summa-contra-gentiles

6 THE SUMMA CONTRA GENTILES
Thy power, when men will not believe Thee to he absolute
in power.
Fourthly. Man, who is led by faith to God as his last
end, through ignoring the natures of things, and consequently
the order of his place in the universe, thinks himself
to be beneath certain creatures above whom he is
placed as evidenced in those who :
subject man's will to the
stars, and against these it is said (Jerem. x. 2)
: Be not
afraid of the signs of heaven, which the heathens fear; also
in those who deem the angels to be the creators of souls,
and human souls to be mortal ;
and in those who hold any
like opinions derogatory to the dignity of man.
Accordingly it is clear that the opinion
is false of those
who asserted that it mattered not to the truth of faith what
opinions one holds about creatures, so long as one has a
right opinion about God, as Augustine relates in his book
De Origine Animce:^ since error concerning creatures by
subjecting the human mind to causes other than God
amounts to a false opinion about God, and misleads the
minds of men from God, to Whom faith strives to lead them.
Wherefore Scripture threatens punishment to those who
err about creatures, as to unbelievers, in the words of the
psalm :^ Because they have not understood the works of the
Lord and the operations of His hands, Thou shalt destroy
them, and shalt not build them up ; and (Wis.
ii.
21):
These things they thought and were deceived, and further
on :^
They esteemed not the honour of holy souls.
CHAPTER IV
THAT THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE THEOLOGIAN TREAT OF
CREATURES IN DIFFERENT WAYS
Now it is evident from what has been said that the teaching
of the Christian faith treats of creatures in so far as they
reflect a certain likeness of God, and forasmuch as error
1 4,
iv. « '
Ps. xxvii. 5. Verse 23.