{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/008/0081133.htm","path":"chr/ecf/008/0081133.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/008/0081133.htm","text":"Chapter XIV.\u2014Is Matter Eternal?\nAnd Simon said: \u201cBut what if matter, being coeval with Him, and possessing equal power, produces as His foe leaders who hinder His wishes?\u201d And Peter said: \u201cIf matter is eternal, then it is the foe of no one: for that which exists for ever is impassible, and what is impassible is blessed; but what is blessed cannot be receptive of hatred, since, on account of its eternal creation, 1433 it does not fear that it will be deprived of anything. But how does not matter rather love the Creator, when 1434 it evidently sends forth its fruits to nourish all who are made by Him? And how does it not fear Him as superior, as trembling through earthquakes it confesses, and as, though its billows ran high, yet, when the Teacher was sailing on it and commanded a calm, it immediately obeyed and became still? 1435 What! did not the demons go out through fear and respect for Him, and others of them desired to enter into swine; but they first entreated Him before going, plainly because they had no power to enter even into swine without His permission?\u201d 1436\nProbably \u201ceternity\u201d should be read, instead of \u201ceternal creation.\u201d\n334:1434\nAt this word thems. of Cotelerius breaks off; and we have the rest only in the Ottobonian ms., first edited by Dressel.\n334:1435 334:1436","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol VIII: Pseudo-Clementine Literature.: Chapter XIV","type":"page"}