Whether the Human Body Was Immediately Produced by God?
Objection 1: It would seem that the human body was not produced by God
immediately. For Augustine says (De Trin. iii, 4), that "corporeal
things are disposed by God through the angels." But the human body was
made of corporeal matter, as stated above (A. 1). Therefore it
was produced by the instrumentality of the angels, and not immediately
by God.
Obj. 2: Further, whatever can be made by a created power, is not
necessarily produced immediately by God. But the human body can be
produced by the created power of a heavenly body; for even certain
animals are produced from putrefaction by the active power of a
heavenly body; and Albumazar says that man is not generated where heat
and cold are extreme, but only in temperate regions. Therefore the
human body was not necessarily produced immediately by God.
Obj. 3: Further, nothing is made of corporeal matter except by some
material change. But all corporeal change is caused by a movement of
a heavenly body, which is the first movement. Therefore, since the
human body was produced from corporeal matter, it seems that a
heavenly body had part in its production.
Obj. 4: Further, Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. vii, 24) that man's
body was made during the work of the six days, according to the
causal virtues which God inserted in corporeal creatures; and that
afterwards it was actually produced. But what pre-exists in the
corporeal creature by reason of causal virtues can be produced by
some corporeal body. Therefore the human body was produced by some
created power, and not immediately by God.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Ecclus. 17:1): "God created man out
of the earth."
_I answer that,_ The first formation of the human body could not be
by the instrumentality of any created power, but was immediately from
God. Some, indeed, supposed that the forms which are in corporeal
matter are derived from some immaterial forms; but the Philosopher
refutes this opinion (Metaph. vii), for the reason that forms cannot
be made in themselves, but only in the composite, as we have
explained (Q. 65, A. 4); and because the agent must be like its
effect, it is not fitting that a pure form, not existing in matter,
should produce a form which is in matter, and which form is only made
by the fact that the composite is made. So a form which is in matter
can only be the cause of another form that is in matter, according as
composite is made by composite. Now God, though He is absolutely
immaterial, can alone by His own power produce matter by creation:
wherefore He alone can produce a form in matter, without the aid of
any preceding material form. For this reason the angels cannot
transform a body except by making use of something in the nature of a
seed, as Augustine says (De Trin. iii, 19). Therefore as no
pre-existing body has been formed whereby another body of the same
species could be generated, the first human body was of necessity
made immediately by God.
Reply Obj. 1: Although the angels are the ministers of God, as
regards what He does in bodies, yet God does something in bodies
beyond the angels' power, as, for instance, raising the dead, or
giving sight to the blind: and by this power He formed the body of
the first man from the slime of the earth. Nevertheless the angels
could act as ministers in the formation of the body of the first man,
in the same way as they will do at the last resurrection by
collecting the dust.
Reply Obj. 2: Perfect animals, produced from seed, cannot be made by
the sole power of a heavenly body, as Avicenna imagined; although the
power of a heavenly body may assist by co-operation in the work of
natural generation, as the Philosopher says (Phys. ii, 26), "man and
the sun beget man from matter." For this reason, a place of moderate
temperature is required for the production of man and other animals.
But the power of heavenly bodies suffices for the production of some
imperfect animals from properly disposed matter: for it is clear that
more conditions are required to produce a perfect than an imperfect
thing.
Reply Obj. 3: The movement of the heavens causes natural changes; but
not changes that surpass the order of nature, and are caused by the
Divine Power alone, as for the dead to be raised to life, or the
blind to see: like to which also is the making of man from the slime
of the earth.
Reply Obj. 4: An effect may be said to pre-exist in the causal
virtues of creatures, in two ways. First, both in active and in
passive potentiality, so that not only can it be produced out of
pre-existing matter, but also that some pre-existing creature can
produce it. Secondly, in passive potentiality only; that is, that out
of pre-existing matter it can be produced by God. In this sense,
according to Augustine, the human body pre-existed in the previous
work in their causal virtues.
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