Man produces his works out of that which already exists, because through his mortality he is weak, and through his weakness his power is limited and moderate; but God produces His works out of that which has no existence, because through His eternity He is strong, and through His strength His power is immense, which has no end or limit, like the life of the Maker Himself. What wonder, then, if God, when He was about to make the world, first prepared the material from which to make it, and prepared it out of that which had no existence? Because it is impossible for God to borrow anything from another source, inasmuch as all things are in Himself and from Himself. For if there is anything before Him, and if anything has been made, but not by Him, He will therefore lose both the power and the name of God.<\/p>\n
But it may be said matter was never made, like God, who out of matter made this world. In that case, it follows that two eternal principles are established, and those indeed opposed to one another, which cannot happen without discord and destruction. For those things which have a contrary force and method must of necessity come into collision. In this manner it will be impossible that both should be eternal, if they are opposed to one another, because one must overpower the other. Therefore the nature of that which is eternal cannot be otherwise than simple, so that all things descended from that source as from a fountain. Therefore either God proceeded from matter, or matter from God. Which of these is more true, is easily understood. For of these two, one is endued with sensibility, the other is insensible. The power of making anything cannot exist, except in that which has sensibility, intelligence, reflection, and the power of motion.<\/p>\n
But matter cannot always have existed, for if it had existed it would be incapable of change. For that which always was, does not cease always to be; and that which had no beginning must of necessity be without an end. Moreover, it is easier for that which had a beginning to be without an end, than for that which had no beginning, to have an end. Therefore if matter was not made, nothing can be made from it. But if nothing can be made from it, then matter itself can have no existence. For matter is that out of which something is made. But everything out of which anything is made, inasmuch as it has received the hand of the artificer, is destroyed, and begins to be some other thing. Therefore, since matter had an end, at the time when the
\nworld was made out of it, it also had a beginning.
\n— Lactantius. Divine Institutes II.IX<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Man produces his works out of that which already exists, because through his mortality he is weak, and through his weakness his power is limited and moderate; but God produces His works out of that which has no existence, because through His eternity He is strong, and through His strength His power is immense, which has no end or limit, like the life of the Maker Himself. What wonder, then, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-1280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lactantius","tag-creatio-ex-nihilo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":352,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/athenagoras-on-the-trinity\/","url_meta":{"origin":1280,"position":0},"title":"Athenagoras: On the Trinity","author":"Nemo","date":"February 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We acknowledge one God, uncreated, eternal, invisible, impassable, incomprehensible, illimitable, who is apprehended by the understanding only and the reason, who is encompassed by light, and beauty, and spirit, and power ineffable, by whom the universe has been created through His Logos, and set in order, and is kept in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Athenagoras"","block_context":{"text":"Athenagoras","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/athenagoras\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":212,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/clement-of-rome-first-epistle-to-the-corinthians\/","url_meta":{"origin":1280,"position":1},"title":"Clement of Rome: First Epistle to the Corinthians","author":"Nemo","date":"January 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Compassion and Confidence in Prayer Ye were inwardly filled with His doctrine, and His sufferings were before your eyes. Thus a profound and abundant peace was given to you all, and ye had an insatiable desire for doing good, while a full outpouring of the Holy Spirit was upon you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Clement of Rome"","block_context":{"text":"Clement of Rome","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/clement-of-rome\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1166,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/novatian-on-the-trinity\/","url_meta":{"origin":1280,"position":2},"title":"Novatian: On the Trinity","author":"Nemo","date":"May 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Divine Simplicity For when the eyes are spoken of, it is implied that He sees all things; and when the ear, it is set forth that He hears all things; and when the finger, a certain energy of His will is opened up; and when the nostrils, His recognition of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Novatian"","block_context":{"text":"Novatian","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/novatian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":347,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/theophilus-of-antioch-on-the-trinity\/","url_meta":{"origin":1280,"position":3},"title":"Theophilus of Antioch On the Trinity","author":"Nemo","date":"February 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Image of God For God is seen by those who are enabled to see Him when they have the eyes of their soul opened: for all have eyes; but in some they are overspread, and do not see the light of the sun. Yet it does not follow, because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Theophilus of Antioch"","block_context":{"text":"Theophilus of Antioch","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/theophilus-of-antioch\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":419,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/origen-on-first-principles\/","url_meta":{"origin":1280,"position":4},"title":"Origen: On First Principles","author":"Nemo","date":"June 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Nature of Mind The mind requires magnitude of an intellectual kind. It is not enlarged by means of corporal additions, but is sharpened by exercises of learning. The powers implanted within it are called forth, and it is rendered capable of greater intellectual efforts, being polished by learned exercises.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Origen"","block_context":{"text":"Origen","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/origen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":283,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/irenaeus-the-nature-of-thought\/","url_meta":{"origin":1280,"position":5},"title":"Irenaeus: The Nature of Thought","author":"Nemo","date":"January 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"When refuting the Gnostics, who pride themselves on knowledge of the divine, and make a pantheon out of such knowledge, Irenaeus expounds on the relation between a rational being and his knowledge, by way of proving that Christ, the Wisdom of God, is one with the Father, though distinct from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Irenaeus"","block_context":{"text":"Irenaeus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/irenaeus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peqR9l-kE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}