NOTHING, Nihilum. Nothing is sometimes put by Way of Opposition to Body, Solidity, or Mass. It is also put for Vacuity, and for what is not sensible. Job says, He Job. xxvi. 7.stretcheth out the North over the empty Place, and hangeth the Earth upon nothing, upon the Vacuum. And Isaiah, that God Isai xl. 22. Vulg.spreads out the Heavens as nothing, extendit tanquam nihilum cœlos; he extends them Wisd ii. 2. Vulg.in the Air, in invisible Spaces. The Wise-man says, we are born of nothing, and in some Sense shall return to nothing again. Ex nihilo nati sumus, & post hoc erimus tanquam non fuerimus. We shall disappear from the Face of the Earth, as if we had never been there. And Isaiah says, Behold Isai. xli. 24.ye are of nothing, and your Work of nought; an Abomination is he that chooseth you.
Idols are often called Nothings, Non-entities. Amos vi. 13.Ye which rejoice in a Thing of nought. And Esther, O Lord, give not thy Esther xiv. 11.Sceptre unto them that be nothing; deliver not over thy People to those Gods that are 1 Cor. vii. 4.nothing. And St. Paul, we know that an Idol is nothing in the World.
To bring to nothing, that is, to exterminate, to destroy, utterly to root out any Thing. Thus in the Psalms, Ad nihilum deductus est in conspectu ejus malignus. And again, Ad nihilum deduces omnes gentes. And elsewhere, Ad nihilum deduces tribulantes nos.