Chapter XI.—Hermogenes Makes Great Efforts to Remove Evil from God to Matter. How He Fails to Do This Consistently with His Own Argument.

But, after all,99    Et tamen. by what proofs does Hermogenes persuade us that Matter is evil? For it will be impossible for him not to call that evil to which he imputes evil. Now we lay down this principle,100    Definimus. that what is eternal cannot possibly admit of diminution and subjection, so as to be considered inferior to another co-eternal Being. So that we now affirm that evil is not even compatible with it,101    Competere illi. since it is incapable of subjection, from the fact that it cannot in any wise be subject to any, because it is eternal.  But inasmuch as, on other grounds,102    Alias. it is evident what is eternal as God is the highest good, whereby also He alone is good—as being eternal, and therefore good—as being God, how can evil be inherent in Matter, which (since it is eternal) must needs be believed to be the highest good? Else if that which is eternal prove to be also capable of evil, this (evil) will be able to be also believed of God to His prejudice;103    Et in Deum credi. so that it is without adequate reason that he has been so anxious104    Gestivit. to remove evil from God; since evil must be compatible with an eternal Being, even by being made compatible with Matter, as Hermogenes makes it. But, as the argument now stands,105    Jam vero. since what is eternal can be deemed evil, the evil must prove to be invincible and insuperable, as being eternal; and in that case106    Tum. it will be in vain that we labour “to put away evil from the midst of us;”107    1 Cor. v. 13. in that case, moreover, God vainly gives us such a command and precept; nay more, in vain has God appointed any judgment at all, when He means, indeed,108    Utique: with a touch of irony, in the argumentum ad hominem. to inflict punishment with injustice.  But if, on the other hand, there is to be an end of evil, when the chief thereof, the devil, shall “go away into the fire which God hath prepared for him and his angels”109    Matt. xxv. 41.—having been first “cast into the bottomless pit;”110    Rev. xx. 3. when likewise “the manifestation of the children of God”111    Rom. viii. 19. shall have “delivered the creature”112    Rom. viii. 21. from evil, which had been “made subject to vanity;”113    Rom. viii. 20. when the cattle restored in the innocence and integrity of their nature114    Conditionis: “creation.” shall be at peace115    Condixerint. with the beasts of the field, when also little children shall play with serpents;116    Isa. xi. 6. when the Father shall have put beneath the feet of His Son His enemies,117    Ps. cx. 1. as being the workers of evil,—if in this way an end is compatible with evil, it must follow of necessity that a beginning is also compatible with it; and Matter will turn out to have a beginning, by virtue of its having also an end. For whatever things are set to the account of evil,118    Male deputantur. have a compatibility with the condition of evil.

CAPUT XI.

Et tamen unde nobis persuadet Hermogenes malam esse materiam? Non enim poterit non 0207A malum dicere cui malum adscribit. Nam definimus diminutionem et subjectionem capere non posse quod sit aeternum , ut alii coaeterno inferius deputetur. Ita et nunc nec malum dicimus competere illi, quia nec subjici ex hoc possit, quod nullo modo potest subjici, quia aeternum est. Sed cum alias summum bonum constet esse quod sit aeternum ut Deus, per quod solus est Deus, dum aeternus est, et ita bonus, dum Deus; quomodo materiae inerit malum, quam ut aeternam, summum bonum credi necesse est? Aut, si quod aeternum est poterit et mali capax esse, poterit hoc et in Deum credi: et sine caussa gestivit malum a Deo transferre, si competit et aeterno, competendo materiae. Jam vero, si quod aeternum est, malum potest credi invincibile, et insuperabile 0207B erit malum ut aeternum: et ita nos frustra laboramus de auferendo malo ex nobis ipsis, tum et Deus hoc frustra mandat et praecipit: imo et judicium frustra constituit Deus , injustitia utique puniturus. Quod si tunc erit mali finis , cum praeses ejus diabolus abierit in ignem, quem praeparavit illi Deus et angelis ejus (Matth., XXV), prius in puteum abyssi relegatus (Apocal., XX), cum revelatio filiorum dei redemerit conditionem a malo, utique vanitati subjectam (Rom. VIII); cum restituta innocentia et integritate conditionis, pecora condixerint bestiis et parvuli de serpentibus luserint (Is. XI, 6, 7); cum Pater Filio posuerit inimicos sub pedes (Ps. CIX), utique operarios mali. Utique si finis malo competit, necesse est competierit initium, eritque 0207C materia habens initium, habendo et finem mali. Quae 0208A enim malo deputantur, secundum mali statum computantur.