First then as to the postulate which he had premised in the Epistle accompanying his Questions, that wherever there is creation, something is produced from nothing, _(ubicunque creatio est, ibi aliquid ex nihilo producitur)_ if by this he intended, that in no mode of creation, whether it were _κτίσις_, or _ποίησις_, or _πλᾶσις_ there was no substrate matter out of which something was made by the omnipotent virtue of the Deity, in that case they thought, that his opinion was contrary to Scripture, forasmuch as it plainly appeared in the book of Genesis, that neither the male nor female were created from nothing, but the man from the dust of the ground, and the woman from one of his ribs, _tanquam præcedentibus corporum materieribus_. But though it is indubitable that the creation of the soul in either parent was immediately _ex nihilo_, as was shewn in the creation of Adam we see nevertheless that the name of creation has been applied by Moses to the formation _(plasmationi)_ of their bodies. But if Sennertus's words were to be understood as intending that wherever there was a creation, something was produced in this either _ex nihilo_ absolutely, or relatively and _κατά τι_ out of something, some preceding matter, which though certainly in itself something, yet relatively,—that which is made out of it, is nothing, _(nihil, aut non ens)_ because it hath in itself no power, liability, or aptitude that it should either be, or become that which God by his miraculous and omnipotent virtue makes it, they had no difficulty in assenting to this. As for example, the dust of which God formed the body of Adam was something and nothing. Something in itself, for it was earth; nothing in respect of that admirable work of the human body which God formed of it. As for the question whether his opinion was blasphemous and heretical, it could be neither one nor the other, for it neither derogated from the glory of God, nor touched upon any fundamental article of faith. Some there were who opined that Chaos was created _ex nihilo_, which they understood by Tohu Vabohu, from which all things celestial and elementary were afterwards mediately created by God. Others exploding Chaos held that heaven, earth, water and air, were created _ex nihilo_. But they did not charge each other with blasphemy, and heresy because of this disagreement, and verily they who thought that the souls of brutes were originally created by God _ex nihilo_ appeared no more to derogate from the might, majesty and glory of God, than those who held that brutes were wholly created from the element. The virtue of an omnipotent God became in either case presupposed.