On the Firmament.
1. We have now recounted the works of the first day, or rather of one day. Far be it from me indeed, to take from it the privilege it enjoys of having been for the Creator a day apart, a day which is not counted in the same order as the others. Our discussion yesterday treated of the works of this day, and divided the narrative so as to give you food for your souls in the morning, and joy in the evening. Today we pass on to the wonders of the second day. And here I do not wish to speak of the narrator's talent, but of the grace of Scripture, for the narrative is so naturally told that it pleases and delights all the friends of truth. It is this charm of truth which the Psalmist expresses so emphatically when he says, How sweet are your words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Yesterday then, as far as we were able, we delighted our souls by conversing about the oracles of God, and now today we are met together again on the second day to contemplate the wonders of the second day.
I know that many artisans, belonging to
mechanical trades, are crowding around me. A day's labour hardly suffices to
maintain them; therefore I am compelled to abridge my discourse, so as not to
keep them too long from their work. What shall I say to them? The time which
you lend to God is not lost: he will return it to you with large interest.
Whatever difficulties may trouble you the Lord will disperse them. To those who
have preferred spiritual welfare, He will give health of body, keenness of
mind, success in business, and unbroken prosperity. And, even if in this life
our efforts should not realise our hopes, the teachings of the Holy Spirit are
none the less a rich treasure for the ages to come. Deliver your heart, then,
from the cares of this life and give close heed to my words. Of what avail will
it be to you if you are here in the body, and your heart is anxious about your
earthly treasure?
2. And God said Let there be a firmament in the
midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. Genesis 1:6
Yesterday we heard God's decree, Let there be light. Today it is, Let there be
a firmament. There appears to be something more in this. The word is not
limited to a simple command. It lays down the reason necessitating the
structure of the firmament: it is, it is said, to separate the waters from the
waters. And first let us ask how God speaks? Is it in our manner? Does His
intelligence receive an impression from objects, and, after having conceived
them, make them known by particular signs appropriate to each of them? Has He
consequently recourse to the organs of voice to convey His thoughts? Is He
obliged to strike the air by the articulate movements of the voice, to unveil
the thought hidden in His heart? Would it not seem like an idle fable to say
that God should need such a circuitous method to manifest His thoughts? And is
it not more conformable with true religion to say, that the divine will and the
first impetus of divine intelligence are the Word of God? It is He whom
Scripture vaguely represents, to show us that God has not only wished to create
the world, but to create it with the help of a co-operator. Scripture might
continue the history as it is begun: In the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth; afterwards He created light, then He created the firmament. But,
by making God command and speak, the Scripture tacitly shows us Him to Whom
this order and these words are addressed. It is not that it grudges us the
knowledge of the truth, but that it may kindle our desire by showing us some
trace and indication of the mystery. We seize with delight, and carefully keep,
the fruit of laborious efforts, while a possession easily attained is despised.
Such is the road and the course which Scripture follows to lead us to the idea
of the Only begotten. And certainly, God's immaterial nature had no need of the
material language of voice, since His very thoughts could be transmitted to His
fellow-worker. What need then of speech, for those Who by thought alone could
communicate their counsels to each other? Voice was made for hearing, and
hearing for voice. Where there is neither air, nor tongue, nor ear, nor that
winding canal which carries sounds to the seat of sensation in the head, there
is no need for words: thoughts of the soul are sufficient to transmit the will.
As I said then, this language is only a wise and ingenious contrivance to set
our minds seeking the Person to whom the words are addressed.
3. In the second place, does the firmament that
is called heaven differ from the firmament that God made in the beginning? Are
there two heavens? The philosophers, who discuss heaven, would rather lose
their tongues than grant this. There is only one heaven, they pretend; and it
is of a nature neither to admit of a second, nor of a third, nor of several
others. The essence of the celestial body quite complete constitutes its vast
unity. Because, they say, every body which has a circular motion is one and
finite. And if this body is used in the construction of the first heaven, there
will be nothing left for the creation of a second or a third. Here we see what
those imagine who put under the Creator's hand uncreated matter; a lie that
follows from the first fable. But we ask the Greek sages not to mock us before
they are agreed among themselves. Because there are among them some who say
there are infinite heavens and worlds. When grave demonstrations shall have
upset their foolish system, when the laws of geometry shall have established
that, according to the nature of heaven, it is impossible that there should be
two, we shall only laugh the more at this elaborate scientific trifling. These
learned men see not merely one bubble but several bubbles formed by the same
cause, and they doubt the power of creative wisdom to bring several heavens
into being! We find, however, if we raise our eyes towards the omnipotence of
God, that the strength and grandeur of the heavens differ from the drops of
water bubbling on the surface of a fountain. How ridiculous, then, is their
argument of impossibility! As for myself, far from not believing in a second, I
seek for the third whereon the blessed Paul was found worthy to gaze. And does
not the Psalmist in saying heaven of heavens give us an idea of their
plurality? Is the plurality of heaven stranger than the seven circles through
which nearly all the philosophers agree that the seven planets pass — circles
which they represent to us as placed in connection with each other like casks
fitting the one into the other? These circles, they say, carried away in a
direction contrary to that of the world, and striking the æther, make sweet and
harmonious sounds, unequalled by the sweetest melody. And if we ask them for
the witness of the senses, what do they say? That we, accustomed to this noise
from our birth, on account of hearing it always, have lost the sense of it;
like men in smithies with their ears incessantly dinned. If I refuted this
ingenious frivolity, the untruth of which is evident from the first word, it
would seem as though I did not know the value of time, and mistrusted the
intelligence of such an audience.
But let me leave the vanity of outsiders to
those who are without, and return to the theme proper to the Church. If we
believe some of those who have preceded us, we have not here the creation of a
new heaven, but a new account of the first. The reason they give is, that the
earlier narrative briefly described the creation of heaven and earth; while
here scripture relates in greater detail the manner in which each was created.
I, however, since Scripture gives to this second heaven another name and its
own function, maintain that it is different from the heaven which was made at
the beginning; that it is of a stronger nature and of a special use to the
universe.
4. And
God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it
divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the
waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the
firmament. Genesis 1:6-7 Before laying hold of the meaning of Scripture let us
try to meet objections from other quarters. We are asked how, if the firmament
is a spherical body, as it appears to the eye, its convex circumference can
contain the water which flows and circulates in higher regions? What shall we
answer? One thing only: because the interior of a body presents a perfect
concavity it does not necessarily follow that its exterior surface is spherical
and smoothly rounded. Look at the stone vaults of baths, and the structure of
buildings of cave form; the dome, which forms the interior, does not prevent
the roof from having ordinarily a flat surface. Let these unfortunate men
cease, then, from tormenting us and themselves about the impossibility of our
retaining water in the higher regions.
Now we must say something about the nature of
the firmament, and why it received the order to hold the middle place between
the waters. Scripture constantly makes use of the word firmament to express
extraordinary strength. The Lord my firmament and refuge. I have strengthened
the pillars of it. Praise him in the firmament of his power. The heathen
writers thus call a strong body one which is compact and full, to distinguish
it from the mathematical body. A mathematical body is a body which exists only
in the three dimensions, breadth, depth, and height. A firm body, on the
contrary, adds resistance to the dimensions. It is the custom of Scripture to
call firmament all that is strong and unyielding. It even uses the word to
denote the condensation of the air: He, it says, who strengthens the thunder.
Scripture means by the strengthening of the thunder, the strength and
resistance of the wind, which, enclosed in the hollows of the clouds, produces
the noise of thunder when it breaks through with violence. Here then, according
to me, is a firm substance, capable of retaining the fluid and unstable element
water; and as, according to the common acceptation, it appears that the
firmament owes its origin to water, we must not believe that it resembles
frozen water or any other matter produced by the filtration of water; as, for
example, rock crystal, which is said to owe its metamorphosis to excessive
congelation, or the transparent stone which forms in mines. This pellucid
stone, if one finds it in its natural perfection, without cracks inside, or the
least spot of corruption, almost rivals the air in clearness. We cannot compare
the firmament to one of these substances. To hold such an opinion about
celestial bodies would be childish and foolish; and although everything may be
in everything, fire in earth, air in water, and of the other elements the one
in the other; although none of those which come under our senses are pure and
without mixture, either with the element which serves as a medium for it, or
with that which is contrary to it; I, nevertheless, dare not affirm that the
firmament was formed of one of these simple substances, or of a mixture of
them, for I am taught by Scripture not to allow my imagination to wander too
far afield. But do not let us forget to remark that, after these divine words
let there be a firmament, it is not said and the firmament was made but, and
God made the firmament, and divided the waters. Genesis 1:7 Hear, O you deaf!
See, O you blind!— who, then, is deaf? He who does not hear this startling
voice of the Holy Spirit. Who is blind? He who does not see such clear proofs
of the Only begotten. Let there be a firmament. It is the voice of the primary
and principal Cause. And God made the firmament. Here is a witness to the
active and creative power of God.
5. But let us continue our explanation: Let it divide the waters from the waters.
Genesis 1:6 The mass of waters, which from all directions flowed over the
earth, and was suspended in the air, was infinite, so that there was no
proportion between it and the other elements. Thus, as it has been already
said, the abyss covered the earth. We give the reason for this abundance of
water. None of you assuredly will attack our opinion; not even those who have
the most cultivated minds, and whose piercing eye can penetrate this perishable
and fleeting nature; you will not accuse me of advancing impossible or
imaginary theories, nor will you ask me upon what foundation the fluid element
rests. By the same reason which makes them attract the earth, heavier than
water, from the extremities of the world to suspend it in the centre, they will
grant us without doubt that it is due both to its natural attraction downwards
and its general equilibrium, that this immense quantity of water rests
motionless upon the earth. Therefore the prodigious mass of waters was spread
around the earth; not in proportion with it and infinitely larger, thanks to
the foresight of the supreme Artificer, Who, from the beginning, foresaw what
was to come, and at the first provided all for the future needs of the world.
But what need was there for this superabundance of water? The essence of fire
is necessary for the world, not only in the economy of earthly produce, but for
the completion of the universe; for it would be imperfect if the most powerful
and the most vital of its elements were lacking. Now fire and water are hostile
to and destructive of each other. Fire, if it is the stronger, destroys water,
and water, if in greater abundance, destroys fire. As, therefore, it was necessary
to avoid an open struggle between these elements, so as not to bring about the
dissolution of the universe by the total disappearance of one or the other, the
sovereign Disposer created such a quantity of water that in spite of constant
diminution from the effects of fire, it could last until the time fixed for the
destruction of the world. He who planned all with weight and measure, He who,
according to the word of Job, knows the number of the drops of rain, knew how
long His work would last, and for how much consumption of fire He ought to
allow. This is the reason of the abundance of water at the creation. Further,
there is no one so strange to life as to need to learn the reason why fire is
essential to the world. Not only all the arts which support life, the art of
weaving, that of shoemaking, of architecture, of agriculture, have need of the
help of fire, but the vegetation of trees, the ripening of fruits, the breeding
of land and water animals, and their nourishment, all existed from heat from
the beginning, and have been since maintained by the action of heat. The
creation of heat was then indispensable for the formation and the preservation
of beings, and the abundance of waters was no less so in the presence of the
constant and inevitable consumption by fire.
6. Survey creation; you will see the power of
heat reigning over all that is born and perishes. On account of it comes all
the water spread over the earth, as well as that which is beyond our sight and
is dispersed in the depths of the earth. On account of it are abundance of
fountains, springs or wells, courses of rivers, both mountain torrents and ever
flowing streams, for the storing of moisture in many and various reservoirs.
From the East, from the winter solstice flows the Indus, the greatest river of
the earth, according to geographers. From the middle of the East proceed the
Bactrus, the Choaspes, and the Araxes, from which the Tanais detaches itself to
fall into the Palus-Mæotis. Add to these the Phasis which descends from Mount
Caucasus, and countless other rivers, which, from northern regions, flow into
the Euxine Sea. From the warm countries of the West, from the foot of the
Pyrenees, arise the Tartessus and the Ister, of which the one discharges itself
into the sea beyond the Pillars and the other, after flowing through Europe,
falls into Euxine Sea. Is there any need to enumerate those which the Ripæan
mountains pour forth in the heart of Scythia, the Rhone, and so many other
rivers, all navigable, which after having watered the countries of the western
Gauls and of Celts and of the neighbouring barbarians, flow into the Western
sea? And others from the higher regions of the South flow through Ethiopia, to
discharge themselves some into our sea, others into inaccessible seas, the Ægon
the Nyses, the Chremetes, and above all the Nile, which is not of the character
of a river when, like a sea, it inundates Egypt. Thus the habitable part of our
earth is surrounded by water, linked together by vast seas and irrigated by
countless perennial rivers, thanks to the ineffable wisdom of Him Who ordered
all to prevent this rival element to fire from being entirely destroyed.
However, a time will come, when all shall be
consumed by fire; as Isaiah says of the God of the universe in these words,
That says to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers. Isaiah 44:27
Reject then the foolish wisdom of this world, and receive with me the more
simple but infallible doctrine of truth.
7. Therefore we read: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the
waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. I have said what the word
firmament in Scripture means. It is not in reality a firm and solid substance
which has weight and resistance; this name would otherwise have better suited
the earth. But, as the substance of superincumbent bodies is light, without
consistency, and cannot be grasped by any one of our senses, it is in
comparison with these pure and imperceptible substances that the firmament has
received its name. Imagine a place fit to divide the moisture, sending it, if
pure and filtered, into higher regions, and making it fall, if it is dense and
earthy; to the end that by the gradual withdrawal of the moist particles the
same temperature may be preserved from the beginning to the end. You do not
believe in this prodigious quantity of water; but you do not take into account
the prodigious quantity of heat, less considerable no doubt in bulk, but
exceedingly powerful nevertheless, if you consider it as destructive of
moisture. It attracts surrounding moisture, as the melon shows us, and consumes
it as quickly when attracted, as the flame of the lamp draws to it the fuel
supplied by the wick and burns it up. Who doubts that the æther is an ardent
fire? If an impassable limit had not been assigned to it by the Creator, what
would prevent it from setting on fire and consuming all that is near it, and
absorbing all the moisture from existing things? The aerial waters which veil
the heavens with vapours that are sent forth by rivers, fountains, marshes,
lakes, and seas, prevent the æther from invading and burning up the universe.
Thus we see even this sun, in the summer season, dry up in a moment a damp and
marshy country, and make it perfectly arid. What has become of all the water?
Let these masters of omniscience tell us. Is it not plain to every one that it
has risen in vapour, and has been consumed by the heat of the sun? They say,
none the less, that even the sun is without heat. What time they lose in words!
And see what proof they lean upon to resist what is perfectly plain. Its color
is white, and neither reddish nor yellow. It is not then fiery by nature, and
its heat results, they say, from the velocity of its rotation. What do they
gain? That the sun does not seem to absorb moisture? I do not, however, reject
this statement, although it is false, because it helps my argument. I said that
the consumption of heat required this prodigious quantity of water. That the
sun owes its heat to its nature, or that heat results from its action, makes no
difference, provided that it produces the same effects upon the same matter. If
you kindle fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together, or if you light them by
holding them to a flame, you will have absolutely the same effect. Besides, we
see that the great wisdom of Him who governs all, makes the sun travel from one
region to another, for fear that, if it remained always in the same place, its
excessive heat would destroy the order of the universe. Now it passes into
southern regions about the time of the winter solstice, now it returns to the
sign of the equinox; from thence it betakes itself to northern regions during
the summer solstice, and keeps up by this imperceptible passage a pleasant
temperature throughout all the world.
Let the learned people see if they do not
disagree among themselves. The water which the sun consumes is, they say, what
prevents the sea from rising and flooding the rivers; the warmth of the sun
leaves behind the salts and the bitterness of the waters, and absorbs from them
the pure and drinkable particles, thanks to the singular virtue of this planet
in attracting all that is light and in allowing to fall, like mud and sediment,
all which is thick and earthy. From thence come the bitterness, the salt taste
and the power of withering and drying up which are characteristic of the sea.
While as is notorious, they hold these views, they shift their ground and say
that moisture cannot be lessened by the sun.
8. And
God called the firmament heaven. Genesis 1:8 The nature of right belongs to
another, and the firmament only shares it on account of its resemblance to
heaven. We often find the visible region called heaven, on account of the
density and continuity of the air within our ken, and deriving its name heaven
from the word which means to see. It is of it that Scripture says, The fowl of
the air, Fowl that may fly...in the open firmament of heaven; Genesis 1:20 and,
elsewhere, They mount up to heaven. Moses, blessing the tribe of Joseph,
desires for it the fruits and the dews of heaven, of the suns of summer and the
conjunctions of the moon, and blessings from the tops of the mountains and from
the everlasting hills, in one word, from all which fertilises the earth. In the
curses on Israel it is said, And your heaven that is over your head shall be
brass. Deuteronomy 28:23 What does this mean? It threatens him with a complete
drought, with an absence of the aerial waters which cause the fruits of the
earth to be brought forth and to grow.
Since, then, Scripture says that the dew or the
rain falls from heaven, we understand that it is from those waters which have
been ordered to occupy the higher regions. When the exhalations from the earth,
gathered together in the heights of the air, are condensed under the pressure
of the wind, this aerial moisture diffuses itself in vaporous and light clouds;
then mingling again, it forms drops which fall, dragged down by their own
weight; and this is the origin of rain. When water beaten by the violence of
the wind, changes into foam, and passing through excessive cold quite freezes,
it breaks the cloud, and falls as snow. You can thus account for all the moist
substances that the air suspends over our heads.
And do not let any one compare with the
inquisitive discussions of philosophers upon the heavens, the simple and
inartificial character of the utterances of the Spirit; as the beauty of chaste
women surpasses that of a harlot, so our arguments are superior to those of our
opponents. They only seek to persuade by forced reasoning. With us truth
presents itself naked and without artifice. But why torment ourselves to refute
the errors of philosophers, when it is sufficient to produce their mutually
contradictory books, and, as quiet spectators, to watch the war? For those
thinkers are not less numerous, nor less celebrated, nor more sober in speech
in fighting their adversaries, who say that the universe is being consumed by
fire, and that from the seeds which remain in the ashes of the burnt world all
is being brought to life again. Hence in the world there is destruction and
palingenesis to infinity. All, equally far from the truth, find each on their
side by-ways which lead them to error.
9. But as far as concerns the separation of the
waters I am obliged to contest the opinion of certain writers in the Church
who, under the shadow of high and sublime conceptions, have launched out into
metaphor, and have only seen in the waters a figure to denote spiritual and
incorporeal powers. In the higher regions, above the firmament, dwell the
better; in the lower regions, earth and matter are the dwelling place of the
malignant. So, say they, God is praised by the waters that are above the
heaven, that is to say, by the good powers, the purity of whose soul makes them
worthy to sing the praises of God. And the waters which are under the heaven
represent the wicked spirits, who from their natural height have fallen into
the abyss of evil. Turbulent, seditious, agitated by the tumultuous waves of
passion, they have received the name of sea, because of the instability and the
inconstancy of their movements. Let us reject these theories as dreams and old
women's tales. Let us understand that by water water is meant; for the dividing
of the waters by the firmament let us accept the reason which has been given
us. Although, however, waters above the heaven are invited to give glory to the
Lord of the Universe, do not let us think of them as intelligent beings; the
heavens are not alive because they declare the glory of God, nor the firmament
a sensible being because it shows His handiwork. And if they tell you that the
heavens mean contemplative powers, and the firmament active powers which
produce good, we admire the theory as ingenious without being able to
acknowledge the truth of it. For thus dew, the frost, cold and heat, which in
Daniel are ordered to praise the Creator of all things, will be intelligent and
invisible natures. But this is only a figure, accepted as such by enlightened
minds, to complete the glory of the Creator. Besides, the waters above the
heavens, these waters privileged by the virtue which they possess in
themselves, are not the only waters to celebrate the praises of God. Praise the
Lord from the earth, you dragons and all deeps. Thus the singer of the Psalms
does not reject the deeps which our inventors of allegories rank in the
divisions of evil; he admits them to the universal choir of creation, and the
deeps sing in their language a harmonious hymn to the glory of the Creator.
10. And
God saw that it was good. God does not judge of the beauty of His work by the
charm of the eyes, and He does not form the same idea of beauty that we do.
What He esteems beautiful is that which presents in its perfection all the
fitness of art, and that which tends to the usefulness of its end. He, then,
who proposed to Himself a manifest design in His works, approved each one of
them, as fulfilling its end in accordance with His creative purpose. A hand, an
eye, or any portion of a statue lying apart from the rest, would look beautiful
to no one. But if each be restored to its own place, the beauty of proportion,
until now almost unperceived, would strike even the most uncultivated. But the
artist, before uniting the parts of his work, distinguishes and recognises the
beauty of each of them, thinking of the object that he has in view. It is thus
that Scripture depicts to us the Supreme Artist, praising each one of His
works; soon, when His work is complete, He will accord well deserved praise to
the whole together. Let me here end my discourse on the second day, to allow my
industrious hearers to examine what they have just heard. May their memory
retain it for the profit of their soul; may they by careful meditation inwardly
digest and benefit by what I say. As for those who live by their work, let me
allow them to attend all day to their business, so that they may come, with a
soul free from anxiety, to the banquet of my discourse in the evening. May God
who, after having made such great things, put such weak words in my mouth,
grant you the intelligence of His truth, so that you may raise yourselves from
visible things to the invisible Being, and that the grandeur and beauty of
creatures may give you a just idea of the Creator. For the visible things of
Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, and His power and divinity
are eternal. Thus earth, air, sky, water, day, night, all visible things,
remind us of who is our Benefactor. We shall not therefore give occasion to
sin, we shall not give place to the enemy within us, if by unbroken
recollection we keep God ever dwelling in our hearts, to Whom be all glory and
all adoration, now and for ever, world without end. Amen.
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