his verbis Mosis intelligendum sit, Deum iam tunc in exordio mundi observationem Sabbathi praecepisse, qualem videlicet post multa saecula sanxit lex Mosaica. Catharinus hoc ait, idque argumentatur ex hoc loco, neque enim aliud esse Sabbathum sanctificare, quam ab omni labore, et servili opere, diem illum vacuum facere, et cultui divino consecrare: eodem enim modo postea per legem Mosis diem Sabbathi sanctificatum esse legimus. Tostatus autem hoc negat, nam quae hic traduntur de sanctificatione Sabbathi, dicta esse putat per anticipationem: nec referenda ad primum illum mundi nascentis Sabbathum, aut ad primaevos homines, sed ad statum et tempus legis Mosaicae: quo nimirum tempore hunc librum Moses Iudaeis scripsit. Non fuisse autem in exordio mundi indictam observationem Sabbathi, multa probant argumenta. Principio in statu innocentiae supervacaneum fuisset praescribere homini unum aliquem diem ad vacandum Deo et rebus divinis: tunc enim nihil futurum erat quod hominem avocaret a contemplatione et cultu Dei: quin ad hoc sponte sua propensissimus fuisset homo, nec septimo duntaxat die, sed quotidie, et quidem non semel sese ad meditandas, tractandasque res divinas dedidisset. Deinde praeceptum de vacando a labore et opere servili supervacuum fuisset in statu illo hominis foelicissimo, in quo nihil erat quod homini laborem, molestiam aut poenam aliquam afferret. Postea si tum datum esset praeceptum observandi Sabbathum, profecto cunctos mortales obstrinxisset: datum enim esset primo homini, et in eo omnibus eius posteris: constat autem nunquam fuisse apud Gentiles in more et instituto observationem Sabbathi: nec legimus sanctos Patriarchas diem Sabbathi observasse. Et vero, si ab Adamo usque perpetua fuisset huius praecepti traditio, et saltem apud pios viros observatio, cum Moses promulgando legem, praeceptum hoc indixit Iudaeis, haud dubie antiquitatem eius et religiosam observationem apud eorum maiores commemorasset, quo facilius Iudaeorum animos inclinaret ad hoc praeceptum prompte, studiose, sancteque custodiendum. Praeterea, tradunt fere Patres ac Theologi, Deum non aliud imposuisse Adae praeceptum omnino positivum, nisi illud de non edendo fructu arboris scientiae boni et mali. Adiice, Theologos docere, ante adventum Christi Gentiles per solam observationem praeceptorum moralium, et legis natura-...
But it is a question whether from these words of Moses it is to be understood that God, already then at the beginning of the world, commanded the observance of the Sabbath, such, namely, as the Mosaic law sanctioned many ages after. Catharinus says this, and argues it from this passage; for to sanctify the Sabbath is nothing other than to make that day free from all labor and servile work, and to consecrate it to divine worship—and in the same way we read that the Sabbath day was afterward sanctified by the law of Moses. But Tostatus denies this; for the things here related about the sanctification of the Sabbath he thinks were said by anticipation, and are not to be referred to that first Sabbath of the nascent world, or to the first men, but to the state and time of the Mosaic law, at which time, namely, Moses wrote this book for the Jews. And that the observance of the Sabbath was not enjoined at the beginning of the world, many arguments prove. First, in the state of innocence it would have been superfluous to prescribe to man some one day for devoting himself to God and divine things; for then there would have been nothing to call man away from the contemplation and worship of God—nay, to this man would have been most inclined of his own accord, and would have given himself to meditating and handling divine things not only on the seventh day, but daily, and indeed more than once. Then, the precept of resting from labor and servile work would have been superfluous in that most happy state of man, in which there was nothing to bring man any labor, trouble, or punishment. Again, if the precept of observing the Sabbath had then been given, it would surely have bound all mortals; for it would have been given to the first man, and in him to all his posterity; but it is established that the observance of the Sabbath was never in the custom and institution of the Gentiles, nor do we read that the holy Patriarchs observed the Sabbath day. And truly, if from Adam there had been a perpetual handing-down of this precept, and at least an observance among pious men, then, when Moses in promulgating the law enjoined this precept on the Jews, he would doubtless have recalled its antiquity and religious observance among their forefathers, that he might the more easily incline the minds of the Jews to keep this precept promptly, zealously, and devoutly. Besides, the Fathers and theologians generally hand down that God imposed on Adam no wholly positive precept except that of not eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Add that the theologians teach that, before the coming of Christ, the Gentiles could attain eternal salvation by the observance of the moral precepts and the law of nature alone...61
...naturalis, cum lumine aliquo Fidei divinae, et supernaturali auxilio Dei, potuisse aeternam salutem consequi: non igitur obligabat eos praeceptum Sabbathi: obligasset autem, si homini in exordio mundi fuisset impositum. Tostato suffragatur Beda: Nam sanctificationem Sabbathi, quae hic describitur, refert ad eam quae per legem Mosis postea tradita est Iudaeis. Ego quoque assentior Tostato potius quam Catharino: hanc enim sententiam, Eusebio in primo libro, Historiae Ecclesiasticae capite quarto, et Iustino in Dialogo, quem cum Tryphone habuit, necnon et Tertulliano atque Cypriano, in iis libris quos scripserunt adversus Iudaeos placuisse reperio.
...of nature, with some light of divine Faith and the supernatural help of God; therefore the precept of the Sabbath did not bind them—but it would have bound them, had it been imposed on man at the beginning of the world. Bede supports Tostatus; for the sanctification of the Sabbath which is here described he refers to that which was afterward handed down to the Jews through the law of Moses. I too assent to Tostatus rather than to Catharinus; for I find that this opinion was approved by Eusebius in the first book of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter four, and by Justin in the Dialogue which he held with Trypho, and also by Tertullian and Cyprian, in those books which they wrote against the Jews.62
Sed quid sibi vult Moses illis verbis, Quod creavit Deus ut faceret, seu, ut Hebraea sonant, Quod creaverat Deus ut faceret, quamquam Septuaginta Interpretes sic habent, Quae incepit Deus facere: quid inquam, est illud Creavit ut faceret? Rupertus libro secundo, de Trinitate et operibus eius, capite decimooctavo ad hunc modum interpretatur. Creavit Deus prius in Verbo aeterno, quod posterius fecit in opere externo. Creavit Deus aeternaliter in sua essentia, quae temporaliter creavit in propria quaque natura, secundum illud quod est in libro Ecclesiastici capite decimo octavo, Qui vivit in aeternum, creavit omnia simul. Sed dictum hoc Ruperti non impune praeteriret Theologorum censuram. Res enim prout sunt in Deo, non fiunt vel creantur a Deo, sed sunt coaeternae Deo, quinimo reipsa prorsus idem sunt quod Deus: Neque enim, ut exempli causa hoc dicam, hominis ideam, quae est in Deo, creavit Deus, non sane magis quam suammet essentiam.
But what does Moses mean by those words, Which God created that he might make—or, as the Hebrew sounds, Which God had created that he might make—although the Seventy Translators have it thus, Which God began to make? What, I say, is that 'He created that he might make'? Rupert, in the second book On the Trinity and his Works, chapter eighteen, interprets it in this manner: God created beforehand in the eternal Word what he afterward made in the external work. God created eternally in his own essence the things which he created temporally in their own several natures, according to that which is in the book of Ecclesiasticus, chapter eighteen: He that liveth for ever created all things together. But this saying of Rupert would not escape the censure of the theologians with impunity. For things, as they are in God, are not made or created by God, but are coeternal with God; nay, in very fact they are wholly the same as God. For, to say this by way of example, God did not create the idea of man which is in God—no more, indeed, than his own very essence.63
Catharinus triplicem distinguit operationem Dei generalem atque principalem: prima est creatio, qua res quae nihil erant, primum incipiunt esse: altera est restauratio principalis creaturae huius mundi, hoc est, hominis: tertia erit et hominis et mundi renovatio et glorificatio, quoniam igitur creatio terminata est ad effectionem mundi: ideo dixit Moses quod creavit Deus ut faceret, Hebraice ad verbum sic est, Quod creavit Deus producendo, seu ad producendum: quibus in verbis quidam Hebraice scientes nolunt latere ullum mysterium, sed esse purum Hebraismum, sicut alias dicit Scriptura, Iurando iuravit, percutiendo percussit, ita faciendo fecit. Alii sic interpretantur, Creavit ut faceret: quia non solum perfecit ut opus existeret quod erat, sed etiam indidit ei vim et potestatem faciendi aliud simile sui, et illud...
Catharinus distinguishes a threefold general and principal operation of God: the first is creation, by which the things that were nothing first begin to be; the second is the restoration of the principal creature of this world, that is, of man; the third will be the renewal and glorification both of man and of the world. Since therefore creation was terminated at the making of the world, Moses therefore said 'which God created that he might make'—in the Hebrew, word for word, it is thus, Which God created by producing, or unto producing; in which words certain men skilled in Hebrew hold that no mystery lies hidden, but that it is a pure Hebraism, as Scripture elsewhere says, By swearing he swore, by striking he struck, so by making he made. Others interpret 'He created that he might make' thus: because he not only brought it about that the work which existed should exist, but also implanted in it the force and power of making another like itself, and that one...64
...itidem aliud, et ita deinceps, quoad mundus perduraret, ne videlicet necesse esset semper Deum nova opera facere, et ex nihilo creare. Ergo et fecit res, et fecit ut illae alias sui similes facere possent, eaque ratione et perpetuitati rerum, mundique diuturnitati consuluit, et res ipsas hac dignitate nobilitavit, ut non solum essent, sed etiam alias res facerent. Atque his verbis, inquit Caietanus, denotatur finis cuiusque rei creatae, qui non est rem esse, sed est propria et perfecta eius operatio: nam ut ait Aristoteles libro secundo de Caelo textu 17. Cuiuscumque rei est aliquod opus, ea res est gratia illius operis. Sic Paulus ad Ephesios 2. de Christianis et sanctis loquens: Ipsius, inquit, sumus factura, creati in Christo Iesu, in operibus bonis quae praeparavit Deus, ut in illis ambulemus. Nec desunt non pessimi auctores, qui illud Vt faceret, accipiunt pro eo quod est, ut disponeret et ad certum usum et finem destinaret, quasi eo verbo declaretur, res omnes Deum non modo creasse et absoluisse, sed suum cuique finem praestituisse, et suis quasque res usibus destinasse: aiunt enim verbum Hebraeum, quod Latinus Interpres vertit, Vt faceret, proprie significare ordinationem, dispositionem, et ad aliquid certum destinationem et adaptationem.
...likewise another, and so on, as long as the world should last—lest, namely, it should be necessary for God always to make new works, and to create out of nothing. Therefore he both made things, and made them so that they could make others like themselves; and by this reasoning he both provided for the perpetuity of things and the long-lasting of the world, and ennobled the things themselves with this dignity, that they should not only be, but also make other things. And by these words, says Cajetan, is denoted the end of each created thing, which is not for the thing to be, but is its proper and perfect operation: for, as Aristotle says in the second book On the Heavens, text 17, Of whatever thing there is some work, that thing is for the sake of that work. So Paul, to the Ephesians 2, speaking of Christians and saints: We are, he says, his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them. Nor are there lacking authors—and not the worst—who take that 'that he might make' for 'that he might dispose and destine [each thing] to a fixed use and end,' as though by that word it were declared that God not only created and completed all things, but appointed to each its own end, and destined each thing to its own uses; for they say that the Hebrew word, which the Latin Translator rendered 'that he might make,' properly signifies ordination, disposition, and the destining and adapting [of a thing] to something fixed.65
Non faciam longius: illud tantum velut clausulam adiiciam: In hoc die septimo apparuisse integritatem, absolutionem, et consummationem, tam praeclari et admirandi operis a Deo perfecti: tunc simillimum vero est, omnes spiritus caelestes unanimi sensu, pari iubilo et concordi voce, laudasse Deum tantorum operum architectum et molitorem, secundum illud quod scriptum est apud Iob capite 38. Ubi eras, cum me laudarent astra matutina, et iubilarent omnes filii Dei, vel sicut eo loci habent Septuaginta Interpretes, Cum me magna voce laudarent omnes Angeli mei. Huius diei septimi singularem quandam excellentiam, praecipuamque religionem et sanctificationem, quasi per nubem vidisse Gentilium priscos illos Theologos, Linum, Homerum et Hesiodum, productis in medium eorum versibus in lib. 13. de Praeparatione Evangelica cap. 7. confirmat Eusebius.
I shall not go on at length; only this I shall add, as it were a closing clause: that on this seventh day appeared the completeness, finishing, and consummation of so illustrious and wondrous a work perfected by God. Then it is most like the truth that all the heavenly spirits, with one mind, with equal jubilation and harmonious voice, praised God, the architect and contriver of such great works—according to that which is written in Job, chapter 38: Where wast thou, when the morning stars praised me, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?—or, as the Seventy Translators have it in that place, When all my Angels praised me with a loud voice. That those ancient theologians of the Gentiles—Linus, Homer, and Hesiod—saw, as it were through a cloud, a certain singular excellence and especial religion and sanctification of this seventh day, Eusebius confirms in the thirteenth book of the Preparation for the Gospel, chapter 7, bringing forward their verses.66
In the day that the Lord God made every herb of the field before it sprang up: for the Lord God had not rained upon the earth, and there was no man to till the earth; but a spring rose out of the earth, watering all the surface of the earth. — Chapter 2, Verses 4, 5, and 6.67
In die quo fecit Dominus Deus omnem herbam regionis priusquam germinaret: non enim pluerat Dominus Deus super terram, et homo non erat qui operaretur eam, sed fons ascendebat e terra irrigans universam superficiem terrae. — Cap. 2, Vers. 4, 5, et 6.
Primis verbis docet Moses hoc loco, generationem plantarum quam supra tertio die factam commemoraverat, fuisse primam ante quam nulla unquam fuerat, eamque esse a Deo proxime factam immensa eius potentia, non autem vi ac potestate naturae: cuius rei illud ponit argumentum quod generatio illa plantarum facta est, ante generationem pluviae et effectionem hominis: natura vero sine imbribus, hominisque cultura, praestatiores plantas non procreat, nec ad perfectionem adducit. Illud igitur, Fecit Dominus Deus herbam regionis priusquam germinaret, significat, illam Dei procreationem plantarum fuisse primam omnium, non vi naturae, sed potentia Dei per-...
By the first words Moses here teaches that the generation of plants, which above he had recorded as made on the third day, was the first, before which there had never been any, and that it was made immediately by God by his immense power, and not by the force and power of nature; of which he sets down this argument: that that generation of plants was made before the generation of rain and the making of man; but nature, without showers and the tillage of man, does not procreate the better plants, nor bring them to perfection. That phrase, therefore, The Lord God made the herb of the field before it sprang up, signifies that that procreation of plants by God was the first of all, perfected not by the force of nature, but by the power of God...68
...fectam. Illorum autem verborum, Fons ascendebat e terra, irrigans universam superficiem terrae, quoniam Latinus et Graecus Interpres vocabulum Hebraeum Ed, exposuerunt vocabulo fontis, perobscura est sententia: quis enim fuerit fons ille universam irrigans terram difficilem habet explicatum. Augustinus exponit hoc dupliciter: Vel enim, inquit, fons dictus est pro fontes, singulari videlicet posito pro plurali, sicut fit in divina Scriptura frequenter, et significatur in exordio mundi aliquandiu, id est, ante generationem pluviae, terram aquis fontium esse irrigatam: vel si unus fuit fons, qui omnia terrae sata irrigabat, intelligendum est eum, statis temporum intervallis excrescentem et exundantem omnes terrae partes quae propter plantas aquis indigebant, irrigare consuevisse: Similiter ut Nilus altissime latissimeque supereffluens, omnem irrigat et foecundat Aegyptum, alternis quoque Oceani aestibus, littora quibusdam locis amplissime operiri fluctibus, eademque vicissim nudari notissimum est, quinetiam perhibent miram quorumdam fontium vicissitudinem, certo annorum intervallo eatenus inundantium, ut totam regionem adiacentem rigent, cum alio tempore vix ad potandum sufficientem ex altis puteis aquam praebeant. Sic Augustinus, libro quinto de Genesi ad litteram capite nono et decimo. Augustinum autem fere sequuntur Latini huius libri Interpretes: et ante Augustinum Philo similiter hunc locum interpretatus est.
...by God's power. But as for those words, A spring rose out of the earth, watering all the surface of the earth—since the Latin and the Greek translator rendered the Hebrew word 'Ed' by the word 'spring' (fons)—the sense is very obscure: for who that spring was that watered the whole earth is hard to explain. Augustine expounds this in two ways: Either, he says, 'spring' is put for 'springs,' the singular, namely, being set for the plural, as is frequently done in divine Scripture, and it is signified that at the beginning of the world for some time—that is, before the generation of rain—the earth was watered by the waters of springs; or, if there was one spring which watered all the crops of the earth, it must be understood that it was wont, swelling and overflowing at fixed intervals of time, to water all the parts of the earth which, for the sake of the plants, needed water; just as the Nile, overflowing most deeply and most widely, waters and makes fertile all Egypt. By the alternating tides of the Ocean too it is most well known that the shores in certain places are most amply covered by the waves and in turn laid bare; nay, they report a wonderful alternation of certain springs, which at a fixed interval of years flood so far as to water the whole adjacent region, while at another time they scarcely afford from deep wells water enough for drinking. Thus Augustine, in the fifth book On Genesis according to the Letter, chapters nine and ten. And the Latin interpreters of this book mostly follow Augustine; and before Augustine, Philo interpreted this passage similarly.69
Sed utramque Augustini responsionem doctorum hominum respuet fides. Neque enim fontium aqua ad omnes terrae plantas permanare, vel quantum opus esset, id est, nec plus nec magis quam cuiusque stirpis natura posceret, eas irrigare posset, sine industria et artificio hominis, qui, quocumque opus est, aquas terrestres derivare, et irrigationem arbitrio suo temperare ac modificare potest. Fuisse autem unum fontem qui omnes terrae stirpes et herbas suis aquis perfunderet plane excedit fidem: nam ut taceam immensam vim aquarum istius fontis esse debuisse, ut quaerere supersedeam, quid factum sit eo fonte, postquam terra imbribus perfundi et foecundari coepta est: illud urgeo, quemadmodum ab isto fonte tot tantaeque maris insulae irrigari potuerint, aut quomodo illius aquae celsissima montium iuga et cacumina viridantibus sylvis densissima, et variis plantarum generibus consita transcendere potuerint. Si dicant, infinita Dei potestate id esse factum, confugiantque ad miracula, satis indicabunt suae infirmitatem et improbabilitatem sententiae, quae nisi miraculorum adminiculis fulcrisque subnixa et sustentata, non possit consistere. In operibus enim Dei, praesertim quae ad mundi fabricam et absolutionem pertinent, explicandis, non est considerandum quid Deus immensa sua potentia facere potuerit, sed quid fecerit, aut quid facere eum maxime decuerit: nec quid omnipotentiae eius factu sit facile, sed quid conveniens sit naturis rerum et sapientiae Dei, qui mundum a se solo...
But the faith of learned men will reject both of Augustine's answers. For the water of springs could not flow through to all the plants of the earth, or water them as much as was needful—that is, neither more nor more abundantly than the nature of each plant required—without the industry and art of man, who can channel the earthly waters wherever there is need, and temper and modify the watering at his own discretion. And that there was one spring which flooded all the plants and herbs of the earth with its waters plainly exceeds belief; for, to say nothing of the immense force of waters which that spring must have had, and passing over the question what became of that spring after the earth began to be flooded and made fertile by rains, I press this: how could so many and so great islands of the sea have been watered by that spring? or how could its waters have crossed the loftiest ridges and peaks of the mountains, most densely [covered] with verdant forests and planted with various kinds of plants? If they say that this was done by the infinite power of God, and take refuge in miracles, they will sufficiently betray the weakness and improbability of their opinion, which, unless propped and sustained by the supports and props of miracles, could not stand. For in explaining the works of God, especially those which pertain to the fabric and completion of the world, one must consider not what God could do by his immense power, but what he did, or what it was most fitting for him to do; not what is easy for his omnipotence to do, but what is agreeable to the natures of things and to the wisdom of God, who [made] the world by himself alone...70
...se solo conditum, sicut ait Augustinus, deinceps agere naturales motus, suumque servare ordinem finit. Quo licet intelligere, sicut nunc generatio plantarum fit per causas naturales, ita quoque factam esse statim post illam primam, cum non sit opus miraculo illius fontis per omnem terram permanentis, et altissimos montes ad irrigandas quae in eis sunt stirpes conscendentis. Albinus inquit, terram quam dicit Moses irrigatam esse uno fonte, non omnem terrarum orbem esse intelligendum, sed terram duntaxat Paradisi, quam paulo post Moses ait irrigatam esse ab uno fluvio, qui extra Paradisum in quatuor flumina diducebatur. Verum nusquam ante hunc locum, Moses mentionem ullam fecit Paradisi, sed proxime post hunc locum, Paradisi historiam et narrationem orditur, cum autem praecise dicat omnem terram fuisse illo fonte irrigatam, extra sententia eius est, verba ipsius ad Paradisi terram restringere.
...[the world,] founded by himself alone, [God] lets henceforth carry on its natural motions and keep its own order, as Augustine says. Whereby it may be understood that, just as now the generation of plants comes about by natural causes, so too the [generation] right after that first one was made [naturally], since there is no need of a miracle of that spring spreading through all the earth and climbing the highest mountains to water the plants that are on them. Albinus (Alcuin) says that the earth which Moses says was watered by one spring is not to be understood as the whole world, but only the land of Paradise, which a little later Moses says was watered by one river, which outside Paradise was divided into four streams. But nowhere before this passage did Moses make any mention of Paradise; rather, immediately after this passage he begins the history and narrative of Paradise; and since he says precisely that all the earth was watered by that spring, it is outside his meaning to restrict his words to the land of Paradise.71
Glossa interlinearis negat ante diluvium ullas fuisse pluvias, sed terrestribus aquis toto eo tempore irrigatam esse terram. Atqui per totos mille sexcentos quinquaginta sex annos, ab exordio mundi ad diluvium usque transactos, nullam esse generatam pluviam, cum sit contra naturalem rerum cursum et ordinem, est omnino incredibile. Naturale enim est Soli, ex aquis et terra vapores extrahere et in mediam aeris regionem extollere: naturale est vapores illuc perlatos frigore loci in nubes cogi, et densari: naturale est ex densatis nubibus imbres gigni et in terras delabi: hic igitur tam naturalis ordo rerum, nisi Deo, summo quodam miraculo inhibente atque impediente, tamdiu intermitti et impediri non potuit.
The Interlinear Gloss denies that there were any rains before the flood, but [holds] that during all that time the earth was watered by earthly waters. But that through all the one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years that passed from the beginning of the world to the flood no rain was generated—since this is against the natural course and order of things—is altogether incredible. For it is natural to the Sun to draw vapors out of the waters and the earth and lift them into the middle region of the air; it is natural that vapors carried thither be compressed and condensed into clouds by the cold of the place; it is natural that from condensed clouds rains be generated and fall to the earth. This so natural order of things, therefore, could not be interrupted and impeded for so long, unless God by some supreme miracle were restraining and hindering it.72
Probabilior igitur loci huius interpretatio, ex propria notione vocabuli Hebraei eruenda est. Vocem אד Ed, Hebraei, et de Christianis, eius linguae scientissimi, affirmant significare vaporem, talem scilicet qualis est, quo vi Solis e terra in sublime attracto, pluvia generatur, cuius interpretationis affinis est ea quam secutus est Chaldaeus Paraphrastes, nubem interpretatus: nubes enim non aliud est quam vapor terrae vel aquae in sublimi coactus et densatus. Pro hac significatione est illud Eusebii fatentis, se audisse de quodam Hebraeo vocabulum Ed, non fontem, sed vaporem significare. Theodoretus quoque citat Aquilam interpretem, qui similiter eam vocem Hebraeam transtulerit, quam significationem ipse etiam sequens putat terram a principio non esse irrigatam imbribus, sed humore seu vapore qui post generalem illam aquarum a terra segregationem, tertio die factam, aliquandiu in ipsa remansit, et vicem pluviae ad eam perfundendam et foecundandam implevit. At enim vero, in istum vaporem seu humorem Theodoreti verba Mosis minime quadrant, ait enim vaporem ascendisse de terra et omnem superficiem eius irrigasse: verbum enim ascendendi et irrigandi, humori ex aquis in terra relicto, nequaquam congruit...
A more probable interpretation of this passage, therefore, is to be drawn from the proper meaning of the Hebrew word. The word אד (Ed), the Hebrews, and those Christians most skilled in that language, affirm to signify vapor—such, namely, as that by which, drawn up from the earth on high by the force of the Sun, rain is generated; to which interpretation is akin that which the Chaldee Paraphrast followed, interpreting it 'cloud'; for a cloud is nothing other than the vapor of earth or water, compressed and condensed on high. For this signification is that saying of Eusebius, confessing that he had heard from a certain Hebrew that the word 'Ed' signifies not a spring, but vapor. Theodoret too cites Aquila the translator, who similarly rendered that Hebrew word [as vapor]; which signification he himself also follows, holding that the earth at the beginning was not watered by rains, but by a moisture or vapor which, after that general separation of the waters from the earth made on the third day, remained for some time in it, and filled the office of rain for flooding and making it fertile. But in truth the words of Moses by no means fit that vapor or moisture of Theodoret; for he says that the vapor 'ascended from the earth' and 'watered all its surface': for the word of ascending and watering does not at all suit a moisture left from the waters in the earth...73
...congruit. Tostatus inquit, sed reclamantibus tamen Hebraeis, vocem Hebraicam Ed, esse ambiguam, et tam pro fonte quam pro vapore interdum poni et usurpari, quamquam si per ascensum vaporis e terra, intelligamus describi a Mose generationem pluviae, qua terra post primam illam plantarum procreationem perfundi et foecundari coepit ad generandas plantas; non erit alienum huic significationi vaporis vocabulum fontis a Graeco et Latino Interprete positum; perennis enim exhalatio vaporum ex terra in sublime, unde fit imbrium generatio, quasi fons quidam rite nominari potest. Aristoteles quidem certe primo libro Meteororum, summae tertiae, cap. 1. circularem et perennem quendam fluvium eam appellavit, cuius verba supra commemoravimus, cum de aquis super Caelos a Deo positis disputaremus.
...does not suit. Tostatus says—though with the Hebrews protesting—that the Hebrew word 'Ed' is ambiguous, and is sometimes put and used both for 'spring' and for 'vapor.' Yet if, by the ascent of vapor from the earth, we understand that Moses is describing the generation of rain, by which the earth, after that first procreation of plants, began to be flooded and made fertile for generating plants, then the word 'spring,' set down by the Greek and Latin Translator, will not be foreign to this signification of vapor; for the perennial exhalation of vapors from the earth on high, whence the generation of rains comes about, can rightly be named, as it were, a certain spring. Aristotle indeed, in the first book of the Meteorology, in the first chapter of the third part, called it a certain circular and perennial river, whose words we recalled above, when we disputed about the waters set by God above the heavens.74
Germana igitur huius loci explanatio et sententia ea videtur esse, primam quidem generationem plantarum a solo Deo immensa eius potentia, non autem per causas naturales esse factam, ceteras vero quae deinceps consecutae sunt stirpium generationes, factas esse modo et ratione naturali, videlicet per culturam hominis et vim pluviae, cuius materiam generationis, locum item finemque atque usum eius, his paucis verbis Moses aperuit: materiam, cum dixit Vapor: ex vaporibus enim gignitur pluvia: locum, cum inquit, Ascendebat e terra, ex vaporibus enim sublatis ex terra in superas aeris regiones pluviae generatio existit: finem autem et usum eius, cum adiicit, Et irrigabat universam superficiem terrae. Eiusdem pluviae generationem et usum, pulchre David exposuit Psalmo centesimo quadragesimosexto, pulcherrime autem Iob, capite trigesimosexto.
The genuine explanation and meaning of this passage, therefore, seems to be this: that the first generation of plants was made by God alone, by his immense power, and not by natural causes; but that the other generations of plants which followed thereafter were made in a natural manner and way, namely by the tillage of man and the force of rain—whose matter of generation, and likewise its place, end, and use, Moses disclosed in these few words. The matter, when he said 'vapor'—for rain is begotten from vapors; the place, when he says 'It ascended from the earth'—for from vapors raised from the earth into the upper regions of the air the generation of rain arises; and its end and use, when he adds, 'And it watered all the surface of the earth.' The generation and use of this same rain David beautifully set forth in Psalm one hundred forty-six, and most beautifully Job in the thirty-sixth chapter.75
He [David] says: Who covereth the heaven with clouds, and prepareth rain for the earth. Who maketh grass to grow on the mountains, and herb for the service of men. Who giveth to beasts their food, etc. And he [Job] says: Who taketh away the drops of rain, and poureth out showers like floods, which flow from the clouds that cover all things above. If he will spread out the clouds as his tent, and lighten with his light from above, he shall cover also the ends of the sea. For by these he judgeth peoples, and giveth food to many mortals.76
Ille inquit: Qui operit Caelum nubibus, et parat terrae pluviam. Qui producit in montibus foenum, et herbam servituti hominum. Qui dat iumentis escam ipsorum, etc. Hic autem ait: Qui aufert stillas pluviae, et effundit imbres ad instar gurgitum, qui de nubibus fluunt, quae praetexunt cuncta desuper. Si voluerit extendere nubes quasi tentorium suum, et fulgurare lumine suo desuper, cardines quoque maris operiet. Per haec enim iudicat populos, et dat escas multis mortalibus.
Translator’s notes
- Section heading: the moral/allegorical (tropological) exposition of the six days of creation, applied to the justification of the soul, following Hugh of St Victor. ↩
- The decorated initial begins 'Hac.' Following Hugh of St Victor, De sacramentis 1, pt. 1, ch. 13ff., the six days are read tropologically as the soul's justification: the dark formless world = man in sin; the adorned world = the justified soul. Day 1's light = the intellectual light of faith/illumination. Cites Isaiah 5:20. ↩
- Marginal reference: 'Matth. 6' (Matthew 6:22–23, the eye as the lamp of the body). The first-day light = right intention, which must precede every action; good action needs both a good intention and a good work in itself. ↩
- Day 2 = the perfecting of the affection. The waters divided by the firmament signify man's desire/love being separated: in the sinner all appetite clings to earthly things. Sentence continues onto p. 162 (catchword 'cupi[ditate]'). ↩
- Completes (from p. 161) the tropological reading of Day 2: the divided waters = the sinner's earthly vs. the just man's heavenly love; the firmament = enlightened reason / fear of God keeping them apart. Cites Galatians 5:17 and Romans 7:22–25. ↩
- Day 3: the gathered waters / dry land = concupiscence subdued, the soul partly above its first motions and bringing forth good works (Temperance, Fortitude). Cites Romans 6:12, Galatians 5:24, Romans 6:19. ↩
- Day 4: the stars set in heaven = the supernatural gifts adorning the mind and will. Sentence continues onto p. 163 (the Sun = charity). ↩
- Day 4 continued: Sun = charity, Moon = hope, Venus/Lucifer = faith; the four planets (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury) = the four divinely-infused cardinal virtues (temperance, justice, fortitude, prudence); the fixed stars = God's countless gifts and inspirations. ↩
- Days 5–6: fish/birds/land-animals = the three grades of the just (worldly believers, spiritual-in-the-world, contemplatives whose 'conversation is in heaven,' cf. Phil 3:20); man last, made in God's image—the soul to be reformed to God's likeness. This closes the MORALIS EXPLANATIO. ↩
- The scripture lemma, Genesis 1:31. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'A twofold consideration of the things created by God.' The decorated initial begins 'Verba.' The two questions raised by Gen 1:31: why 'good' of each work, but 'very good' of the whole. Things may be considered singly, or as a whole (the universe / their use to man / as showing God's power, goodness, wisdom). ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'The twofold goodness of any thing.' The two goodnesses: substantial (fixed, like numbers—Aristotle) and accidental (variable), the latter threefold: (1) goodness of state (the perfect state shown by full growth and the power to generate one's like—Aristotle, Meteorologica 4); (2) goodness of properties. Sentence continues onto p. 165. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'How at the beginning of the world all things were created very good by God.' The third accidental goodness = perfect operation. By all three goodnesses, God made all things not merely good but best, in a perfect state. ↩
- Marginal glosses: 'That for many causes this whole universe of the world's things is wonderful'; and 'St. Thomas, first part, q. 50, art. 4.' The first ground of the universe's goodness: its immense variety—incorporeal (angels, each a distinct species per Aquinas, ST I q.50 a.4), incorruptible bodies (heavens, stars), corruptible bodies (inanimate, living, sentient), and the endless variety among men. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'The beauty and order of the world.' The second ground: the order and disposition of the world (without which mere size would be deformity). Aristotle, Metaphysics 12, located the supreme good of the universe in its order. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'That all things being in the world can be understood in five ways.' The third ground: the world's plenitude (whence 'Universe'). The four general grades of being: to be / to live / to sense / to understand. Sentence continues onto p. 166 (catchword 'sit'). ↩
- Completes (from p. 165) the 'five ways all things are in the world': new lowest species and successive individuals are not all present at once but unfold over time. The first three senses hold fully; the last two only successively. ↩
- The 4th–6th goods of the universe: the close connection of parts (no void, no break in the series of species); the sympathies and antipathies (Greek συμπαθείας/ἀντιπαθείας — magnet & iron, vine & cabbage, the remora stopping a ship); and beauty from proportion (like the human body). ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'The excellence of the divine government of the world, from what things it is clearly known.' The 7th good = the world's administration. Signs of it: God's care for the meanest things, and the unerring goal-directedness of senseless natures. Sentence continues onto p. 167. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'An excellent saying of Boethius.' The 'even-balance' of warring contraries, harmonized by God for the world's good; lead-in to the verses of Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae 4, meter 6. ↩
- Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae 4, meter 6 (lines 19–33): the harmonious tempering of the warring elements and the cycle of the seasons and of life and death. ↩
- The compensation of celestial vs. sublunary; the common good prevails over the particular (heavy things rise to prevent a void; weaker animals feed nobler ones; water yields its natural place for the sake of plants and animals). ↩
- Opening of the discussion of evils and how they serve the world's order; continues onto p. 168. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'On the three kinds of evils which are in the world and make for its perfection.' The first kind of evil: wholly natural defects and monsters, which set off by contrast the perfection of the celestial; corruptible things are needed for the world's completeness. ↩
- Marginal glosses: 'How God converts even the sins of men into good'; and 'In the Blessing of the Paschal Candle.' The second kind: human evils, split into penalty (good: satisfying justice, correcting men) and fault/sin (truly evil, yet ordered to good). Adam's sin → the Incarnation; the 'O felix culpa' (here ascribed to Gregory, but from the Easter Exsultet / Blessing of the Paschal Candle). ↩
- The third consideration: the inequality of human fortune (the good faring ill, the wicked well), which has offended or made doubters of many. Sentence continues onto p. 169 (it actually argues for, not against, God's good governance). ↩
- The inequality of fortune in fact argues for God's good government (so that virtue be gratuitous, not mercenary) and points to the soul's survival and an afterlife of reward and punishment. Cites Eusebius, Praeparatio evangelica 3 (from Philo); Augustine, De civitate Dei 1.8ff.; and Seneca, De providentia ('Why do evils happen to good men, if there is providence?'). ↩
- Lead-in to the quotation from Augustine, De civitate Dei 11.18. ↩
- Marginal references: 'Chapter 6' (2 Corinthians 6:7–8) and 'Ecclus. 33' (Ecclesiasticus 33:15). Quotation from Augustine, De civitate Dei 11.18: the order of the ages as a 'most beautiful poem' adorned by the antithesis of good and evil, illustrated from St. Paul and Ecclesiasticus. ↩
- Marginal glosses: 'The twofold end of the creation of the world'; and 'Rom. 1.' The twofold end of creation: God's glory and man's use. Cites Romans 1:20, Psalm 18(19):2 ('The heavens declare the glory of God'), and Wisdom 13:5. Sentence continues onto p. 170 (catchword 'quae'). ↩
- Completes (from p. 169) the twofold end of creation: God's goodness sustains creation (Hebrews 1:3) and orders all things to man's use (Cicero, De natura deorum 2, Balbus). The world's state mirrors man's twofold state (present corruption; future glory at the resurrection—Romans 8:19–21). ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'Bernard hands down that three things are to be considered in the structure of this world: what it is, how it is, and why it was made.' God's miracles (beyond nature's order) show his immense power and the 'obediential potency' of all things to his will. Lead-in to Bernard, Sermon 3 for Pentecost. ↩
- Quotation from Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon 3 for Pentecost: the three things to ponder in the world—its being (power), its mode (wisdom), its end (kindness/usefulness). Continues onto p. 171. ↩
- Conclusion (from p. 170) of the Bernard quotation: three classes of men—the carnal (who care only for the things made), the 'curious' philosophers (who study only how things are made), and the spiritual (who see the end, that all is for God's glory and his elect's good). ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'Whether the world could have been made better by God than it is.' The second question (could the world be better made?). Cites Aquinas (the locus is in fact Summa Theologiae I, q. 25, a. 6; the printed 'q. 24 a. 4' is an error) and Bonaventure (Sentences 1, dist. 44). Four ways yes (quantity, plenitude, duration, accidental perfection); five ways no (substantial perfection, order...). Continues onto p. 172. ↩
- Completes (from p. 171) the five ways the world could NOT be better: substantial perfection, order, governance, proportion of parts, and (above all) in respect of its end. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'Why God did not, before man was created, see all that he had made to be very good.' Why 'very good' is said after man: he is the world's last work, its end, the microcosm (the rational soul 'in a way all things,' Aristotle De anima 3), the bond of the Universe; and through Christ's humanity (the hypostatic union) all creatures are deified. ↩
- The scripture lemma, Genesis 2:2 (the seventh day and God's rest). ↩
- The textual divergence at Genesis 2:2: the Septuagint reads 'on the sixth day,' but the Hebrew (and the Targum and Vulgate) read 'on the seventh day.' Lead-in to Jerome, Liber de quaestionibus hebraicis in Genesim. ↩
- Quotation from Jerome, Liber de quaestionibus hebraicis in Genesim, on Genesis 2:2: the Hebrew 'seventh day' is turned against the Jews' boast of Sabbath rest—God himself 'worked' (completed his works) on the Sabbath. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'Catharinus is refuted, saying that Eve was formed on the seventh day.' The 'sixth/seventh day' divergence is reconciled (sixth inclusively, seventh exclusively). Catharinus's view (Eve made on day 7) refuted by Gen 1:27 (man, male and female, made on day 6) and Exodus 20:11, 31:17. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'Cajetan on Genesis.' Cajetan: 'completed' does not mean God did all he could (his power being infinite), but that he did what he had intended, as the work required. ↩
- God's 'rest' does not mean weariness, but cessation from acting; 'to rest' in Scripture = to cease. Cites Revelation 4 (the holy living creatures who 'rested not'); continues onto p. 174 (catchword 'Et re'). ↩
- Completes (from p. 173) the point that 'to rest' in Scripture means to cease. Cites Revelation 4:8 (the living creatures who 'had no rest'), Isaiah 1:16, 2:22, Joshua 5:12 (Hebrew 'the manna rested'), and Ecclesiasticus 18:6. Marginal gloss: 'What 'rest' or 'to rest' signifies in Scripture.' ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'A new interpretation of God's rest from his works, which, on the testimony of Eusebius, Aristobulus handed down'; and 'Psalm 134, Psalm 110.' Aristobulus (via Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.6/12): God's 'rest' = the settled order he implanted. Cites Psalm 134(135):6 and 110(111):2. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'How Moses says God rested on the seventh day from working, when our Lord said, My Father worketh until now.' The apparent conflict between Genesis 2:2 and John 5:17, resolved by Augustine (De Genesi ad litteram 4.12), quoted next. ↩
- Quotation from Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram 4.12: God rested from founding new kinds, but never ceases from governing/sustaining creation (else it would dissolve). Continues onto p. 175. ↩
- Conclusion (from p. 174) of the Augustine quotation: unlike a builder, God cannot withdraw from the world for an instant; 'My Father worketh until now' (John 5:17) means his continuous sustaining of creation. ↩
- The other theologians' view: nothing made after the six days that was not already contained in them—materially (Eve in Adam), causally, potentially (hybrids), virtually (spontaneous generation in the stars'/elements' powers), or by likeness of species (souls in Adam's soul; the blessed's glory in the angels; risen bodies in the empyrean). Pererius: true but not apt here—'from all the work which he had done' simply means the six-day fabrication was finished. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'What kind God's rest was on the seventh day.' Augustine (De Gen. ad litt. 4.15) and Bede: God rested 'from' (not 'in') his works—he needed nothing from creation, but rests, blessed, in himself alone. Lead-in to the long Augustine quotation. ↩
- Opening of the long quotation from Augustine (De Genesi ad litteram 4) on God's rest; continues onto p. 176. ↩
- Conclusion (from p. 175) of the Augustine quotation (De Genesi ad litteram 4): God needs nothing from creation; he sanctified not the day of beginning or perfecting his works, but the seventh day, on which he 'rested in himself'—signifying that his rest is grasped only by the perfect. ↩
- God's seventh-day rest as a figure of Christ's rest in the tomb (after the sixth-day Passion) and of our future rest (Revelation 14:13). The Sabbath prohibitions of fire and manna-gathering figure present life's needs and the laborious acquisition of grace; Paul on the heavenly sabbatism (Hebrews 4). ↩
- The scripture lemma, Genesis 2:3 (God blesses and sanctifies the seventh day). ↩
- The decorated initial begins 'Quilibet.' The seventh day, though without a work, is blessed to mark it as the Index of the world's completion. Sentence continues onto p. 177. ↩
- Theodoret (Quaest. in Gen. 21): the seventh day honored more than the six, because to complete is nobler than to begin. To 'bless' = to do good abundantly. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'The dignity of the seventh day.' The Sabbath as a day of rest, worship, and the public exposition of the Law (Acts 15:21); the Jewish reckoning of the week from the Sabbath; the relief it gave to servants and laborers. ↩
- Marginal glosses: 'Levit. 25'; 'Numbers 36'; 'Daniel 9. The dignity of the number seven.' The sevens of Scripture: the sabbatical year and Jubilee (Lev 25), Daniel's 70 weeks (Dan 9), and the number seven (Philo, De opificio mundi; Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.7; Clement, Stromata 6). The six days = the six ages of the world (Bede; Augustine, De Genesi contra Manichaeos 1.13). ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'What 'to sanctify' signifies in Scripture.' To sanctify = to separate from common use and dedicate to God's worship (the firstborn, temple vessels, priestly vestments, the Levites). Sentence continues onto p. 178 (catchword 'liquos'). ↩
- Completes (from p. 177) why God 'sanctified' the Sabbath: he set it apart from the working days and consecrated it to his worship and rest. ↩
- Marginal glosses: 'Whether from this time a law of observing the Sabbath was imposed on men by God'; and 'Catharinus on Genesis.' The question whether the Sabbath was commanded at creation: Catharinus says yes; Tostatus says no (the sanctification is told by anticipation, belonging to the Mosaic law). Pererius gives Tostatus's arguments. Sentence continues onto p. 179. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'Bede in the Hexameron.' Bede and Pererius side with Tostatus (the Sabbath was first imposed by the Mosaic law). Cites Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History 1.4), Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho), Tertullian, and Cyprian (Against the Jews). ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'A note on a certain saying of Rupert.' Rupert (De Trinitate 2.18): God 'created' first in the eternal Word what he afterward 'made' externally (citing Ecclus 18:1, 'He created all things together'). Pererius corrects him: the things as they are in God are not created but coeternal with—indeed identical to—God himself. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'The threefold general and principal operation of God, according to Catharinus.' Catharinus's three works: creation, restoration (man), renewal/glorification. The Hebrew 'created by producing' read either as a pure Hebraism (like 'by swearing he swore') or as God endowing things with the power to reproduce. Sentence continues onto p. 180. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'Cajetan on Genesis.' The endowment of things with the power to reproduce (so God need not always create anew); Cajetan: the end of each thing is its proper operation (Aristotle, De caelo 2, text 17; Ephesians 2:10). Others read 'ut faceret' as God's destining each thing to its end and use. ↩
- Marginal glosses: 'A conjecture of the author not to be despised'; and 'That the ancient poets were not ignorant of the dignity of the Sabbath.' On the seventh day the angels praised God (Job 38:7); even the pagan poets (Linus, Homer, Hesiod) glimpsed the dignity of the seventh day (Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.7). ↩
- The scripture lemma, Genesis 2:4–6 (the plants made before they sprouted; no rain, no man; the spring watering the earth). ↩
- Genesis 2:5: the plants were made by God's power, not nature's—shown by their being made before rain and before man's tillage (which nature requires to bring plants to perfection). Sentence continues onto p. 181. ↩
- Marginal glosses: 'A disputation: who that spring was that rose from the earth, by which Moses says all the earth was watered at the beginning of the world'; and 'Augustine's twofold exposition.' The Hebrew word 'Ed' (אד, 'mist') is rendered 'fons' (spring). Augustine (De Genesi ad litteram 5.9–10): either 'spring' = 'springs' (singular for plural), or one spring overflowing periodically like the Nile. Philo interpreted similarly. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'Refutation of St. Augustine's opinion.' Pererius refutes both of Augustine's readings: springs cannot water all plants without human irrigation, and one spring could not reach islands or mountaintops; appealing to miracles betrays the opinion's weakness, since in the six-days' works one should ask what God did and what was fitting, not what his power could do. Sentence continues onto p. 182 (catchword 'se solo'). ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'A third exposition, that of Albinus (Alcuin).' Completes (from p. 181) Pererius's point that nature, not a miraculous spring, watered the plants. Alcuin's view (the watered earth = Paradise only) is rejected, since Moses speaks of 'all the earth.' ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'A wonderful saying of the Interlinear Gloss.' The Gloss's view (no rain before the flood) is rejected: 1,656 years without rain would require a continuous miracle against the natural cycle of vapor → cloud → rain. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'A fourth exposition, which the Author prefers above the rest.' The Hebrew אד (ed, 'mist/vapor') signifies vapor (whence rain), not a spring; the Targum read 'cloud,' Eusebius and Theodoret (citing Aquila) 'vapor.' But Theodoret's reading (a residual moisture) doesn't fit 'ascended... watered.' Sentence continues onto p. 183. ↩
- Completes the rejection of Theodoret. Tostatus: 'Ed' is ambiguous (spring or vapor); read as vapor (= rain-generation), 'spring' fits, since the perennial exhalation is like a spring. Aristotle (Meteorologica 1.9, 'a circular and perennial river'). ↩
- Pererius's own reading: the first plants by God's power alone, the rest by nature (man's tillage + rain). Genesis 2:6 ('vapor... ascended... watered') reveals rain's matter, place, and use. Lead-in to Psalm 146 and Job 36. ↩
- Two scriptural descriptions of rain's generation: Psalm 146 (147):8–9 (David) and Job 36:27–31 (Job). ↩