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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.
To-day 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 thy
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 to-day 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." Yesterday we
heard God's decree, "Let there be light." To-day 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, whilst 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 rather, 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 then 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 an especial 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 front the waters. And God made
the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament
from the waters which were above the firmament." 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 in 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,
breadths 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, anti 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 reader" but, "and God made the
firmament, and divided the waters." Hear, O ye deaf! See, O ye
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
froth the waters." 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 clement 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-Maeotis. 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,
fails into Euxine Sea. Is there any need to enumerate those which
the Ripaean 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
Aegon 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 clement 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 saith
to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers." 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 life waters front the waters." 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 rather 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 sit 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
aether 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
Jean upon to resist what is perfectly plain. Its colour 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." 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 heave;" 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 thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass." 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 fails 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. Yon 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 anti 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 "sheweth His
handiwork." And if they tell you that the heavens mean contemplative
powers, anti 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, ye dragons
and all deeps." s 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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