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| Other Discrepancies Exposed and Refuted Respecting the Evil in Matter Being Changed to Good. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter
XLIII.—Other Discrepancies Exposed and Refuted Respecting the
Evil in Matter Being Changed to Good.
On the subject of motion I would make this further
remark. Following the simile of the boiling caldron, you
say that motion in Matter, before it was regulated, was
confused,6582 restless,
incomprehensible by reason of excess in the commotion.6583 Then again you go on to say, “But it
waited for the regulation6584
6584 Compositionem:
“arrangement.” | of God, and kept
its irregular motion incomprehensible, owing to the tardiness of its
irregular motion.” Just before you ascribe commotion, here
tardiness, to motion. Now observe how many slips you make respecting
the nature of Matter. In a former passage6585
6585 See above, ch. xxxvii.
p. 498. |
you say, “If Matter were naturally evil, it would not have
admitted of a change for the better; nor would God have ever applied to
it any attempt at arrangement, for His labour would have been in
vain.” You therefore concluded your two opinions, that Matter was
not by nature evil, and that its nature was incapable of being changed
by God; and then, forgetting them, you afterwards drew this inference:
“But when it received adjustment from God, and was reduced to
order,6586 it relinquished its
nature.” Now, inasmuch as it was transformed to good, it was of
course transformed from evil; and if by God’s setting it in order
it relinquished6587 the nature of evil,
it follows that its nature came to an end;6588
now its nature was evil before the adjustment, but after the
transformation it might have relinquished that
nature.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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