Augustine, Saint, De Trinitate

CAPUT VIII. — 13. Solus Deus creat etiam illa quæ magicis artibus transformantur. Nec idco putandum est istis transgressoribus angelis ad nutum servire hanc visibilium rerum materiam, sed Deo potius, a quo hæc potestas datur, quantum in sublimi cl spirituali sede incommutabilis judicat. Nam et damnatis iniquis ctiam in metallo servit' aqua et ignis et terra, ut faciant inde quod volunt, sed quantum sinitur. Nec sane creatores illi mali angeli dicendi sunt, quia per illos magi resistentes famulo Dei ranas et serpentes fecerunt: non enim ipsi eas crcaverunt. Omnium quippe rerum quæ corporaliter visibiliterque nascuntur, occulta quædam semina in Istis corporeis mundi hujus elementis latent. Alia sunt enim hæc jam conspicua oculis nostris ex fructibus et animantibus, alia vero illa occulta istorum seminum semina, unde jubente Creatore produxit aqua prima natatilia et volatilia, terra autem prima sui gcneris4 germina, et prima sui generis animalia (Gen.I. 20-23). Neque cnim tunc in hujuscemodi fetus ito producta sunt1, ut in cis quæ producta sunt vis iila consumpta sit: sed plerum'lue desunt congruæ temperamentorum occasiones. quibus erumpant, et species suas peragant. Ecce enim brevissimus surculus semen est; nam convenienter mandatus terræ arborem facit. Hujus autcm surculi subtilius semen aliquod ejusdem generis granum cst, et huc usque I nobis visibile. Jam vero hujus etiam garni semen quamvis oculis videre nequeamus, ratione tamen conjicere possumus quia nisi talis aliqua vis esset in istis clementis, non plerumque nascerenlurex terra quæ ibi seminata non essent; nec animalia tam multa, nulla marium feminarumque commixtione præcedente, sive in terra, sive in aqua, quæ tamen crescuntetcoeundoalia pariunt, cum illa nullis coeuntibus parentibus orta sint. Et certe apes semina filiorum non coeundo concipiunt, sed tanquam sparsa per terras ore colligunt. Invisibilium enim seminum creator, ipse creator est omnium rerum : quoniam quascumque nascendo ad oculos nostros exeunt, ex occultis seminibus accipiunt progrediendi primordia, et incrementa debitae magnitudinis distinctionesque formarum ab originalibus tanquam rcgulis sumuul. Sicut ergo nec parentes dicimus creatores hominum, nec agricolas creatores frugum, quamvis eorum extrinsecus adhibitis motibus ista crcanda Dci virtus interius operetur : ita non solum malos, sed nec bonos Angelos fas est putare creatores, si pro subtilitate sui sensus et corporis, semina rerum istarum nobis occultiora noverunt, et ea per congruas temperationes clementorum latenter spargunt, atque ita gignendarum rerum et accelcrandorum incrementorum præbent occasiones. Sed nec boni hoec, nisi quantum Deus jubet, nee mali hæc injuste faciunt, nisi quantum juste ipse permittit. Nam iniqui malitia voluntatem suam habet injustam ; potestatem autem non nisi juste accipit3 , sive ad iœnam suam, sive ad aliorum, vel pœnam malorum,vel laudem bonorum.

CHAPTER VIII. — 13. God alone creates even those things that are transformed by magic arts. Nor should it be thought on that account that this matter of visible things serves these transgressing angels at their nod; rather it serves God, by whom this power is given, as far as he, unchangeable, judges in his lofty and spiritual seat. For water and fire and earth serve even wicked men condemned to the mines, so that they make from them what they want, but only as far as is allowed. Nor indeed are those evil angels to be called creators because through them the magicians, resisting the servant of God, made frogs and serpents: for they did not create them themselves. For of all things that are born bodily and visibly, certain hidden seeds lie concealed in these bodily elements of this world. For these things already visible to our eyes, from fruits and living creatures, are one thing; but those hidden seeds of these seeds are another, from which, at the Creator's command, the water brought forth the first creatures that swim and fly, and the earth the first shoots of their kind and the first animals of their kind (Gen. 1:20-23). For they were not then brought forth into offspring of this sort in such a way that that force was used up in the things brought forth; but often the suitable occasions of favourable conditions are lacking, through which they may burst forth and complete their forms. For see, a very small cutting is a seed; for when suitably committed to the earth it makes a tree. And a finer seed of this cutting is some grain of the same kind, and up to this point visible to us. But the seed of this grain too, although we cannot see it with our eyes, we can nevertheless infer by reason; because if there were not some such force in these elements, things would not often be born from the earth which had not been sown there; nor would so many animals, with no prior union of males and females, either on land or in water, which nevertheless grow and by mating bear others, although they themselves arose from no mating parents. And certainly bees do not conceive the seeds of their young by mating, but gather them with their mouths as if scattered over the ground. For the creator of the invisible seeds is himself the creator of all things: since whatever things come forth before our eyes by being born receive the beginnings of their progress from hidden seeds, and take the increase of their due size and the distinctions of their forms from these original rules, as it were. So just as we do not call parents the creators of human beings, nor farmers the creators of crops, although it is by their movements applied from outside that the power of God works inwardly to create these things, so it is not right to think that not only the evil but even the good angels are creators, if, by the fineness of their senses and body, they know the seeds of these things, which are more hidden from us, and scatter them secretly through suitable blendings of the elements, and so provide occasions for things to be generated and for their growth to be hastened. But neither do the good do these things except as far as God commands, nor do the evil do them unjustly except as far as he justly permits. For the malice of the wicked has its own unjust will; but it receives power only justly, whether for its own punishment, or for that of others, either for the punishment of the wicked or for the praise of the good.