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31. For, should any one endeavour to contend against these last two
opinions, thus, " If you will not admit that this formlessness of
matter appears to be called by the name of heaven and earth, then there
was something which God had not made out of which He could make heaven
and earth; for Scripture hath not told us that God made this matter,
unless we understand it to be implied in the term of heaven and earth,
or of earth only, when it is said, ' In the beginning God created
heaven and earth,' as that which follows, but the earth was invisible
and formless, although it was pleasing to him so to call the formless
matter, we may not yet understand any but that which God made in that
text which hath been already written, ' God made heaven and
earth.'" The maintainers of either one or the other of these two
opinions which we have put last will, when they have heard these
things, answer and say, "We deny not indeed that this formless
matter was created by God, the God of whom are all things, very
good; for, as we say that that is a,greater good which is created and
formed, so we acknowledge that that is a minor good which :is capable
of creation and form, but yet good. But yet the Scripture hath not
declared that God made this formlessness, any more than it hath
declared many other things; as the 'Cherubim,' and 'Seraphim,
and those of which the apostle distinctly speaks, 'Thrones,'
'Dominions,' 'Principalities,' 'Powers, all of which it is
manifest God made. Or if in that which is said,' He made heaven
and earth,' all things are comprehended, what do we say of the waters
upon which the Spirit of God moved? For if they are understood as
incorporated in the word earth, how then can formless matter be meant
in the term earth when we see the waters so beautiful? Or if it be so
meant, why then is it written that out of the same formlessness the
firmament was made and called heaven, and yet it is not written that
the waters were made? For those waters, which we perceive flowing in
so beautiful a manner, remain not formless and invisiblee. But if,
then, they received that beauty when God said, Let the water which
is under the firmament be gathered together. so that the gathering be
the very formation, what will be answered concerning the waters which
are above the firmament, because if formless they would not have
deserved to receive a seat so honourable, nor is it written by what
word they were formed? If, then, Genesis is silent as to anything
that God has made, which, however, neither sound faith nor unerring
understanding doubteth that God hath made. let not any sober teaching
dare to say that these waters were co-eternal with God because we find
them mentioned in the book of Genesis; but when they were created, we
find not. Why truth instructing us may we not understand that
that formless matter, which the Scripture calls the earth invisible
and without form, and the darksome deep. have been made by God out of
nothing, and therefore that they are not co-eternal with Him,
although that narrative hath failed to tell when they were made?"
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