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The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books

Chapter XXX.--Again He Refutes the Empty Question, "What Did God Before the Creation of the World?"

40. And I will be immoveable, and fixed in Thee, in my mould, Thy truth; nor will I endure the questions of men, who by a penal disease thirst for more than they can hold, and say, "What did God make before He made heaven and earth?" Or, "How came it into His mind to make anything, when He never before made anything?" Grant to them, O Lord, to think well what they say, and to see that where there is no time, they cannot say "never." What, therefore, He is said "never to have made," what else is it but to say, that in no time was it made? Let them therefore see that there could be no time without a created being, ¹ and let them cease to speak that vanity. Let them also be extended unto those things which are before, ² and understand that thou, the eternal Creator of all times, art before all times, and that no times are co-eternal with Thee, nor any creature, even if there be any creature beyond all times.

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Confessiones (PL)

CAPUT XXX. Coarguit rursum obtrectantes, quid fecerit Deus ante mundi creationem.

40. Et stabo atque solidabor in te, in forma mea, veritate tua; nec patiar quaestiones hominum, qui poenali morbo plus sitiunt quam capiunt et dicunt, Quid faciebat Deus antequam faceret coelum et terram? Aut quid ei venit in mentem, ut aliquid faceret, cum antea nunquam aliquid fecerit? Da illis, Domine, bene cogitare quid dicant, et invenire quia non dicitur, Nunquam, ubi non est tempus. Quod ergo dicitur, nunquam fecisse, quid aliud dicitur nisi [Col. 0826] nullo tempore fecisse? Videant itaque nullum tempus esse posse sine creatura, et desinant istam vanitatem loqui. Extendantur etiam in ea quae ante sunt, et intelligant te ante omnia tempora aeternum creatorem omnium temporum, neque ulla tempora tibi esse coaeterna, nec ullam creaturam, etiam si est aliqua supra tempora.