Chapter 23.—His Fourth Quotation.

We have read all about the mother of the Maccabean youths, who was really more fruitful in virtues when her children suffered than of children when they were born; how she exhorted them to constancy, speaking in this wise: “I cannot tell, my sons, how ye came into my womb. For it was not I who gave you spirit and soul, nor was it I that formed the members of every one of you; but it was God, who also made the world, and all things that are therein; who, moreover, formed the generation of men; and searches the action30    Actum; another reading is ortum, more in accordance with the Greek γένεσιν, the meaning of which would be: “Searches the origin of all things.” of all; and who will Himself of His great mercy restore to you your spirit and soul.”31    2 Macc. vii. 22, 23. All this we know; but how it supports this man’s assertion we do not see. For what Christian would deny that God gives to men soul and spirit? But similarly, I suppose that he cannot deny that God gives to men their tongue, and ear, and hand, and foot, and all their bodily sensations, and the form and nature of all their limbs. For how is he going to deny all these to be the gifts of God, unless he forgets that he is a Christian? As, however, it is evident that these were made by Him, and bestowed on man by propagation; so also the question must arise, by what means man’s spirit and soul are formed by Him; by what efficiency given to man—from the parents, or from nothing, or (as this man asserts, in a sense which we must by all means guard against) from some existing nature of the divine breath, not created out of nothing, but out of His own self?

0487 23. Novimus etiam Machabaeorum juvenum matrem, fecundiorem virtutibus quando filii passi sunt, quam fetibus quando nati sunt, eos sic fuisse adhortatam, ut diceret: Filii, nescio quomodo paruistis in ventrem meum . Neque enim ego spiritum et animam donavi vobis, nec singulis vobis vultus et membra formavi: sed Deus qui fecit mundum et omnia quae in eo sunt, fecitque hominum genus, et omnium inquirit actum , et ipse vobis spiritum et animam reddet cum magna misericordia (II Machab. VII, 22, 23). Novimus haec quidem; sed huic quomodo suffragentur ad id quod asserit, non videmus. Quis enim Christianorum neget Deum donare hominibus animam et spiritum? Sed eodem modo existimo istum negare non posse, Deum donare hominibus linguam, aurem, manum, pedem, omnesque corporis sensus et omnium formam naturamque membrorum. Quomodo enim haec Dei dona esse negaturus est, nisi se obliviscatur esse christianum? Sed sicut constat ex propagine ab illo haec fieri atque donari: ita quaerendum est etiam, spiritus et anima hominis unde ab illo efficiatur, a quo efficiente donatur; utrum ex parentibus, an ex nihilo; an quod iste affirmat, sed omni modo cavendum est, ex aliqua flatus ejus existente natura, non de nihilo creata, sed de ipso.