Taken from the 1840 theological treatise
“The Regeneration and Eternal Duration of Matter” by Parley P. Pratt
1. Matter and spirit are the two great principles of all existence. Everything, animate and inanimate, is composed of one or the other or both of these eternal principles.
2. They are eternal because the elements are as durable as the quickening power which exists in them. Matter and spirit are of equal duration; both are self-existent – they never began to exist, and they can never be annihilated.
3. It is impossible for God to bring forth matter from nonentity or to originate element from nothing because this would contradict the law of truth and destroy Himself.
4. We might as well say that God can add two and three together, and the product will be twelve, or that he can subtract five from ten and leave eight, as to say that he can originate matter from nonentity; because these are principles of eternal truth. They are laws which cannot be broken.
5. Two and three are five; five from ten leaves five: nothing from nothing leaves nothing, and a hundred nothings added together is nothing still. In all these, the product is determined by unchangeable laws. Whether the reckoning is calculated by the Almighty or by man, the result is precisely the same.
6. It is not in the power of any being to originate matter. Matter, as well as spirit, is eternal, uncreated, and self-existing.
7. However infinite the variety of its changes, forms, and shapes – however vast and varying the roles it has to act in the great theatre of the universe – whatever sphere its several parts may be destined to fill in the boundless organization of infinite wisdom, yet it is there, durable as the throne of Jehovah. And Eternity is inscribed in indelible characters on every particle.
8. Revolution may succeed revolution – vegetation may bloom and flourish, and fall again to decay in the revolving seasons – generation upon generation may pass away, and others still follow – empires may fall to ruin, and molder into dust and be forgotten – the marble monuments of antiquity may crumble to atoms and mingle in the common ruin – the mightiest works of art, with all their glory, may sink in oblivion and be remembered no more – worlds may startle from their orbits, and hurling from their spheres, run lawless on each other in conceivable confusion – element may war with element in awful majesty, while thunders roll from sky to sky, and arrows of lightning break the mountains asunder – scatter the rocks like hailstones – set worlds on fire, and melt the elements with fervent heat, and yet not one grain can be lost – not one particle can be annihilated.
9. All these revolutions and convulsions of nature will only serve to refine, purify, and finally restore and renew the elements upon which they act.
10. And like the sunshine after a storm, or like gold seven times tried in the fire, they will shine forth with additional luster as they roll in their eternal spheres, in their glory, in the midst of the power of God.