Against the Epistle of Manichæus, Called Fundamental 25
25 Omnipotence Creates Good Things Differing in Degree. In Every Description Whatsoever of the Junction of the Two Regions There is Either Impropriety or Absurdity PL 42, 189
27. If, then, you are now convinced that God is able to create some good thing out of nothing, come into the Catholic Church, and learn that all the natures which God has created and founded in their order of excellence from the highest to the lowest are good, and some better than others; and that they were made of nothing, though God, their Maker, made use of His own wisdom as an instrument, so to speak, to give being to what was not, and that as far as it had being it might be good, and that the limitation of its being might show that it was not begotten by God, but made out of nothing. If you examine the matter, you will find nothing to keep you from agreeing to this. For you cannot make your region of light to be what God is, without making the dark section an infringement on the very nature of God. Nor can you say that it was generated by God, without being reduced to the same enormity, from the necessity of concluding that as begotten of God, it must be what God is. Nor can you say that it was distinct from Him, lest you should be forced to admit that God placed His kingdom in what did not belong to Him, and that there are three natures. Nor can you say that God made it of a substance distinct from His own, without making something good besides God, or something evil besides the race of darkness. It remains, therefore that you must confess that God made the region of light out of nothing: and you are unwilling to believe this; because if God could make out of nothing some great good which yet was inferior to Himself, He could also, since He is good, and grudges no good, make another good inferior to the former, and again a third inferior to the second, and so on, in order down to the lowest good of created natures, so that the whole aggregate, instead of extending indefinitely without number or measure should have a fixed and definite consistency. Again, if you will not allow this either, that God made the region of light out of nothing, you will have no escape from the shocking profanities to which your opinions lead.
28. Perhaps, since the carnal imagination can fancy any shapes it likes, you might be able to devise some other form for the junction of the two regions, instead of presenting to the mind such a disagreeable and painful description as this, that the region of God, whether it be of the same nature as God or not, where at least God’s kingdoms are founded, lies through immensity in such a huge mass that its members stretch loosely to an infinite extent, and that on their lower part that wedge of the region of darkness, itself of boundless size encroaches upon them. But whatever other form you contrive for the junction of these two regions, you cannot erase what Manichæus has written. I refer not to other treatises where a more particular description is given,—for perhaps, because they are in the hands of only a few, there might not be so much difficulty with them,—but to this Fundamental Epistle which we are now considering, with which all of you who are called enlightened are usually quite familiar. Here the words are: "On one side the border of the shining and sacred region was the region of darkness, deep and boundless in extent."
Levius peccant Manichaeis Anthropomorphitae. Confer nunc, non spirituales catholicae fidei viros, in quibus quantum in hac vita animus potest, cernit substantiam naturamque divinam nullis locorum spatiis tendi, nullis lineamentorum dimensionibus figurari; sed confer carnales et parvulos nostros, qui solent auditis in allegoria membris quibusdam corporis nostri, velut cum dicuntur oculi Dei et aures Dei, solent Deum sibi libertate phantasmatis corporis humani specie figurare: hos confer jam illis Manichaeis, qui solent istas nugas intentis et curiosis hominibus quasi magna secreta describere: et considera qui tolerabilius et honestius de Deo sentiant; utrum ii qui eum forma humana, summa dignitate in suo genere praedita, cogitant, an ii qui eum infinita mole diffusum, non tamen undique, sed tribus quadris infinitum atque condensum, ex una vero fissum, patentem, hiantem, laxum superius inanitate, cuneatum inferius terra tenebrarum; vel, si ita melius est dicere, apertum superius natura propria, intratum inferius aliena. Ecce ego tecum derideo carnales homines, qui nondum possunt spiritualia cogitare, humana forma Deum existimantes: deride et tu mecum, si potes eos qui tam deformem turpemque fissuram vel scissuram Dei, tam inaniter supra hiulcam, tam inhoneste infra obturatam, multum miserabili cogitatione imaginantur. Cum hoc etiam intersit, quod isti carnales qui humana Deum forma cogitant, si Ecclesiae catholicae gremio contenti, cum lacte nutriendi sunt, non se in temerarias opiniones praecipitent, sed ibi studium pium quaerendi nutriant, ibi petant ut accipiant, ibi pulsent ut eis aperiatur; incipiunt spiritualiter allegorias parabolasque Scripturarum intelligere, et paulatim sapere divinas potentias, congruenter alibi aurium, alibi oculorum, alibi manuum vel pedum, vel etiam alarum atque pennarum, scuti quoque et gladii et galeae, caeterarumque talium innumerabilium rerum nomine enuntiari. Qua intelligentia quanto magis proficiunt, tanto magis catholici esse firmantur. Manichaei vero quando figurae illius imaginationem reliquerint, Manichaei esse non poterunt. Hoc enim quasi proprium atque praecipuum auctoris sui laudibus tribuunt, quod dicunt illa quae ab antiquis figurate in libris divina mysteria posita sunt, huic qui ultimus venturus erat, solvenda et demonstranda esse servata: et propterea post istum jam neminem doctorem divinitus esse venturum, quia nihil iste per allegorias et figuras dixerit, cum et antiquorum quae talia fuerant aperiret, et sua enodate manifesteque monstraret. Non habent ergo isti ad quas interpretationes revertantur, cum illis de auctore suo legitur, Juxta unam vero partem ac latus illustris illius ac sanctae terrae erat tenebrarum terra. Quocumque se verterint, necesse est ut phantasmatum suorum miseria coarctati, in scissuras aut abruptas praecisiones et juncturas, aut fissuras turpissimas incidant; quas non dicam de incommutabili natura Dei, sed de omni natura incorporea, quamvis mutabili, sicuti est anima, miserrimum est credere. Et tamen si non possem me intendere ad superiora, neque cogitationes meas a falsis imaginationibus quas per sensus corporeos memoria fixas gero, in libertatem ac sinceritatem naturae spiritualis evolvere; quanto melius humani corporis forma Deum cogitarem, quam illum nigrum cuneum scissurae inferiori ejus affigerem, superioremque vastissimam laxitatem, non inveniens unde oppilarem, sic immensa inanitate patentem et hiantem relinquerem? Quid ista opinione foedius? quid tenebrosius hoc errore dici aut fingi potest?