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Some, however, have supposed that the angelic hosts are somehow
referred to under the name of waters, and that this is what is meant by
"Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters:" that the
waters above should be understood of the angels, and those below either
of the visible waters, or of the multitude of bad angels, or of the
nations of men. If this be so, then it does not here appear when the
angels were created, but when they were separated. Though there have
not been wanting men foolish and wicked enough a to deny that the waters
were made by God, because it is nowhere written, "God said, Let
there be waters." With equal folly they might say the same of the
earth, for nowhere do we read, "God said, Let the earth be."
But, say they, it is written, "In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth." Yes, and there the water is meant, for both
are included in one word. For "the sea is His," as the psalm
says, "and He made it; and His hands formed the dry land." But
those who would understand the angels by the waters above the skies have
a difficulty about the specific gravity of the elements, and fear that
the waters, owing to their fluidity and weight, could not be set in
the upper parts of the world. So that, if they were to construct a
man upon their own principles, they would not put in his head any moist
humors, or "phlegm" as the Greeks call it, and which acts the part
of water among the elements of our body. But, in God's handiwork,
the head is the seat of the phlegm, and surely most fitly; and yet,
according to their supposition, so absurdly that if we were not aware
of the fact, and were informed by this same record that God had put a
moist and cold and therefore heavy humor in the uppermost part of man's
body, these world-weighers would refuse belief. And if they were
confronted with the authority of Scripture, they would maintain that
something else must be meant by the words. But, were we to
investigate and discover all the details which are written in this
divine book regarding the creation of the world, we should have much to
say, and should widely digress from the proposed aim of this work.
Since, then, we have now said what seemed needful regarding these two
diverse and contrary communities of angels, in which the origin of the
two human communities (of which we intend to speak anon) is also
found, let us at once bring this book also to a conclusion.
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