Book II, Chapter 29
CHAPTER XXIX. That the uncreated will and the created will, in co-effecting an act of the created will, are not equals, nor coeval in the natural order.
577B CAP. XXIX. Quod voluntas increata et creata in coefficiendo actum voluntatis creatae, non sunt coaequales, nec coaequaeuae in ordine naturali.
Now that it has been established that God and the creature act every act of the created will properly and alike, the uncreated will as well as the created, it remains to inquire in consequence whether these two agent causes are, in this their common action, equal in the natural order and coeval, or whether one of them naturally precedes the other, and if so, which one it is. If they are posited as equal in the order of action and naturally coeval, both are reduced to a third, naturally prior to them, through whose agency these two act. For so it is in all things ordered in this way, as all the Philosophers unanimously attest. Some of their testimonies were recited more fully in the first, second, third and fourth of the first, and especially in the proof of the [third] corollary of the second chapter of the first book.1 Therefore God, as an agent, has a prior agent cause, by whose power and agency he himself acts. That cause is necessarily not God but a creature. Therefore in the common action of the creature and of God, the creature is prior to God in the order of acting. And if this is true of any creature in any action, it seems most true of the rational creature in its free action; but the hypothesis posited them as equals. Many Philosophers also teach in many places that every mover is either first simply, or is reduced to that first mover in moving, as is plain in the fourth and third of the first book and in the twentieth of this second. If, then, God and the rational creature are equals in order in their common motion, neither of them is simply the first mover, as is plain from the preceding argument. And since the first mover is unique, and it is not possible for there to be several, as the Philosopher teaches in Physics 8 and Metaphysics 12, and other Philosophers in many other places, D1 this is also attested by the well-known saying of Topics 5, namely that what is said by way of superabundance will belong to one alone, as fire to be the lightest. Hence also the Prophet says, "You alone are the Most High over all the earth" (Psalm 72).2 Therefore God in a motion of this kind has a prior mover, and so on, as before.
577C NVncigitur stabilito quod omnem actum voluntatis creatae proprie agit Deus et creatura similiter, voluntas increata etiam et creata, restat consequenter inquirere, an istae duae causae agentes sinc in ista sua actione communi aequales in ordine naturaliter et coaequaeuae, aut vna illarum alteram naturaliter antecedat, et si sic fuerit, quae sit illa. Si autem ponantur aequales in ordine actionis et naturaliter coaequaeuae, ambae reducuntur ad aliam tertiā naturaliter his priorem, per cuius agentiam istae agunt; quoniam sic est in omnibus taliter ordinatis, sicut omnes Philosophi vnanimiter contestantur, quorum testimonia aliqua, primum, secundum, tertium, et quartum primi, et specialiter probatio [tertij] corollarij, secundi capituli primi libri plenius recitarunt: Ergo Deus agens habet causam agentem priorem, cuius virtute et agentia
577D ipse agit. Illa causa necessario non est Deus, sed creatura; ergo in actione communi creaturae et Dei, creatura est prior in ordine agendi quam Deus. Et si hoc sit verum de aliqua creatura in aliqua actione, hoc maxime videtur de creatura rationali in sua libera actione: sed hypothesis posuit ipsos pares. Docent quoque multi Philosophi multis locis, quod omnis motor, vel est primus simpliciter, vel ad illum reducitur in mouendo, vt patet quarto et tertio primi libri, et vicesimo huius secundi. Si ergo Deus et creatura rationalis in sua motione communi sint pares in ordine, neuter illorum est simpliciter primus motor, vt patet per proximam rationem: et quia ille est vnicus, nec est possibile plures esse, sicut docet Philosophus 8. Physicorum, et 12. Metaphys. et alij Philosophi alibi multis locis; D1 quod et testatur illud vulgatum 5. Topic. scilicet, quod per superabundantiam dicitur, Vni solo inerit, vt ignis esse leuissimum. Vnde et Propheta, Tu solus altissimus in omni terra, Psalmo 72. Ergo Deus in huiusmodi motione habet motorem priorem etc. sicut prius.
Notes
- 1
The cross-references are left as Savile has them: "the first, second, third and fourth of the first" (the noun is not expressed; the context suggests the corollaries of Book I, ch. 1), and the "[third]" corollary of I.2, with the bracket as printed. The bracketed tertij is Savile's insertion.
↩ - 2
The words are Ps 82:19 [83:18] in the Vulgate, "Tu solus Altissimus in omni terra". Savile's text and the margin give "72", and I have kept his number.
↩
Errata: where the keyed text and the 1618 print differ (3)
| Savile | Keyed text (TCP) | 1618 print |
|---|---|---|
| 577B | in ordine naturali (heading: keyed coaequaeuae, print coaequaevae, same word) | in ordine naturali (no change in sense; spelling only) |
| 577C | sinc | sint |
| 577C | aequales in ordine naturaliter et coaequaeuae | aequales in ordine naturali et coaequaevae |