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leaning upon the things expected, through a good way of life to acquire beforehand the future grace.

CHAPTER 23.

That he who confesses the beginning of the world's constitution, will necessarily also agree concerning the end. But if anyone, seeing the present course of the world proceeding in a certain sequence, through which the interval of time is observed, should say that it is not possible for the foretold cessation of things in motion to happen; such a one is clearly not believing that the heaven and the earth were made in the beginning by God. For he who gives a beginning to motion, surely does not doubt also concerning an end? and he who does not accept the end, has not accepted the beginning either. But just as we understand by faith that the ages were framed by the word of God, believing, as the Apostle says, that the things which are seen were made out of things which do not appear; we shall use the same faith concerning the word of God, who foretold the necessary cessation of existing things. But the "how" must be excluded from meddlesome inquiry; for in that case too we accepted by faith that what is seen was framed from things not yet appearing, passing over the investigation of things impossible to grasp. And yet reason proposed to us to be perplexed about many things, providing not a few starting-points for doubt concerning the things believed.

For there also it was possible for the contentious, from plausible arguments according to logical sequence, to overthrow faith, so as not to think true the account concerning material creation, which the holy Scripture teaches, affirming that the genesis of all existing things is from God. For those who support the contrary argument, construct the argument that matter is co-eternal with God, using such arguments against the dogma: If God is simple in nature, and immaterial, without quality and without magnitude, and uncompounded, and alien to description in terms of shape; but all matter is apprehended in spatial extension, and has not escaped perceptions through the senses, being known in color, and shape, and bulk, and size, and resistance, and the other things observed concerning it, none of which can be perceived in the divine 212 nature; by what device could matter be produced from the immaterial? from that which is without extension, the nature that has extension? For if it is believed that these things have their substance from him, clearly, being in him according to an ineffable principle, they thus came into being. But if the material was in him, how is he immaterial who has matter in himself? Likewise also all the other things by which material nature is characterized: if quantity is in God, how is God without quantity? if the composite is in him, how is he simple and indivisible and uncompounded? so that the argument forces one either to say he is necessarily material, because matter derived its substance from him; or if one should avoid this, it is necessary to suppose that matter was brought in to him from outside for the construction of the universe. If then it was outside of God, it was surely something else besides God, conceived along with the ungenerated being according to the principle of eternity; so that two unoriginated and ungenerated principles would be comprehended by reason at the same time with each other, that which acts with skill, and that which receives this knowledgeable action. And if anyone, from this necessity, should suppose matter to be eternally coexistent with the Creator of all things, how much support the Manichaean will find for his own dogmas, who sets the material cause, as ungenerated, in opposition to the good nature! But indeed, hearing the Scripture say that all things are from God, we have believed; and how it was in God, a thing beyond our reason, we do not think it right to meddle with, having believed that all things are possible for the divine power; both to give substance to that which is not, and to impose upon that which is what seems good

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προσδοκωμένων ἐπ ερειδόμενον, διὰ τῆς ἀγαθῆς πολιτείας τὴν μέλλουσαν χάριν προεμπορεύεσθαι.

ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ ΚΓʹ.

Ὅτι ὁ τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς τοῦ κόσμου συστάσεως ὁμολογῶν, ἀναγκαίως καὶ περὶ

τοῦ τέλους συν θήσεται. Εἰ δέ τις τὴν νῦν τοῦ κόσμου φορὰν εἱρμῷ τινι διεξαγομένην βλέπων, δι' ἦς τὸ χρονικὸν θεωρεῖται διάστημα, μὴ ἐνδέχεσθαι λέγοι τὴν προαγγελθεῖσαν τῶν κινουμένων στάσιν γενήσεσθαι· δῆλος ὁ τοιοῦτός ἐστι, μηδὲ ἐν ἀρχῇ γεγενῆσθαι παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν πιστεύων. Ὁ γὰρ ἀρχὴν τῇ κινήσει διδοὺς, οὐκ ἀμφιβάλλει πάντως καὶ περὶ τέ λους; καὶ ὁ τὸ τέλος μὴ προσδεχόμενος, οὐδὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν παρεδέξατο. Ἀλλ' ὥσπερ κατηρτίσθαι τοὺς αἰῶνας τῷ ῥήματι νοοῦμεν τοῦ Θεοῦ, πιστεύοντες, καθώς φησιν ὁ Ἀπόστολος, ἐκ τῶν μὴ φαινομένων τὰ βλεπόμενα γεγονέναι· τῇ αὐτῇ πίστει χρησόμεθα περὶ τὸ ῥῆμα τοῦ Θεοῦ, τοῦ τὴν ἀναγκαίαν τῶν ὄντων στάσιν προαγορεύσαντος. Τὸ δὲ πῶς, ἐξαιρε τέον τῆς πολυπραγμοσύνης· καὶ γὰρ κἀκεῖ πίστει κατηρτίσθαι τὸ βλεπόμενον ἐκ τῶν μηδέπω φαινο μένων κατεδεξάμεθα, παραδραμόντες τῶν ἀνεφίκτων τὴν ζήτησιν. Καίτοι περὶ πολλῶν ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος ἀπο ρεῖν ὑπετίθετο, οὐ μικρὰς παρέχων ἀφορμὰς πρὸς τὴν τῶν πεπιστευμένων ἀμφιβολίαν.

Ἐξῆν γὰρ κἀ κεῖ τοῖς ἐριστικοῖς ἐκ τῶν εὐλόγων κατὰ τὸ ἀκόλου θον

ἀνατρέπειν τὴν πίστιν, πρὸς τὸ μὴ νομίζειν ἀληθῆ τὸν περὶ τῆς ὑλικῆς κτίσεως εἶναι λόγον, ὃν ἡ ἁγία πρεσβεύει Γραφὴ, πάντων τῶν ὄντων ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ εἶναι διαβεβαιουμένη τὴν γένεσιν. Οἱ γὰρ τῷ ἐναντίῳ παριστάμενοι λόγῳ, συναΐδιον εἶναι τῷ Θεῷ τὴν ὕλην κατασκευάζουσι, τοιούτοις ἐπιχειρήμασι πρὸς τὸ δόγμα χρώμενοι· Εἰ ἁπλοῦς ὁ Θεὸς τῇ φύσει, καὶ ἄϋλος, ἀποιός τε καὶ ἀμεγέθης, καὶ ἀσύνθετος, καὶ τῆς κατὰ τὸ σχῆμα περιγραφῆς ἀλλοτρίως ἔχων πᾶσα δὲ ὕλη ἐν διαστηματικῇ παρατάσει καταλαμβά νεται, καὶ τὰς διὰ τῶν αἰσθητηρίων καταλήψεις οὐ δια πέφευγεν, ἐν χρώματι, καὶ σχήματι, καὶ ὄγκῳ, καὶ πη λικότητι, καὶ ἀντιτυπίᾳ, καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς τοῖς περὶ αὐ τὴν θεωρουμένοις γινωσκομένη, ὧν οὐδὲν ἐν τῇ θεία 212 φύσει δυνατόν ἐστι κατανοῆσαι· τίς μηχανὴ ἐκ τοῦ ἀῦλον τὴν ὕλην ἀποτεχθῆναι; ἐκ τοῦ ἀδιαστάτου τὴν διαστηματικὴν φύσιν; Εἰ γὰρ ἐκεῖθεν ὑποστῆναι ταῦτα πεπίστευται, δηλονότι ἐν αὐτῷ ὄντα κατὰ τὸν ἄῤῥητον λόγον οὕτω προῆλθεν εἰς γένεσιν. Εἰ δὲ ἐν ἐκείνῳ τὸ ὑλῶδες ἦν, πῶς ἄϋλος ὁ ἐν αὑτῷ τὴν ὕλην ἔχων; Ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα, δι' ὧν ἡ ὑλικὴ φύσις χαρακτηρίζεται· εἰ ἐν τῷ Θεῷ ἡ ποσό της, πῶς ἄποσος ὁ Θεός; εἰ ἐν ἐκείνῳ τὸ σύνθετον, πῶς ἀπλοῦς καὶ ἀμερὴς καὶ ἀσύνθετος; ὥστε ἢ ὑλικὸν εἶναι κατ' ἀνάγκην αὐτὸν, διὰ τὸ ἐκεῖθεν ὑποστῆναι τὴν ὕλην, ὁ λόγος βιάζεται· ἢ εἰ τοῦτό τις φεύγοι, ἔξωθεν ἐπεισενεχθῆναι τὴν ὕλην αὐτῷ πρὸς τὴν κατασκευὴν τοῦ παντὸς ὑπολαμβάνειν ἐπάναγκες. Εἰ οὖν ἔξω τοῦ Θεοῦ ἦν, ἄλλο τι παρὰ τὸν Θεὸν πάντως ἦν συνεπινοούμενον κατὰ τὸν τῆς ἀϊδιότητος λόγον τῷ ἀγεννήτως ὄντι· ὥστε δύο ἄν αρχα καὶ ἀγέννητα κατὰ ταὐτὸν ἀλλήλοις τῷ λόγῳ συγκαταλαμβάνεσθαι, τοῦ τεχνικῶς ἐνεργοῦντος, καὶ τοῦ δεχομένου τὴν ἐπιστημονικὴν ταύτην ἐνέργειαν. Καὶ εἴ τις ἐκ τῆς ἀνάγκης ταύτης ἀΐδιον ὑποτίθοιτο τῷ ∆ημιουργῷ τῶν ἁπάντων ὑποκεῖσθαι τὴν ὕλην, ὅσην ὁ Μανιχαῖος εὑρήσει τῶν ἰδίων δογμάτων τὴν συνηγορίαν, ὃς τὴν ὑλικὴν αἰτίαν κατὰ τὸ ἀγέννητον ἀντιπαρεξάγει τῇ ἀγαθῇ φύσει! Ἀλλὰ μὴν καὶ ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ τὰ πάντα, τῆς Γραφῆς λεγούσης ἀκούον τες, πεπιστεύκαμεν· καὶ τὸ ὅπως ἦν ἐν τῷ Θεῷ, τὸ ὑπὲρ τὸν ἡμέτερον λόγον, οὐκ ἀξιοῦμεν περιεργάζε σθαι, πάντα τῇ θείᾳ δυνάμει χωρητὰ πεπιστευκότες· καὶ τὸ μὴ ὂν ὑποστήσασθαι, καὶ τῷ ὄντι πρὸς τὸ δοκοῦν ἐπιβαλεῖν