First therefore, I shall propose my own sentiments
concerning these things, desiring to gain credit no otherwise than by the most probable strength of arguments,
explaining and reconciling to the utmost of my ability
truth and paradox together; after which I shall apply
both the explication and demonstration to the words of
the text. In my opinion then the business lies thus.
The world, saith Heraclitus, neither did any one of all
the Gods nor any mortal man create,—as if he had been
afraid that, not being able to make out the creation by a
Deity, we should be constrained to acknowledge some man
to have been the architect of the universe. But certainly
far better it is, in submission to Plato's judgment, to avow,
both in discourse and in our songs of praise, that the
[p. 331]
glory of the structure belongs to God,—for the frame
itself is the most beautiful of all masterpieces, and God
the most illustrious of all causes,—but that the substance
and materials were not created, but always ready at the
ordering and disposal of the Omnipotent Builder, to give
it form and figure, as near as might be, approaching to
his own resemblance. For the creation was not out of
nothing, but out of matter wanting beauty and perfection,
like the rude materials of a house, a garment, or a statue,
lying first in shapeless confusion. For before the creation of the world there was nothing but a confused heap;
yet was that confused heap neither without a body, without motion, nor without a soul. The corporeal part was
without form or consistence, and the moving part stupid
and headlong; and this was the disorder of a soul not
guided by reason. God neither incorporated that which
is incorporeal, nor conveyed a soul into that which had
none before; like a person either musical or poetical, who
does not make either the voice or the movement, but only
reduces the voice with harmony, and graces the movement
with proper measures. Thus God did not make the tangible and resistant solidity of the corporeal substance, nor
the imaginative or moving faculties of the soul; but taking these two principles as they lay ready at hand,—the
one obscure and dark, the other turbulent and senseless,
both imperfect without the bounds of order and decency,
—he disposed, digested, and embellished the confused
mass. so that he brought to perfection a most absolute and
glorious creature. Therefore the substance of the body
is no other than that all-receiving Nature, the seat and
nurse of all created beings.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.