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| Other Speculations of Hermogenes, About Matter and Some of Its Adjuncts, Shown to Be Absurd. For Instance, Its Alleged Infinity. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XXXIII.—Other
Speculations of Hermogenes, About Matter and Some of Its Adjuncts,
Shown to Be Absurd. For Instance, Its Alleged Infinity.
My observations touching the site6536 of Matter, as also concerning its
mode6537
6537 Oehler here restores
the reading “quod et de modo,” instead
of “de motu,” for which Pamelius
contends. Oehler has the mss. on his side, and
Fr. Junius, who interprets “modo” here to
mean “mass or quantity.” Pamelius wishes to suit the
passage to the preceding context (see ch. xxxvi.); Junius thinks it is
meant rather to refer to what follows, by which it is confirmed. | have one and the
same object in view—to meet and refute your perverse positions.
You put Matter below God, and thus, of course, you assign a place to it
below God. Therefore Matter is local.6538
Now, if it is local, it is within locality; if within locality, it is
bounded6539 by the place within
which it is; if it is bounded, it has an outline,6540 which (painter as you are in your special
vocation) you know is the boundary to every object susceptible of
outline. Matter, therefore, cannot be infinite, which, since it
is in space, is bounded by space; and being thus determinable by space,
it is susceptible of an outline. You, however, make it infinite, when
you say: “It is on this account infinite, because it is always
existent.” And if any of your disciples should choose to
meet us by declaring your meaning to be that Matter is infinite in
time, not in its corporeal mass,6541
6541 Modo corporis: or
“bulk.” | still what
follows will show that (you mean) corporeal infinity to be an
attribute of Matter, that it is in respect of bulk immense and
uncircumscribed. “Wherefore,” say you, “it is
not fabricated as a whole, but in its parts.”6542
6542 Nec tota fabricatur,
sed partes ejus. This perhaps means: “It is not its entirety, but
its parts, which are used in creation.” | In bulk, therefore, is it infinite, not in
time. And you contradict yourself6543
6543 Obduceris: here a verb
of the middle voice. | when you make
Matter infinite in bulk, and at the same time ascribe place to
it, including it within space and local outline. But yet at the same
time I cannot tell why God should not have entirely formed it,6544
6544 In reference to the
opinion above mentioned, “Matter is not fabricated as whole, but
in parts.” | unless it be because He was either impotent
or envious. I want therefore to know the moiety of that which was not
wholly formed (by God), in order that I may understand what kind of
thing the entirety was. It was only right that God should have made it
known as a model of antiquity,6545
6545 Ut exemplarium
antiquitatis. | to set off the
glory of His work.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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