Chapter IX.—Sundry Inevitable But Intolerable Conclusions from the Principles of Hermogenes.

He cannot say that it was as its Lord that God employed Matter for His creative works, for He could not have been the Lord of a substance which was co-equal with Himself. Well, but perhaps it was a title derived from the will of another,80    We have rather paraphrased the word “precario”—“obtained by prayer.” [See p. 456.] which he enjoyed—a precarious holding, and not a lordship,81    Domino: opposed to “precario.” and that to such a degree, that82    Ideo…ut. although Matter was evil, He yet endured to make use of an evil substance, owing, of course, to the restraint of His own limited power,83    Mediocritatis. which made Him impotent to create out of nothing, not in consequence of His power; for if, as God, He had at all possessed power over Matter which He knew to be evil, He would first have converted it into good—as its Lord and the good God—that so He might have a good thing to make use of, instead of a bad one. But being undoubtedly good, only not the Lord withal, He, by using such power84    Tali: i.e. potestate. as He possessed, showed the necessity He was under of yielding to the condition of Matter, which He would have amended if He had been its Lord. Now this is the answer which must be given to Hermogenes when he maintains that it was by virtue of His Lordship that God used Matter—even of His non-possession of any right to it, on the ground, of course, of His not having Himself made it.  Evil then, on your terms,85    Jam ergo: introducing an argumentum ad hominem against Hermogenes. must proceed from God Himself, since He is—I will not say the Author of evil, because He did not form it, but—the permitter thereof, as having dominion over it.86    Quia dominator. If indeed Matter shall prove not even to belong to God at all, as being evil, it follows,87    Ergo. that when He made use of what belonged to another, He used it either on a precarious title88    Aut precario: “as having begged for it.” because He was in need of it, or else by violent possession because He was stronger than it. For by three methods is the property of others obtained,—by right, by permission, by violence; in other words, by lordship, by a title derived from the will of another,89    Precario: See above, note 2, p. 482. by force. Now, as lordship is out of the question, Hermogenes must choose which (of the other methods) is suitable to God. Did He, then, make all things out of Matter, by permission, or by force?  But, in truth, would not God have more wisely determined that nothing at all should be created, than that it should be created by the mere sufferance of another, or by violence, and that, too, with90    De is often in Tertullian the sign of an instrumental noun. a substance which was evil?

CAPUT IX.

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Non potest dicere Deum ut Dominum materia usum ad opera mundi: Dominus enim non potuit esse substantiae coaequalis. Sed precario forsitan usus est. Et ideo precario, non dominio, ut cum ea mala esset , de mala tamen sustinuerit uti, scilicet ex necessitate mediocritatis suae, qua non valebat ex nihilo uti; non ex potestate, quam si habuisset omnino ut Deus in materiam, quam malam norat, ante eam in bonum convertisset ut dominus et bonus, ut ita de bono, non de malo uteretur. Sed quia bonus quidem, Dominus autem non, ideo, qualem habuit, tali usus, necessitatem suam ostendit cedentem conditioni materiae: quam si Dominus fuisset, emendasset. Sic enim Hermogeni respondendum 0205B est, cum ex dominio defendit Deum materia usum, et de re non sua, scilicet non facta ab ipso. Jam ergo malum ab ipso, qui est mali, si non auctor, quia non effector, certe permissor, quia dominator. Si vero materia non et ipsius, qua malum Dei non est : de alieno ergo usus, aut precario usus est, qua egens ejus; aut et injuria, qua praevalens ejus. His enim tribus modis aliena sumuntur, jure, beneficio, impetu; id est, dominio, precario, vi. Dominio non suppetente eligat Hermogenes, quid Deo congruat, precario an vi de materia cuncta fecisse . Non ergo melius censuisset Deus nihil omnino faciendum, quam precario aut vi faciendum, et quidem de malo?