Chapter XII.—The Mode of Controversy Changed. The Premisses of Hermogenes Accepted, in Order to Show into What Confusion They Lead Him.

Come now, let us suppose Matter to be evil, nay, very evil, by nature of course, just as we believe God to be good, even very good, in like manner by nature. Now nature must be regarded as sure and fixed, just as persistently fixed in evil in the case of Matter, as immoveable and unchangeable in good in the case of God.  Because, as is evident,119    Scilicet. if nature admits of change from evil to good in Matter, it can be changed from good to evil in God. Here some man will say, Then will “children not be raised up to Abraham from the stones?”120    Matt. iii. 9. Will “generations of vipers not bring forth the fruit of repentance?”121    Verses 7, 8. And “children of wrath” fail to become sons of peace, if nature be unchangeable?  Your reference to such examples as these, my friend,122    O homo. is a thoughtless123    Temere. one. For things which owe their existence to birth such as stones and vipers and human beings—are not apposite to the case of Matter, which is unborn; since their nature, by possessing a beginning, may have also a termination.  But bear in mind124    Tene. that Matter has once for all been determined to be eternal, as being unmade, unborn, and therefore supposably of an unchangeable and incorruptible nature; and this from the very opinion of Hermogenes himself, which he alleges against us when he denies that God was able to make (anything) of Himself, on the ground that what is eternal is incapable of change, because it would lose—so the opinion runs125    Scilicet.—what it once was, in becoming by the change that which it was not, if it were not eternal. But as for the Lord, who is also eternal, (he maintained) that He could not be anything else than what He always is. Well, then, I will adopt this definite opinion of his, and by means thereof refute him. I blame Matter with a like censure, because out of it, evil though it be—nay, very evil—good things have been created, nay, “very good” ones: “And God saw that they were good, and God blessed them”126    Gen. i. 21, 22.—because, of course, of their very great goodness; certainly not because they were evil, or very evil. Change is therefore admissible in Matter; and this being the case, it has lost its condition of eternity; in short,127    Denique. its beauty is decayed in death.128    That is, of course, by its own natural law. Eternity, however, cannot be lost, because it cannot be eternity, except by reason of its immunity from loss. For the same reason also it is incapable of change, inasmuch as, since it is eternity, it can by no means be changed.

CAPUT XII.

Age nunc, malam ac pessimam credamus esse materiam, utique natura; sicut Deum bonum et optimum credimus, proinde natura: porro naturam certam et fixam haberi oportebit tam in malo perseverantem apud materiam, quam in bono apud Deum inconvertibilem et indemutabilem. Scilicet quia, si demutabitur natura in materia de malo in bonum, demutari poterit et in Deo de bono in malum. Hoc loco dicet aliquis: Ergo de lapidibus filii Abrahae non suscitabuntur, et genimina viperarum non facient poenitentiae fructum (Luc. III, 7, 8), et filii irae non fient filii pacis (Ephes. II, 3), si natura mutabilis 0208B non erit. Temere ad ista exempla respicies, o homo; non enim competunt ad caussam materiae, quae innata est, ea quae nata sunt, lapides, et viperae, et homines: horum enim natura habendo institutionem, habere poterit et cessationem. Materiam vero tene semel aeternam determinatam, ut infectam, ut innatam; et ideo indemutabilis et incorruptibilis naturae credendam, ex ipsius etiam sententia Hermogenis, quam opponit , cum Deum negat ex semetipso facere potuisse; quia non demutetur quod sit aeternum, amissurum scilicet quod fuerat, dum fit ex demutatione quod non erat, si non esset aeternum: Dominum vero aeternum aliud esse non posse, quam quod est semper. Hac et ego definitione merito illum repercutiam: Materiam aeque reprehendo, cum ex illa mala pessima, etiam bona atque optima a Deo fiunt: 0208C Et vidit Deus quia bona, et benedixit ea Deus (Gen. I, 0209A 3, 31), utique qua optima, non certe qua mala ac pessima. Demutationem igitur admisit materia, et si ita est, statum aeternitatis amisit: mortua est denique sine sua forma. Sed aeternitas amitti non potest: quia, nisi amitti non possit, aeternitas non est. Ergo nec demutationem potuit admisisse: quia, si aeternitas est, demutari nullo modo potest.