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Against Hermogenes

Chapter VIII.--On His Own Principles, Hermogenes Makes Matter, on the Whole, Superior to God.

Nay more, ¹ 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 ² 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; ³ 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 ⁴ 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, ⁵ Matter itself, no doubt, ⁶ 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, ⁷ 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, ⁸ 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. ⁹ For the prophets knew nothing about it, nor the apostles thus far, nor, I suppose, even Christ.

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Adversus Hermogenem

VIII.

[1] Atquin etiam praeponit illam deo et deum potius subicit materiae, cum uult eum de materia cuncta fecisse. Si enim ex illa usus est ad opera mundi, iam et materia superior inuenitur, quae illi copiam operandi subministrauit, et deus subiectus materiae uidetur, cuius substantiae eguit. Nemo enim non eget eo de cuius utitur; nemo non subicitur ei de cuius eget ut possit uti: sic et nemo de alieno utendo non minor est eo de cuius utitur, et nemo qui praestat de suo uti non in hoc superior est eo cui praestat uti. Itaque materia ipsa quidem deo non eguit sed egenti se deo praestitit diuitem et locupletem et liberalem minori, opinor, et inualido et minus idoneo de nihilo facere quae uelit. [2] Grande re uera beneficium deo contulit, ut haberet hodie per quae deus cognosceretur et omnipotens uocaretur, nisi quod iam non omnipotens, si non et hoc potens: ex nihilo omnia proferre. [3] Sane et sibi praestitit aliquid materia, ut et ipsa cum deo possit agnosci, coaequalis deo, immo et adiutrix, nisi quod solus eam Hermogenes cognouit et haereticorum patriarchae philosophi; prophetis enim et apostolis usque adhuc latuit, puto et Christo.