Against Hermogenes

He cannot say that it was as its Lord that God employed Matter for His creative works, for He could not have been the Lord of a substance which was co-equal with Himself. Well, but perhaps it was a title derived from the will of another,(2) which he enjoyed--a precarious holding, and not a lordship,(3) and that to such a degree, that(4) although Matter was evil, He yet endured to make use of an evil substance, owing, of course, to the restraint of His own limited power,(5) which made Him impotent to create out of nothing, not in consequence of His power; for if, as God.