Dist. 15, Art. 2, Q. 3
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/2/d/15/q/bon-sent-II-d15-a2-q3
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### Question III. *What is the order of the production of animals in relation to rest.*

Thirdly, it is asked concerning the order of the production of animals in relation to rest. And it is asked whether God, after he produced the animals, rested from every work. And that he did so, it seems:

*Fundamenta.* 1. By Scripture, Genesis 2: *God rested on the seventh day from every work which he had wrought;* but the animals were produced on the fifth and sixth day: therefore after their production a resting follows.

2. Likewise, every operation that arrives at completion has a rest that follows; but the production of creatures is completed in the production of animals, and especially of man: therefore it seems that after God produced the animals on the sixth day, he thereafter rested.

3. Likewise, the distinction of days is for our instruction; but God permitted men to work for six days, and on the seventh he commanded that they rest and cease from every work: if therefore that commandment has its ground from the primary condition of things, it seems that upon the production of animals a rest followed.

4. Likewise, every production of a creature has an end and a term; therefore likewise every day on which something is produced has its evening; but to the seventh day according to Scripture no evening is assigned: therefore after the sixth day nothing was produced; and on the sixth day the animals were produced: therefore etc.

*On the contrary.* 1. John 5: *My Father is working until now, and I am working:* therefore if until now he is working, it seems that on the seventh day he did not cease from his work.

2. Likewise, the seventh day is either a *new* day beside the preceding ones, or *not*. If *not:* therefore it should not be numbered with the others; if *so,* and God made it: it is then certain that he did not rest from every work after he produced the animals. *If you say* that that day differs from the preceding ones only in number, then so the eighth and the tenth differ, and so on; therefore if the seventh is numbered, by the same reasoning the eighth ought to be numbered.

3. Likewise, rest either connotes *some effect* or none. If it connotes *no* effect: therefore he rested from eternity: therefore he rested before he produced anything: therefore in respect of the resting no day ought to be reckoned. If it connotes *some effect;* and that effect was not in the preceding days: therefore he produced something new on the seventh day: therefore he did not rest from every work of his after he had produced the animals on the sixth day.

4. Likewise, God daily creates new souls and infuses them into bodies; but *to create* is a work proper to God alone: therefore it does not seem that he rested from operation after the sixth day.

5. Likewise, certain animals are produced through putrefaction; but it is established that these were not produced in the six days, as Augustine says in book three of *On Genesis according to the Letter,* and such have their own species and natures: therefore it seems that after the sixth day he did not cease from the production of new species in the kind of animals.

6. Likewise, certain animals are generated through commixture, as the mule from the mare and the ass; but these were not made in the six days, neither in *individual being* nor in their *species:* therefore after the sixth day he did not cease from the production of things, not only as to *individuals,* but even as to *species* and *genera.*

### Conclusio.

> After the production of animals a rest followed on the seventh day, not as if there were a cessation from labor, but as the completion of a work begun.

**I respond:** *To be noted beforehand.* For the understanding of the foregoing it must be noted that every perfect artisan begins his work in order to bring it to perfection; and just as he intends, so he does, if the sufficiency of the agent's power in all things is at hand for him; and when he has brought it to perfection, he has what he intends. But every agent acting for the sake of something, once the thing for which he acts is obtained, rests. Therefore every perfect agent so operates that at some time he rests.

*Twofold kind.* Since therefore God is the most perfect agent in producing the universe itself, it is necessary that he at some time rest. But since there is a twofold agent — one that *is moved* and *labors* in its operation, and one that *neither is changed nor varies* — that which acts in the *first* mode rests through a resting that is the *privation* of motion and labor, as is a created agent; but that which acts in the second mode rests with a resting that is not the *privation* of labor or fatigue, but is the *cessation* from work on account of its own perfection; and thus God is said to have rested from every work, when he produced the universe to a perfect *being,* and so he rested, just as he led it to perfect *being.*

*Twofold perfection of the universe.* On account of which note that the perfection of the universe is twofold: one and the principal one according to its *permanent being,* the other according to its *unfolding being.* The first is attended to in the complete existence of the principles and the complete number of species, which species partake of the nature of the genus according to a right and ordered intention of nature. The second perfection consists in the production of those things which run through times and successively follow upon one another, from the ordering of which succession there results a certain beauty and perfection of unity. Since therefore according to the *first* perfection God produced the universe into being in six days, that is, as to the complete existence of the principles and as to the complete number of species; therefore he is said to have *Corollary.* rested *from every work which he had wrought.* But because he continually works for the succession of things through propagation and the multiplication of individuals, therefore he is said to be working *until now.* And from these things the response to the question proposed is plain.

*Conclusion.* For it must be conceded that upon the production of animals, especially of man, a rest followed on the seventh day, not because there was a *termination of labor,* but because there was made the *completion of a work begun;* and the reasons proving this are to be conceded.

*Solution of the opposing arguments.* 1. To that which is objected on the contrary from John 5: *My Father is working* etc.; the response is already plain. For he objects from that operation which pertains to the perfection of the universe according to *unfolding being,* not according to *permanent being.*

2. To that which is objected, that he made the seventh day; it must be said that the seventh day was not different in species from the preceding days, but rather was in a certain way already produced in the others; and therefore it added nothing to the first completion of the universe by reason of itself; and therefore its production was not repugnant to rest, according as *rest* means cessation from the production of those things which belong to the principal constitution of the universe. Yet it is enumerated with the aforesaid days rather than the eighth or tenth day, on account of the cessation from the work of constituting the universe, in respect of which no numbering of days is attended to, because they have no term; and therefore the seventh day is not said to have an evening, nor after it is a new day enumerated, but a return is made to the beginning.

3. *Resting according to Augustine.* To that which is objected, that *to rest from work* either connotes some effect or none; it must be said that according to Augustine *to rest* is said of God *causally,* because he makes the spiritual creature rest by cleaving to him through complete contemplation, or by resting to cleave to him. *According to other Saints.* But according to other Saints and the common way, *to rest* signifies an effect, not one that is in the day of the sabbath, but one that preceded it: whence God is said *to rest from work,* because he first made, and thereafter does not make new things. And on this account he is said to have completed all his work on the seventh day, not because then he made something which was for completion, but because then by resting he showed it consummated.

4. To that which is objected concerning the creation of souls, it must be said that when rational souls are now created, no new *species* is created, but a new *individual;* and this individual does not belong to the primary constitution of the universe; and therefore by the resting on the sabbath the creation of souls was not excluded.

5. 6. To that which is objected concerning the production of those which are by putrefaction and commixture, that they are new species; it must be said that both those which are generated by putrefaction and those which are generated by the commixture of diverse species are, *Note.* produced in their principles and seminal reasons, although they are not produced in the like according to form. For their principles are of the primary constitution of the universe, as complete species and seminal reasons; but the actual existence of those species does not pertain to the primary constitution of the universe, because those species are in a certain way degenerate and as it were have to be produced through a certain degeneration, just as worms are produced from the human body through a corruption that makes the human body degenerate from its proper form. And therefore it was not necessary that these be produced in themselves or in their like at the primary constitution of the universe; nor yet are they superfluous, because in some way they adorn the universe as to its *well-being.*

*Three kinds of things produced.* Hence note briefly that of those things which are produced by succession, some were produced at the first distinction of the days in the *like,* but not in *seminal reason,* as rational souls, which, namely, are produced by creation and therefore have no seminal reason; in the like, however, they were produced, when the soul of Adam was produced, after whose production no new species is produced, although *Kind 1.* new individuals are produced. — *Kind 2.* Some are those which were produced in the first days as to *seminal reason,* but not in the *like,* as those which are generated by putrefaction and by the commixture of diverse species. — *Kind 3.* Some are those which were produced both in *seminal reason* and in the *like,* as plants and brute animals, which are produced by propagation. — And to these three kinds of things all things that come to be can be reduced; and on this account God is not said to produce anything *anew,* according to what is said in Ecclesiastes 1, that *nothing is new under the sun;* but he is said to have rested from every work, because he produces nothing which was not previously either in *a like species* or in *seminal reason,* which then belonged to the primary constitution of the universe. — And thus it is plain how upon the production of animals on the sixth day there follows a rest from every work on the seventh day.