Thursday, June 25, 2009

Q105 A1: Whether God can move the matter immediately to the form?

Yes. God can move matter immediately to form, because a being in passive potentiality can be led into act by the active power which contains that potentiality under its power.

Deus immediate potest movere materiam ad formam, quia ens in potentia passiva reduci potest in actum, a potentia activa quae eam sub sua potestate continet.

Therefore, since matter is contained under the Divine power, as brought forth by God, it can be led into act by the Divine power. And this is what is meant by matter being moved to a form, for a form is nothing else but the act of matter.

Cum igitur materia contineatur sub potestate divina, utpote a Deo producta, potest reduci in actum per divinam potentiam. Et hoc est moveri materiam ad formam, quia forma nihil aliud est quam actus materiae.

If a composite thing be produced, it is likened to God by way of a virtual containment, or it is likened to the composite generator by a likeness of species. Therefore just as the composite generator can move matter to a form by generating a composite thing like itself, so also can God. But no other form not existing in matter can do this, because matter is not contained by the power of any other separate substance. Hence angels and demons operate on these visible things, not by imprinting forms in matter, but by making use of corporeal seeds.

Unde compositum quod generatur, similatur Deo secundum virtualem continentiam, sicut similatur composito generanti per similitudinem speciei. Unde sicut compositum generans potest movere materiam ad formam generando compositum sibi simile, ita et Deus. Non autem aliqua alia forma non in materia existens, quia materia non continetur in virtute alterius substantiae separatae. Et ideo Daemones et Angeli operantur circa haec visibilia, non quidem imprimendo formas, sed adhibendo corporalia semina.

Since God acts by His will and intellect, which knows the particular formal aspects and not only the universal natures of all forms, it follows that He can determinately imprint this or that form on matter.

Quia Deus agit per voluntatem et intellectum, qui cognoscit rationes proprias omnium formarum, et non solum universales, inde est quod potest determinate hanc vel illam formam materiae imprimere.

The fact that secondary causes are ordered to determinate effects is due to God; wherefore, since God ordains other causes to determinate effects, He can also bring forth determinate effects by Himself [without any other cause].

Hoc ipsum quod causae secundae ordinantur ad determinatos effectus est illis a Deo. Unde Deus, quia alias causas ordinat ad determinatos effectus, potest etiam determinatos effectus producere per seipsum.

It is written (Genesis 2:7): "God formed man of the slime of the earth."

Dicitur Gen. II, "formavit Deus hominem de limo terrae."