A Plea for the Christians 19

This is how, according to them, the generation of their gods and of the universe began. What follows, then? Each of the beings they have made into gods is thought of as having a beginning. And if they came into being, not having existed before, as those who tell of the gods say, then they are not gods. For a thing is either uncreated and eternal, or created and perishable. And this is not just my view, while the philosophers think otherwise: “What is it that always is and has no becoming, and what is it that comes to be but never is?” Plato, discussing the intelligible and the perceptible, teaches that what always is, the intelligible, is uncreated, while what is not, the perceptible, is created, beginning to be and ceasing to be. In line with this reasoning the Stoics too say that all things will be consumed by fire and will exist again, the world taking another beginning. But according to them there is a twofold cause: one active and initiating, namely providence, the other passive and changeable, namely matter; and it is impossible for the world, even under providence, to remain as it is, since it came into being. If so, how can the constitution of these gods remain, when they do not exist by nature but came into being? And how are the gods better than matter, when they derive their constitution from water? Yet not even according to them is water the beginning of all things. For what could be constituted from simple elements of a single kind? Matter needs a craftsman, and the craftsman needs matter. Or how could figures be shaped without matter or without a craftsman? Nor is it reasonable that matter should be older than God; for the efficient cause must come before the things that come into being.