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(saith he) we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." (Heb. xi. 3.) Not as if the earth, which we see, were made of air, or any more subtil body, which we see not; nor as if those "things which are seen" were in equal latitude commensurable with the worlds which were framed: but that those "things which are seen," that is, which are, were made of those " which did not appear, "* that is, which were not.

Vain therefore was that opinion of a real matter coeval with God as necessary for production of the World by way of subject, as the eternal and Almighty God by way of efficient. For if some real and material being must be presupposed by. indispensable necessity, without which God could not cause any thing to be, then is not he independent in his actions, nor of infinite power and absolute activity, which is contradictory to the divine perfection. Nor can any reason be alleged why he should be dependent in his operation, who is confessed independent in his being.

And as this coeternity of matter opposeth God's independency, the proper notion of the Deity, so doth it also contradict his all-sufficiency. For if, without the production of something beside himself, he cannot make a demonstration of his attributes, or cause any sensibility of his power and will for the illustration of his own glory; and if, without something distinct wholly from himself, he cannot produce any thing, then must he want something external: and whosoever wanteth any thing is not all-sufficient. And certainly he must have a low opinion and poor conception of the infinite and eternal God, who thinks he is no otherwise known to be omnipotent than by the benefit of another. Nor were the framers of the CREED so wise in prefixing the Almighty before Maker of heaven and earth, if out of a necessity of material concurrence, the making of them left a mark of impotency rather than omnipotency.

* For I take μǹ èk paivoμévwv in this place to be equivalent unto our Övrov in the Maccabees, and that of the same sense with our ovṛwv, as the Syriac translation,

A ex iis quæ non conspiciuntur. Which manner of speech may be observed even in the best Greek authors; as in Aristotle: μeraßáλoi av τὸ μεταβάλλον τετραχῶς. ἢ γὰρ ἐξ ὑποκειμένου εἰς ὑποκείμενον, ἢ οὐκ ἐξ ὑποκειμένου εἰς οὐχ ὑποκείμενον, ἢ μὴ ἐξ ὑποκειμένου εἰς ὑποκείμενον, ἢ εξ υποκειμεvov εiç μm) VπOKEίμEvov. Phys. 1.v.c. 1. t. 7. Where our VπTOKELμέvov is the same with oux vπокεμÉvoν, and ἐξ ὑποκειμένου with ἐκ μὴ ὑποκειμένου. Nemo enim non eget eo de cu

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jus utitur; nemo non subjicitur ei cujus eget ut possit uti. Sic et nemo de alieno utendo, non minor est eo de cujus utitur; et nemo qui præstat de suo uti, non in hoc superior est eo cui præstat uti.' Tertull. adv. Hermog. c.8.

'Grande revera beneficium contulit, ut haberet hodie per quem Deus cognosceretur et omnipotens vocaretur: nisi quod jam non omnipotens, si non et hoc potens, ex nihilo omnia proferre. Ibid. Quomodo ab homine divina illa vis differret, si, ut homo, sic etiam Deus ope indigeat aliena: indiget autém si nihil moliri potest, nisi ab altero illi materia ministretur. Lactan. 1. ii. c. 9.

The supposition then of an eternal matter is so unnecessary where God works, and so derogatory to the infinity of his power, and all-sufficiency of himself, that the later philosophers,* something acquainted with the truth which we profess, though rejecting Christianity, have reproved those of the school of Plato, who delivered, as the doctrine of their master, an eternal companion, so injurious to the Father and Maker of all things.

Wherefore to give an answer to that general position, "That out of nothing nothing can be produced,' which Aristotle pretends to be the opinion of all natural philosophers, I must first observe, that this universal proposition was first framed out of particular considerations of the works of art and nature. For if we look upon all kinds of artificers, we find they cannot give any specimen of their art without materials. Being then the beauty and uniformity of the World shews it to be a piece of art most exquisite; hence they conclude that the Maker of it was the most exact artificer,§ and consequently had his matter from all eternity prepared for him. Again, considering the works of nature, and all parts of the World subject to generation and corruption, they also|| observed that nothing is ever generated but out of something preexistent, nor is there any mutation wrought but in a subject, and with a presupposed capability of alteration. From hence they presently collected, that if the whole World were ever generated, it must have been produced out of some subject, and consequently there must be a matter eternally pre-existing.

Now what can be more irrational, than from the weakness of some creature to infer the same imbecility in the Creator, and to measure the arm of God by the finger of man? Whatsoever speaketh any kind of excellency or perfection in the artificer, may be attributed unto God: whatsoever signifieth any infirmity, or involveth any imperfection, must be excluded from the notion of him. That wisdom, prescience, and pre

* As Hierocles: Kaì rí karaλέyw co τούτους, ὅπου γε καὶ τῶν Πλατωνικῶν τινὲς οὐκ ὀρθὴν τὴν περὶ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ Θεοῦ δι ασώζουσιν ἔννοιαν ; οὐ γὰρ ἱκανὸν avròv elvai yý@noaV, AVTOTελwÇ VπOOTσαι δύνασθαι κόσμον οἰκείᾳ δυνάμει καὶ σοφίᾳ ἐξ ἀϊδίου ἐνεργοῦντα· ἀλλ ̓ ἀγεννήτου ὕλης συνεργείᾳ, καὶ τῇ μὴ παρ ̓ αὐτοῦ ὑποστάσῃ φύσει καταχρώμενον, μόνως dnμiovρyelv dúvaobai. De Provid. et Fato, p. 6.

† Πᾶν τὸ γινόμενον ἀνάγκη γίνεσθαι ἢ ἐξ ὄντων ἢ ἐκ μὴ ὄντων· τούτων δὲ τὸ μὲν ἐκ μὴ ὄντων γίνεσθαι ἀδύνατον περὶ γὰρ ταύτης ὁμογνωμονοῦσι τῆς δόξης ἅπαντες οἱ περὶ φύσεως. Physic. l. i. c. 4. t. 34.

1 • Ut igitur faber cum quid ædifcaturus est, non ipse facit materiam,

sed ea utitur quæ sit parata, fictorque item cera: sic isti providentiæ divinæ materiam præsto esse oportuit, non quam ipse faceret, sed quam haberet paratam.' Cicero de Nat. Deorum, iii. in fragm. ap. Lactant. l. ii. c. 8. ̓Απει καστέον τῷ μὲν θεῷ τὸν τεχνίτην, τὸν δὲ ἀδριάντα τῷ κόσμῳ. Methodius περὶ τῶν γεννητῶν, in Phot. Bibl. 237. col. 937. ed. Hoeschel. 1612.

§ So Hierocles calls him κοσμοποιὸν καὶ ἀριστότεχνον θεὸν, in Aur. Carm. p. 10, 11.

[[ Ὅτι δὲ αἱ οὐσίαι, καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα ἁπλῶς ὄντα ἐξ ὑποκειμένου τινὸς γίνεται, ἐπι σκοποῦντι γένοιτ' ἂν φανερόν· ἀεὶ γάρ ἐστί τι ὃ ὑπόκειται, ἐξ οὗ γίνεται τὸ γιγνόμενον, οἷον τὰ φυτὰ καὶ τὰ ζῶα ἐκ σπέρ paros. Aristot. Phys. 1. i. c. 7.

conception, that order and beauty of operation which is required in an artist, is most eminently contained in him, who hath" ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight:" (Wisd. xi. 20.) but if the most absolute idea in the artificer's understanding be not sufficient to produce his design without hands to work, and materials to make use of, it will follow no more that God is necessarily tied unto pre-existing matter, than that he is really compounded of corporeal parts.

Again, it is as incongruous to judge of the production of the World by those parts thereof which we see subject to generation and corruption: and thence to conclude, that if it ever had a cause of the being which it hath, it must have been generated in the same manner in which they are; and if that cannot be, it must never have been måde at all. For nothing is more certain than that this manner of generation cannot possibly have been the first production even of those things which are now generated. We see the plants grow from a seed; that is their ordinary way of generation: but the first plant could not be so generated, because all seed in the same course of nature is from the pre-existing plant. We see from spawn the fishes, and from eggs the fowls receive now the original of their being: but this could not at first be so, because both spawn and egg are as naturally from precedent fish and fowl. Indeed, because the seed is separable from the body of the plant, and in that separation may long contain within itself a power of germination: because the spawn and egg are sejungeable from the fish and fowl, and yet still retain the prolific power of generation; therefore some might possibly conceive that these seminal bodies might be originally scattered on the earth, out of which the first of all those creatures should arise. But in viviparous animals, whose offspring is generated within themselves, whose seed by separation from them loseth all its seminal or prolific power, this is not only improbable, but inconceivable. And therefore being the philosophers* themselves confess, that whereas now all animals

* These words of Aristotle are very observable, in which he disputes against Speusippus and the Pythagoreans, who thought the rudiments of things first made, out of which they grew unto perfection: Όσοι δὲ ὑπολαμβάνουσιν, ὥσπερ οἱ Πυθαγόρειοι καὶ Σπεύσιππος, τὸ ἄριστον καὶ κάλλιστον μὴ ἐν ἀρχῇ εἶναι, διὰ τὸ ἐκ τῶν φυτῶν καὶ τῶν ζώων τὰς ἀρχὰς αἴτια μὲν εἶναι, τὸ δὲ καλὸν καὶ τὸ τέλειον ἐν τοῖς ἐκ τούτων, οὐκ ὀρθῶς οἴονται. τὸ γὰρ σπέρμα ἐξ ἑτέρων ἐστὶ προτέρων τελείων· καὶ τὸ πρῶς τον οὐ σπέρμα ἐστὶν, ἀλλὰ τὸ τέλειον. οἷον πρότερον ἄνθρωπον ἂν φαίη τις εἶναι τοῦ σπέρματος, οὐ τὸν ἐκ τούτου γεννώμενον, ἀλλ ̓ ἕτερον ἐξ οὗ τὸ σπέρμα. Metaph.xii.c.7. By which words Aris

totle hath sufficientlydestroyed his own argument, which we produced before out of the first of the Physics, and is excellently urged in that philosophical piece attributed unto Justin Martyr. Εἰ πρῶτόν ἐστι τὸ σπεῖρον σπέρμα, καὶ ὕστερον τὸ ἐκ σπέρματος γιγνόμενον, καὶ γεννητὰ ἀμφότερα, τῇ μὲν γενέσει τοῦ κειμένου ἐκ σπέρματος γιγνομένου ὑπόκειται τὸ σπέρμα· τῇ δὲ γενέσει τοῦ σπείραντος ὑποκεῖσθαι τὸ σπέρμα οὐ δυ νατόν· οὐκ ἄρα ἀεὶ τὰ ζῶα καὶ τὰ φυτὰ ἐκ σπέρματος. Aristot. Dogm. Evers. art. 1. Ὅθεν οὐθεὶς λέγει τοῦ σπέρματος εἶναι τὸν ἄνθρωπον, οὐδὲ τοῦ ὠοῦ εἶναι τὴν ἀλεκτορίδα τῆς δὲ ἀλεκτορίδος τὸ ὠὸν εἶναι, καὶ τὸ σπέρμα τοῦ ἀνθρώπου Xéyouev. Plut. Sympos. I. ii. probl. 3.

are generated by the means of seed, and that the animals themselves must be at first before the seed proceeding from them; it followeth that there was some way of production antecedent to and differing from the common way of generation, and consequently what we see done in this generation can be no certain rule to understand the first production. Being then that universal maxim, that nothing can be made of nothing,' is merely calculated for the meridian of natural causes, raised solely out of observation of continuing creatures by successive generation, which could not have been so continued without a being antecedent to all such succession; it is most evident it can have no place in the production of that antecedent or first being, which we call creation.

Now when we thus describe the nature of creation, and under the name of heaven and earth comprehend all things contained in them, we must distinguish between things created. For some were made immediately out of nothing, by a proper, some only mediately, as out of something formerly made out of nothing, by an improper kind of creation. By the first were made all immaterial substances, all the orders of angels, and the souls of men, the heavens, and the simple or elemental bodies, as the earth, the water, and the air. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth;" (Gen. i. 1.) so in the beginning, as without any pre-existing or antecedent matter. This earth, when so in the beginning made, was "without form and void," (Gen. i. 2.) covered with waters likewise made, not out of it but with it, the same which, "when the waters were gathered together unto one place, appeared as dry land." (Gen. i. 9.) *By the second, all the hosts of the earth," (Gen. ii. 1.) the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea; "Let the earth (said God) bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind." (Gen. i. 11.) "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth;" (Gen. i. 20.) and more expressly yet, " Out of the ground God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air." (Gen. ii. 19.) And well may we grant these plants and animals to have their origination from such principles, when we read, "God formed man out of the dust of the ground;" (Gen. ii. 7.) and said unto him whom he created in his own image," Dust thou art." (Gen. iii. 19.)

Having thus declared the notion of creation in respect of those things which were created, the next consideration is of that action in reference to the agent who created all things. Him therefore we may look upon first as moved; secondly, as free under that motion; thirdly, as determining under that freedom, and so performing of that action. In the first we may see his goodness, in the second his will, in the third his power. Hic visibilis mundus ex ma- ctus est et ornatus.' Gennad. c. teria quæ a Deo facta fuerat, fa- 10.

I do not here introduce any external impulsive cause, as moving God unto the creation of the world; for I have presupposed all things distinct from him to have been produced out of nothing by him, and consequently to be posterior not only to the motion but the actuation of his will. Being then nothing can be antecedent to the creature beside God himself, neither can any thing be a cause of any of his actions but what is in him; we must not look for any thing extrinsical unto him, but wholly acquiesce in his infinite goodness, as the only moving and impelling cause; "There is none good but one, that is God," (Matt. xix. 17.)* saith our Saviour; none originally, essentially, infinitely, independently good, but he. Whatsoever goodness is found in any creature is but by way of emanation from that fountain, whose very being is diffusive, whose nature consists in the communication of itself. In the end of the sixth day "God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good:" (Gen. i. 31.) which shews the end of creating all things thus good, was the communication of that by which they were, and appeared so.

The ancient heathens have acknowledged this truth,+ but with such disadvantage, that from thence they gathered an undoubted error. For from the goodness of God, which they did not unfitly conceive necessary, infinite, and eternal, they

* Αλλο γὰρ τὸ ἐπίκτητον ἀγαθὸν, ἄλλο τὸ καθ ̓ ἕξιν ἀγαθὸν, ἄλλο το πρώτως ἀγαθόν. Proclus in Timæum, l. ii. p. 110. 30. ed. Basil. 1534. Τὸ δὲ αὐτοαγαθὸν πρώτως ἀγαθόν. Ibid. 1. 33.

+ As Plato: Λέγωμεν δή, δι' ἣν αἰτίαν γένεσιν καὶ τὸ πᾶν τόδε ὁ ξυνιστὰς ξυνέστησεν, ἀγαθὸς ἦν· ἀγαθῷ δ' οὐδεὶς περὶ οὐδενὸς οὐδέποτε ἐγγίνεται φθόνος· τούτου δ' ἐκτὸς ὢν, πάντα ὅτι μάλιστα ἐβουλήθη γενέσθαι παραπλήσια αὐτῷ· ταύτην δὲ γενέσεως κόσμου μάλιστ' ἄν τις ἀρχὴν κυριωτάτην παρ ̓ ἀνδρῶν φρονίμων ἀποδεχόμενος, ὀρθότατα ἀποδέχοιτ' ἄν. In Timæo, p. 304. ed. Bip. · Αἰτία γὰρ τῆς τῶν πάντων ποιήσεως οὐδεμία ἄλλη πρόσεστιν εὔλογος, πλὴν τῆς κατ ̓ οὐσίαν ἀγαθότητος. Hierocl. in Aur. Carm. p. 21. ed. pr. Αἱ γὰρ παρὰ τὴν ἀγαθότητα λεγόμεναι αἰτίαι τῆς δημιουργίας τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς, ἀνθρωπίναις μᾶλλον περιστάσεσιν ἢ τῷ Θεῷ πρέπουσιν. Ibid.

† Ανάγκη διὰ τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ ἀγαθότητα ὄντος τοῦ κόσμου, ἀεί τε τὸν Θεὸν ἀγαθὸν εἶναι, καὶ τὸν κόσμον ὑπάρχειν ὥσπερ ἡλίῳ μὲν καὶ πυρὶ συνυφίσταται φῶς, σώματι δὲ σκιά. Salustius de Diis et mundo, c. 7. Εἰ γὰρ ἄμεινον μὴ ποιεῖν, πῶς εἰς τὸ ποιεῖν μεταβέβηκε; εἰ δὲ τὸ ποιεῖν, τί μὴ ἐξ ἀϊδίου ἔπραττεν ; Hierocles de Fato et Provid. p. 10. Neither doth he mean any less, when

in his sense he thus describes the
first Cause of all things: Εστ ̓ ἂν (30
I read it, not ἐστ', ἂν, as the printed
copies, or ἕως ἂν, as Curterius)
τὸ πρῶτον αὐτῶν αἴτιον ἀμετάβλητον
πάντη καὶ ἄτρεπτον, καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν
τῇ ἐνεργείᾳ τὴν αὐτὴν κεκτημένον, καὶ
τὴν ἀγαθότητα οὐκ ἐπίκτητον ἔχον,
ἀλλ ̓ οὐσιωμένην καθ ̓ αὑτὴν, καὶ δὲ
αὐτὴν τὰ πρὸς τὸ εἶναι παράγον (so I
read it, not πάντων πρὸς τὸ εὖ εἶναι, as
the printed). Hierocl. in Aur. Carm. p.
21. Συνήρτηται ἄρα τῇ μὲν ἀγαθότητι
τοῦ πατρὸς ἡ τῆς προνοίας ἐκτένεια· ταύτῃ
δὲ ἡ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ διαιώνιος ποίησις
ταύτῃ δὲ ἡ τοῦ παντὸς κατὰ τὸν ἄπειρον
ἀϊδιότης. καὶ ὁ αὐτὸς λόγος ταύτην τε
ἀναιρεῖ, καὶ τὴν ἀγαθότητα τοῦ πεποιη-
κότος. Proclus in Timæum, l. ii. p. 111.
46. Now although this be the con-
stant argumentation of the later Pla-
tonists, yet they found no such de-
duction or consequence in their mas-
ter Plato: and i something incline
to think, though it may seem very
strange, that they received it from the
Christians, I mean out of the school
of Ammonius at Alexandria; whom
though Porphyrius would make an
apostate, for the credit of his heathen
gods, yet St. Jerome hath sufficiently
assured us that he lived and died in
the Christian faith. The reason of

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