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XXII. Moses, indeed, mentions that the earth was at first covered with water, and involved in thick darkness; and the Greek Interpreters, failing to express properly the sense of the Hebrew term, have called it "invisible."* It cannot, however, be proved from any resemblance betwixt the expressions, which are considerably dissimilar, that the Apostle alluded to this passage. "The things which do not appear,"t mentioned by Paul, and "the invisible earth," mentioned by the Greek Interpreters, are, in reality, quite different from each other. When Paul speaks of the things which do not appear," he refers to the state of things prior to the creation.§ "The invisible earth," on the contrary, does not signify a mass existing before the creation, but the second part of the universe, which, as well as the heaven, was created on the first day. Those who wrest these expressions to any other meaning, offer manifest violence, not only to the Mosaic history, but also to the whole tenor of Scripture. We have now spoken of the former; let us proceed to the latter.

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XXIII. If this pretended matter of which the world was made, existed previously, I ask, was it previously made of nothing by God, or was it really self-existent, and co-eternal with God? The one or the other of these is unavoidable; but both are contrary to holy writ.

XXIV. The matter in question, was not made before the creation of which Moses gives an account: for the Mosaic creation took place" in the beginning ;"|| and the beginning of something else prior to this universal beginning cannot be alleged, without contradicting the sacred historian. The Scripture, too, makes the pre

* Αόρατος.

† Γῆ ἀόρατος.

+ Τα μη φαινομενα.
§ Creationis terminus a quo.

בראשית: ||

eminence of the Supreme Being above all others, to consist in this, that he existed "before the mountains were "brought forth, ere ever the earth and the world were "formed;" and God himself urges this as a proof of his Deity; "Yea, before the day was, I am he."s In short, whatever existed before the beginning, ere ever the earth was, existed before all time-according to the phraseology of Scripture, was ETERNAL-was before the works of God-and could not have been made.

xxv. Besides, whoever denies that this matter was made, is not afraid to contradict the four-and-twenty Elders in heaven, who thus address themselves to God in their song of praise: THOU HAST CREATED ALL THINGS." Nor does he scruple to contradict the Apostles John and Paul, who teach the same doctrine in John i. 3. Col. i. 16.-passages which, in defiance of truth, are applied by the heretics to the new creation of things by the Gospel. If these declarations of the Elders and Apostles are certain, as unquestionably they are, it is also certain, that this original matter of the world is either a mere figment, and indeed absolutely nothing, or that it was created by God.

XXVI. Further, if this matter both existed from eternity, and existed of itself, and thus was indebted to God for nothing it possessed, what right had God to it? or what title had he, to fashion it according to his pleasure? Basil says, "If it was, in reality, uncreated, it "must be esteemed worthy of the same honours with "God."* Our adversaries, on other occasions, contend that every right of God in relation to the creatures arises either from a favour conferred by him

*Hexaem. Hom. ii.

upon them,

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or from an offence committed on their part against God. According to the hypothesis, the first has no place here; of the last, brute matter is totally incapable.

Add to this, that it can hardly be conceived how the Creator took possession of that which might be considered not only equal, but in some respects superior to God. It was at least a thing of which he stood in need, and which supplied him with materials and facilities for his operations, and thus was greater than God who needed it; while this supposed matter stood in no need of him, or at least received nothing from him. But every one is dependent on him, whose assistance he needs to make use of; and every one, by employing what pertains to another, is inferior to him of whose property he avails himself. As the eloquent Vogelsangius has acutely observed, matter must have conferred a truly signal favour upon God, in furnishing him with the means, by which he might, to this day, be known, and acknowledged as Omnipotent. See an excellent discussion of this controversy by Dionysius, in Eusebius; and another, in the same historian, by Origen, who refutes at large that exposition which the Socinians have thought proper to adopt.

XXVII. Nor shall the heretics elude the force of this argument, by a counterfeit modesty, whilst they pretend that because sacred writ is silent with regard to the creation of this matter, they also determine nothing. Though they should not presume to determine this point, one of two suppositions is true; the matter in question was either created before the Mosaic beginning, or it was not. There is no room for a third hy

• Disput. Physica de Mundo, sect. viii.

+ De Præp. Evan. lib. vii. cap. penultimo: wig Ten åyerrntov i

και την ύλην.

pothesis. But we have shown the falsehood of both these suppositions.

XXVIII. The passage of Paul, which we are now coùsidering, ought not to be compared with WISDOM xi. 17. but rather with 2 MACCAB. vii. 28, where the pious mother animating her son to suffer martyrdom, charges him to look upon the heaven and the earth, and all that is in them, and to consider that God made them of things that were not.* This has been observed even by Grotius, for whom Schlichtingius, (according to the testimony of Lubieniecius, in his preface prefixed to his Posthumous Commentaries,) entertained the highest esteem, and of whom he was wont to say, "that "the Christian world had waited for the appearance of "such a man, for more than fifteen centuries from the days of the Apostles."

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XXIX. Volkelius objects that, in this passage of the Maccabees, the author intends a privative nothing, or matter destitute of that form which was to be superinduced because what is affirmed of all other things, is here asserted concerning man in particular, that he was made of nothing; whereas, while it is certain with regard to several other creatures, it is peculiarly manifest with respect to man, that he was formed of the earth. But this exception has no weight. For, when that pious woman, in conformity with the sentiments of the Catholic Church, says, that all things, and mankind among the rest, were created of nothing, she refers to the first and universal origin of things; which were brought, not from a privative nothing, but from nothing in a negative and absolute sense. Although, when you consider every thing in detail, some are im

* Γνῶναι ὅτι ἐκ εξ όντων εποίησεν άντα ο Θεός.

mediately, and others mediately, from nothing; yet ultimately, all things are made of nothing.

xxx. We might dismiss the expression adduced from the book entitled the WISDOM OF SOLOMON Xi. 17,* with a short answer, by saying, that that author is not authentic either with us, or in the estimation of our adversaries; and that if he had imbibed this error from the dregs of heathen philosophy, it would have been proper to refute him from writers of undoubted credit, not to obtrude him as a sound interpreter of Moses or Paul.

XXXI. Yet I can scarcely bring myself to believe, that he held that opinion which the heretics impute to him. When he says that the almighty hand of God created the world of matter without form, he seems to speak not of the very first commencement of all things, but of the creation of terrestrial things of that matter which in GEN. i. 2, Moses takes notice of as made by God: For, in the ordinary language of men, the earth, with the things which it contains, is commonly called the world, in contradistinction to heaven. That the earth was, in reality, formed out of that shapeless or confused matter, is evident. That God created this matter, too, this writer by no means denies. He affirms, on the contrary, that" all things" were made by his word; v and, in this very chapter, he intimates, that nothing could exist" which was not called by God." This must be true, also, with regard to the "matter without "form," of whatever sort it is.

The entire verse from which the expression is quoted, is as follows: "For thy almighty hand, that made the world of matter "without form, wanted not means to send among them a multitude " of bears, or fierce lions."

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T.

* Τὸ μη κληθεν ὑπὸ τὸ Θε8, ver. 25.

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