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| Hermogenes, After a Perverse Induction from Mere Heretical Assumptions, Concludes that God Created All Things Out of Pre-Existing Matter. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter II.—Hermogenes,
After a Perverse Induction from Mere Heretical Assumptions, Concludes
that God Created All Things Out of Pre-Existing Matter.
Our very bad painter has coloured this his primary
shade absolutely without any light, with such arguments as these: He
begins with laying down the premiss,6143 that the Lord
made all things either out of Himself, or out of nothing, or out of
something; in order that, after he has shown that it was impossible for
Him to have made them either out of Himself or out of nothing, he might
thence affirm the residuary proposition that He made them out of
something, and therefore that that something was Matter. He could
not have made all things, he says, of Himself; because whatever
things the Lord made of
Himself would have been parts of Himself; but6144 He
is not dissoluble into parts,6145
6145 In partes non
devenire. | because, being the
Lord, He is indivisible, and unchangeable, and always the same.
Besides, if He had made anything out of Himself, it would have been
something of Himself. Everything, however, both which was made and
which He made must be accounted imperfect, because it was made of a
part, and He made it of a part; or if, again, it was a whole which He
made, who is a whole Himself, He must in that case have been at once
both a whole, and yet not a whole; because it behoved Him to be a
whole, that He might produce Himself,6146
6146 Ut faceret
semetipsum. |
and yet not a whole, that He might be produced out of Himself.6147
6147 Ut fieret de
semetipso. | But this is a most difficult position. For
if He were in existence, He could not be made, for He was in existence
already; if, however, he were not in existence He could not make,
because He was a nonentity. He maintains, moreover, that
He who always exists, does not come into existence,6148 but exists for ever and ever. He accordingly
concludes that He made nothing out of Himself, since He never passed
into such a condition6149
6149 Non ejus fieret
conditionis. | as made it possible
for Him to make anything out of Himself. In like manner, he contends
that He could not have made all things out of nothing—thus:
He defines the Lord as a being who is good, nay, very good, who must
will to make things as good and excellent as He is Himself; indeed it
were impossible for Him either to will or to make anything which was
not good, nay, very good itself. Therefore all things ought to have
been made good and excellent by Him, after His own condition.
Experience shows,6150 however, that
things which are even evil were made by Him: not, of course, of His own
will and pleasure; because, if it had been of His own will and
pleasure, He would be sure to have made nothing unfitting or unworthy
of Himself. That, therefore, which He made not of His own will
must be understood to have been made from the fault of something, and
that is from Matter, without a doubt.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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