Chapter XXI.—A Retort of Heresy Answered. That Scripture Should in So Many Words Tell Us that the World Was Made of Nothing is Superfluous.

But, you will say to me, if you determine that all things were made of nothing, on the ground that it is not told us that anything was made out of pre-existent Matter, take care that it be not contended on the opposite side, that on the same ground all things were made out of Matter, because it is not likewise expressly said that anything was made out of nothing. Some arguments may, of course,206    Plane. be thus retorted easily enough; but it does not follow that they are on that account fairly admissible, where there is a diversity in the cause. For I maintain that, even if the Scripture has not expressly declared that all things were made out of nothing—just as it abstains (from saying that they were formed) out of Matter—there was no such pressing need for expressly indicating the creation of all things out of nothing, as there was of their creation out of Matter, if that had been their origin. Because, in the case of what is made out of nothing, the very fact of its not being indicated that it was made of any particular thing shows that it was made of nothing; and there is no danger of its being supposed that it was made of anything, when there is no indication at all of what it was made of.  In the case, however, of that which is made out of something, unless the very fact be plainly declared, that it was made out of something, there will be danger, until207    Dum ostenditur: which Oehler and Rigalt. construe as “donec ostendatur.” One reading has “dum non ostenditur,” “so long as it is not shown.” it is shown of what it was made, first of its appearing to be made of nothing, because it is not said of what it was made; and then, should it be of such a nature208    Ea conditione. as to have the appearance of having certainly been made of something, there will be a similar risk of its seeming to have been made of a far different material from the proper one, so long as there is an absence of statement of what it was made of. Then, if God had been unable to make all things of nothing, the Scripture could not possibly have added that He had made all things of nothing: (there could have been no room for such a statement,) but it must by all means have informed us that He had made all things out of Matter, since Matter must have been the source; because the one case was quite to be understood,209    In totum habebat intelligi. if it were not actually stated, whereas the other case would be left in doubt unless it were stated.

CAPUT XXI.

Ergo, inquis, si tu ideo praejudicas ex nihilo facta 0216B omnia, quia non sit manifeste relatum de materia praecedenti factum quid, vide ne diversa pars ideo contendat ex materia omnia facta, quia proinde non aperte significatum sit, ex nihilo quid factum. Plane retorqueri quaedam facile possunt: non statim et ex aequo admitti, ubi diversitas caussae est. Dico enim, etsi non aperte Scriptura pronuntiavit ex nihilo facta omnia, sicut nec ex materia, non tantam fuisse necessitatem aperte significandi de nihilo facta omnia, quanta esset, si ex materia facta fuissent. Quoniam quod fit ex nihilo, eo ipso dum non ostenditur ex aliquo factum, manifestatur ex nihilo factum: et non periclitatur ne ex aliquo factum existimetur, quando non demonstretur ex quo sit factum. Quod autem ex aliquo fit, nisi hoc ipsum aperte declaratur ex aliquo 0216C factum, dum illud ex quo factum sit non ostenditur , periclitabitur primo videri ex nihilo factum, quia non editur ex quo sit factum. Dehinc, etsi ea sit conditione, ut non possit videri non ex aliquo , proinde periclitabitur, ex alio longe factum videri, quam ex quo factum est, dum non proponitur unde 0217A sit factum. Ita, si ex nihilo Deus cuncta fecisse non potuit, etsi Scriptura non adjecisset illum ex nihilo fecisse (II Mach. VII, 28); ex materia eum fecisse omni modo debuit edixisse, si et ex materia fecisset, quia illud in totum habebat intelligi, etsi non significaretur: at istud in dubio, nisi significaretur.