reated power, and not immediately by God.

_On the contrary,_ It is written (Ecclus. 17:1): "God created man out
of the earth."

_I answer that,_ The first formation of the human body could not be
by the instrumentality of any created power, but was immediately from
God. Some, indeed, supposed that the forms which are in corporeal
matter are derived from some immaterial forms; but the Philosopher
refutes this opinion (Metaph. vii), for the reason that forms cannot
be made in themselves, but only in the composite, as we have
explained (Q. 65, A. 4); and because the agent must be like its
effect, it is not fitting that a pure form, not existing in matter,
should produce a form which is in matter, and which form is only made
by the fact that the composite is made. So a form which is in matter
can only be the cause of another form that is in matter, according as
composite is made by composite. Now God, though He is absolutely
immaterial, can alone by His own power produce matter by creation:
wherefore He alone can produce a form in matter, without the aid of
any preceding material form. For this reason the angels cannot
transform a body except by making use of something in the nature of a
seed, as Augustine says (De Trin. iii, 19). Therefore as no
pre-existing body has been formed whereby another body of the same
species could be generated, the first human body was of necessity
made immediately by God.

Reply Obj. 1: Although the angels are the ministers of God, as
regards what He does in bodies, yet God does something in bodies
beyond the angels' power, as, for instance, raising the dead, or
giving sight to the blind: and by this power He formed the body of
the first man from the slime of the earth. Nevertheless the angels
could act as ministers in the formation of the body of the first man,
in the same way as they will do at the last resurrection by
collecting the dust.

Reply Obj. 2: Perfect animals, produced from seed, cannot be made by
the sole power of a heavenly body, as Avicenna imagined; although the
power of a heavenly body may assist by co-operation in the work of
natural generation, as the Philosopher says (Phys. ii, 26), "man and
the sun beget man from matter." For this reason, a place of moderate
temperature is required for the production of man and other animals.
But the power of heavenly bodies suffices for the production of some
imperfect animals from properly disposed matter: for it is clear that
mor