For, if it were the cause of itself at any time; then there was also a time when itself was not: at which time of not being, it is easy enough to conceive, that it could neither procure itself, nor anything else.

For to be, and not to be, at once, is impossible.

"Nihil autem seipsum praecedit, neque; seipsum componit corpus": "There is nothing that doth precede itself, neither do bodies compound themselves." For the rest, those that feign this matter to be eternal, must of necessity confess, that infinite cannot be separate from eternity.

And then had infinite matter left no place for infinite form, but that the first matter was finite, the form which it received proves it.

For conclusion of this part, whosoever will make choice, rather to believe in eternal deformity, or in eternal dead matter, than in eternal light and eternal life: let eternal death be his reward.