2. But the corrupters of the truth, who,
incapable of submitting their reason to Holy Scripture, distort at will
the meaning of the Holy Scriptures, pretend that these words mean
matter. For it is matter, they say, which from its nature is
without form and invisible,—being by the conditions of its
existence without quality and without form and figure.
On prime
matter and its being ἄσωματος and
ἄμορφος vide
Cudworth, Int. Syst. v. ii. § 27, and
Mosheim’s note. “Ingens vero quondam
summorum et inclytorum virorum numerus ab eorum semper stetit
partibus, quibus ex qua dixi ratione, materiam placuit decernere
ἀσώματον
esse, sive corpore carere Cicero omnes post Platonem philosophos hoc dogma
perhibet tenuisse, Acad. Quast. i. 7, ‘sed subjectam putant omnibus sine ulla
specie, atque carentem omni illa qualitate materiam quandam ex qua omnia
expressa atque effecta sint.’ Sed jam din ante Platonem Pythagoraeorum multi ei
addicti fuerunt, quod ex Timæi Locri, nobilis hujus
scholæ et perantiqui philosophi, De Anima Mundi libello (Cap.
i. p. 544, Ed. Galei) intelligitur: τὰν ὕλαν
ἄμορφον δὲ
καθ' αὐτὰν
καὶ
ἀχρημάτιστον
δεχόμενον
δὲ πᾶσαν
μορφάν.” The Artificer submitting it to the
working of His wisdom clothed it with a form, organized it, and thus
gave being to the visible world.