Chapter VIII.--On His Own Principles, Hermogenes Makes Matter, on the Whole, Superior to God.
Nay more, [6199] he even prefers Matter to God, and rather subjects God to it, when he will have it that God made all things out of Matter. For if He drew His resources from it [6200] for the creation of the world, Matter is already found to be the superior, inasmuch as it furnished Him with the means of effecting His works; and God is thereby clearly subjected to Matter, of which the substance was indispensable to Him. For there is no one but requires that which he makes use of; [6201] no one but is subject to the thing which he requires, for the very purpose of being able to make use of it. So, again, there is no one who, from using what belongs to another, is not inferior to him of whose property he makes use; and there is no one who imparts [6202] of his own for another's use, who is not in this respect superior to him to whose use he lends his property. On this principle, [6203] Matter itself, no doubt, [6204] was not in want of God, but rather lent itself to God, who was in want of it--rich and abundant and liberal as it was--to one who was, I suppose, too small, and too weak, and too unskilful, to form what He willed out of nothing. A grand service, verily, [6205] did it confer on God in giving Him means at the present time whereby He might be known to be God, and be called Almighty--only that He is no longer Almighty, since He is not powerful enough for this, to produce all things out of nothing. To be sure, [6206] Matter bestowed somewhat on itself also--even to get its own self acknowledged with God as God's co-equal, nay more, as His helper; only there is this drawback, that Hermogenes is the only man that has found out this fact, besides the philosophers--those patriarchs of all heresy. [6207] For the prophets knew nothing about it, nor the apostles thus far, nor, I suppose, even Christ.
[6199] Atquin etiam.
[6200] Ex illa usus est.
[6201] De cujus utitur.
[6202] Præstat.
[6203] Itaque.
[6204] Quidem.
[6205] Revera.
[6206] Sane.
[6207] They are so deemed in the de Præscript. Hæret. c. vii.
Chapter IX.--Sundry Inevitable But Intolerable Conclusions from the Principles of Hermogenes.
He cannot say that it was as its Lord that God employed Matter for His creative works, for He could not have been the Lord of a substance which was co-equal with Himself. Well, but perhaps it was a title derived from the will of another, [6208] which he enjoyed--a precarious holding, and not a lordship, [6209] and that to such a degree, that [6210] although Matter was evil, He yet endured to make use of an evil substance, owing, of course, to the restraint of His own limited power, [6211] which made Him impotent to create out of nothing, not in consequence of His power; for if, as God, He had at all possessed power over Matter which He knew to be evil, He would first have converted it into good--as its Lord and the good God--that so He might have a good thing to make use of, instead of a bad one. But being undoubtedly good, only not the Lord withal, He, by using such power [6212] as He possessed, showed the necessity He was under of yielding to the condition of Matter, which He would have amended if He had been its Lord. Now this is the answer which must be given to Hermogenes when he maintains that it was by virtue of His Lordship that God used Matter--even of His non-possession of any right to it, on the ground, of course, of His not having Himself made it. Evil then, on your terms, [6213] must proceed from God Himself, since He is--I will not say the Author of evil, because He did not form it, but--the permitter thereof, as having dominion over it. [6214] If indeed Matter shall prove not even to belong to God at all, as being evil, it follows, [6215] that when He made use of what belonged to another, He used it either on a precarious title [6216] because He was in need of it, or else by violent possession because He was stronger than it. For by three methods is the property of others obtained,--by right, by permission, by violence; in other words, by lordship, by a title derived from the will of another, [6217] by force. Now, as lordship is out of the question, Hermogenes must choose which (of the other methods) is suitable to God. Did He, then, make all things out of Matter, by permission, or by force? But, in truth, would not God have more wisely determined that nothing at all should be created, than that it should be created by the mere sufferance of another, or by violence, and that, too, with [6218] a substance which was evil?
[6208] We have rather paraphrased the word "precario"--"obtained by prayer." [See p. 456.]
[6209] Domino: opposed to "precario."
[6210] Ideo...ut.
[6211] Mediocritatis.
[6212] Tali: i.e. potestate.
[6213] Jam ergo: introducing an argumentum ad hominem against Hermogenes.
[6214] Quia dominator.
[6215] Ergo.
[6216] Aut precario: "as having begged for it."
[6217] Precario: See above, note 2, p. 482.
[6218] De is often in Tertullian the sign of an instrumental noun.