Chapter 26.—That Creatures are Made of Nothing.

Because therefore God made all things which He did not beget of Himself, not of those things that already existed, but of those things that did not exist at all, that is, of nothing," the Apostle Paul says:  "Who calls the things that are not as if they are."^11041104     Rom. iv. 17.   But still more plainly it is written in the book of Maccabees:  "I pray thee, son, look at the 357heaven and the earth and all the things that are in them; see and know that it was not these of which the Lord God made us."^11051105     2 Mac. vii. 28.   And from this that is written in the Psalm:  "He spake, and they were made."^11061106     Ps. cxlviii. 5.   It is manifest, that not of Himself He begat these things, but that He made them by word and command.  But what is not of Himself is assuredly of nothing.  For there was not anything of which he should make them, concerning which the apostle says most openly:  "For from Him, and through Him, and in Him are all things."^11071107     Rom. xi. 36.