Thomas pro
sua modestia subterfugere vim argumenti potius quam aperte Augustinum
inconstantiae arguere."

Finally, Suarez decides that the writer of Genesis meant that the
term "day" should be taken in its natural sense; and he winds up
the discussion with the very just and natural remark that "it is
not probable that God, in inspiring Moses to write a history of the
Creation which was to be believed by ordinary people, would have made
him use language, the true meaning of which it is hard to discover,
and still harder to believe."[1]

[Footnote 1: "Tractatus de opere sex Dierum, seu de Universi
Creatione, quatenus sex diebus perfecta esse, in libro Genesis cap. i.
refertur, et praesertim de productioue hominis in statu innocentiae."
Ed. Birckmann, 1622.]

And in chapter xii. 3, Suarez further observes:--

"Ratio enim retinendi veram significationem diei naturalis est
illa communis, quod verba Scripturae non sunt ad metaphoras
transferenda, nisi vel necessitas cogit, vel ex ipsa scriptura
constet, et maxime in historica narratione et ad instructionem
fidei pertinente: sed haec ratio non minus cogit ad
intelligendum proprie dierum numerum, quam diei qualitatem,
QUIA NON MINUS UNO MODO QUAM ALIO DESTRUITUR SINCERITAS,
IMO ET VERITAS HISTORIAE. Secundo hoc valde confirmant alia
Scripturae loca, in quibus hi sex dies tanquam veri, et inter
se distincti commemorantur, ut Exod. 20 dicitur, _Sex diebus
operabis et facies omnia opera tua, septimo autem die Sabbatum
Domini Dei tui est_. Et infra: _Sex enim diebus fecit Dominus
caelum et terram et mare et omnia quae in eis sunt_, et idem
repetitur in cap. 31. In quibus locis sermonis proprietas
colligi potest tum ex aequiparatione, nam cum dicitur: _sex
diebus operabis_, propriissime intelligitur: tum quia non est
verisimile, potuisse populum intelligere verba illa in alio
sensu, et e contrario incredibile est, Deum in suis praeceptis
tradendis illis verbis ad populum fuisse loquutum, quibus
deciperetur, falsum sensum concipiendo, si Deus non per sex
veros dies opera sua fecisset."

These passages leave no doubt that this great doctor of the Catholic
Church, of unchallenged authority and unspotted orthodoxy, not only
declares it to be Catholic doctrine that the work of creation took
place in the space of six natural days; but that he warmly repudiates,
as inconsistent with our knowledge of