“While men, indeed, cannot make anything out of nothing, but only out of matter already existing, yet God is in this point preeminently superior to men, that He Himself called into being the substance of His creation, when previously it had no existence.” St. Irenaeus (2nd-3rd centuries) “For God, being...

“Human art, moreover, produces houses, and ships, and cities, and pictures. And how shall I tell what God makes? Behold the whole universe; it is His work: and the heaven, and the sun, and angels, and men, are the works of His fingers. How great is the power of God!...

“For with [God] were always present the Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, by Whom and in Whom, freely and spontaneously, He made all things, to Whom also He speaks, saying, ‘Let Us make man after Our image and likeness’.” St. Irenaeus (2nd-3rd centuries) “There is one God,...