Chapter XLV.—Conclusion. Contrast Between the Statements of Hermogenes and the Testimony of Holy Scripture Respecting the Creation. Creation Out of Nothing, Not Out of Matter.

But it is not thus that the prophets and the apostles have told us that the world was made by God merely appearing and approaching Matter. They did not even mention any Matter, but (said) that Wisdom was first set up, the beginning of His ways, for His works.465    Prov. viii. 22, 23. Then that the Word was produced, “through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made.”466    John i. 3. Indeed, “by the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all their hosts by the breath of His mouth.”467    Spiritu Ipsius: “by His Spirit.” See Ps. xxxiii. 6. He is the Lord’s right hand,468    Isa. xlviii. 13. indeed His two hands, by which He worked and constructed the universe. “For,” says He, “the heavens are the works of Thine hands,”469    Ps. cii. 25. wherewith “He hath meted out the heaven, and the earth with a span.”470    Isa. xl. 12 and xlviii. 13. Do not be willing so to cover God with flattery, as to contend that He produced by His mere appearance and simple approach so many vast substances, instead of rather forming them by His own energies. For this is proved by Jeremiah when he says, “God hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by His understanding.”471    Jer. li. 15. These are the energies by the stress of which He made this universe.472    Ps. lxiv. 7. His glory is greater if He laboured. At length on the seventh day He rested from His works. Both one and the other were after His manner. If, on the contrary,473    Aut si. He made this world simply by appearing and approaching it, did He, on the completion of His work, cease to appear and approach it any more. Nay rather,474    Atquin. God began to appear more conspicuously and to be everywhere accessible475    Ubique conveniri. from the time when the world was made.  You see, therefore, how all things consist by the operation of that God who “made the earth by His power, who established the world by His wisdom, and stretched out the heaven by His understanding;” not appearing merely, nor approaching, but applying the almighty efforts of His mind, His wisdom, His power, His understanding, His word, His Spirit, His might. Now these things were not necessary to Him, if He had been perfect by simply appearing and approaching. They are, however, His “invisible things,” which, according to the apostle, “are from the creation of the world clearly seen by the things that are made;”476    Rom. i. 20.they are no parts of a nondescript477    Nescio quæ. Matter, but they are the sensible478    Sensualia. evidences of Himself. “For who hath known the mind of the Lord,”479    Rom. xi. 34. of which (the apostle) exclaims: “O the depth of the riches both of His wisdom and knowledge! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!”480    Ver. 33. Now what clearer truth do these words indicate, than that all things were made out of nothing? They are incapable of being found out or investigated, except by God alone.  Otherwise, if they were traceable or discoverable in Matter, they would be capable of investigation. Therefore, in as far as it has become evident that Matter had no prior existence (even from this circumstance, that it is impossible481    Nec competat. for it to have had such an existence as is assigned to it), in so far is it proved that all things were made by God out of nothing. It must be admitted, however,482    Nisi quod. that Hermogenes, by describing for Matter a condition like his own—irregular, confused, turbulent, of a doubtful and precipate and fervid impulse—has displayed a specimen of his own art, and painted his own portrait.

CAPUT XLV.

At enim prophetae et apostoli non ita tradunt mundum a Deo factum, apparente solummodo et appropinquante materiae, qui nec materiam ullam nominaverunt, sed primo Sophiam conditam initium viarum in opera ipsius (Prov., VIII, 22): dehinc et sermonem prolatum, per quem omnia facta sunt, et sine quo factum est nihil (Joan., I, 3). Denique sermone ejus coeli confirmati sunt, et spiritu ipsius universae virtutes eorum (Ps. XXXIII, 6). Hic est Dei dextera et manus ambae per quas operatus est ea 0237B quae molitus est (Is., XLVIII, 13). Opera enim manuum tuarum, inquit, coeli (Ps. CII, 26); per quas et mensus est terram, et palmo coelum (Is. XL, 12). Noli ita Deo adulari, ut velis illum solo visu et solo accessu tot ac tantas substantias protulisse, et non propriis viribus instituisse. Sic enim et Jeremias commendat; Deus faciens terram in valentia sua, parans orbem intelligentia sua, et suo sensu extendit coelum (Jerem., LI, 15, Ps. LXIV, 7). Hae sunt vires ejus, quibus enixus, totum hoc condidit. Major est gloria ejus, si laboravit. Denique septima die requievit ab operibus (Gen. II, 2). Utrumque suo more. Aut si adparens solummodo et adpropinquans fecit hunc mundum, numquid cum facere desiit, rursus 0238A adparere et adpropinquare cessavit? Atquin magis apparere coepit, et ubique conveniri Deus, ex quo factus est mundus. Vides ergo quemadmodum operatione Dei universa consistunt , valentia facientis terram, intelligentia parantis orbem, et sensu extendentis coelum: non adparentis solummodo, nec adpropinquantis, sed adhibentis tantos animi sui nisus, sophiam, valentiam, sensum, sermonem, spiritum, virtutem: quae illi non erant necessaria, si adparendo tantummodo et adpropinquando profectus fuisset . Haec autem sunt invisibilia ejus, quae secundum apostolum ab institutione mundi de factis ejus conspiciuntur (Rom., II, 20), non materiae nescio quae, sed sensualia ipsius. Quis enim cognovit sensum Domini? 0238B De quo exclamat : O profundum divitiarum et sophiae, ut inventibilia judicia ejus, et ininvestigabiles viae ejus! (Rom. XI, 33). Quid haec magis sapiunt, quam ut ex nihilo omnia facta sint? quae nec invenire nec investigari nisi a solo Deo possent; alioqui investigabilia, si ex materia sunt investigata et inventa. Igitur in quantum constitit materiam nullam fuisse, ex hoc etiam quod nec talem competat fuisse qualis inducitur, in tantum probatur omnia a Deo ex nihilo facta, nisi quod Hermogenes cumdem statum describendo materiae, quo est ipse, inconditum, confusum, turbulentum, ancipitis et praecipitis et fervidi motus, documentum artis suae dum ostendit, ipse se pinxit.