Lactantius — Divine Institutes 2.9

I will therefore set forth the method of all these things, that difficult and obscure subjects may be more easily understood; and I will bring to light all these deceptions of the pretended deity, led by which men have departed very far from the way of truth . But I will retrace the matter far back from its source; that if any, unacquainted with the truth and ignorant , shall apply himself to the reading of this book , he may be instructed, and may understand what can in truth be the source and origin of these evils ; and having received light, may perceive his own errors and those of the whole human race .

Since God was possessed of the greatest foresight for planning, and of the greatest skill for carrying out in action, before He commenced this business of the world — inasmuch as there was in Him, and always is, the fountain of full and most complete goodness, — in order that goodness might spring as a stream from Him, and might flow forth afar, He produced a Spirit like to Himself, who might be endowed with the perfections of God the Father. But how He willed that, I will endeavour to show in the fourth book. Then He made another being, in whom the disposition of the divine origin did not remain. Therefore he was infected with his own envy as with poison, and passed from good to evil ; and at his own will, which had been given to him by God unfettered, he acquired for himself a contrary name.

From which it appears that the source of all evils is envy . For he envied his predecessor, who through his steadfastness is acceptable and dear to God the Father. This being, who from good became evil by his own act, is called by the Greeks diabolus : we call him accuser, because he reports to God the faults to which he himself entices us. God , therefore, when He began the fabric of the world, set over the whole work that first and greatest Son, and used Him at the same time as a counsellor and artificer, in planning, arranging, and accomplishing, since He is complete both in knowledge , and judgment, and power; concerning whom I now speak more sparingly, because in another place both His excellence, and His name, and His nature must be related by us.

Let no one inquire of what materials God made these works so great and wonderful: for He made all things out of nothing. Nor are the poets to be listened to, who say that in the beginning was a chaos, that is, a confusion of matter and the elements; but that God afterwards divided all that mass, and having separated each object from the confused heap, and arranged them in order, He constructed and adorned the world. Now it is easy to reply to these persons , who do not understand the power of God: for they believe that He can produce nothing, except out of materials already existing and prepared; in which error philosophers also were involved.