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Objection 1: It would seem that the empyrean heaven was not created
at the same time as formless matter. For the empyrean, if it is
anything at all, must be a sensible body. But all sensible bodies are
movable, and the empyrean heaven is not movable. For if it were so,
its movement would be ascertained by the movement of some visible body,
which is not the case. The empyrean heaven, then, was not created
contemporaneously with formless matter.
Objection 2: Further, Augustine says (De Trin. iii, 4) that
"the lower bodies are governed by the higher in a certain order."
If, therefore, the empyrean heaven is the highest of bodies, it must
necessarily exercise some influence on bodies below it. But this does
not seem to be the case, especially as it is presumed to be without
movement; for one body cannot move another unless itself also be
moved. Therefore the empyrean heaven was not created together with
formless matter.
Objection 3: Further, if it is held that the empyrean heaven is the
place of contemplation, and not ordained to natural effects; on the
contrary, Augustine says (De Trin. iv, 20): "In so far as
we mentally apprehend eternal things, so far are we not of this
world"; from which it is clear that contemplation lifts the mind above
the things of this world. Corporeal place, therefore, cannot be the
seat of contemplation.
Objection 4: Further, among the heavenly bodies exists a body,
partly transparent and partly luminous, which we call the sidereal
heaven. There exists also a heaven wholly transparent, called by some
the aqueous or crystalline heaven. If, then, there exists a still
higher heaven, it must be wholly luminous. But this cannot be, for
then the air would be constantly illuminated, and there would be no
night. Therefore the empyrean heaven was not created together with
formless matter.
On the contrary, Strabus says that in the passage, "In the
beginning God created heaven and earth," heaven denotes not the
visible firmament, but the empyrean or fiery heaven.
I answer that, The empyrean heaven rests only on the authority of
Strabus and Bede, and also of Basil; all of whom agree in one
respect, namely, in holding it to be the place of the blessed.
Strabus and Bede say that as soon as created it was filled with
angels; and Basil [Hom. ii. in Hexaem.] says: "Just as the
lost are driven into the lowest darkness, so the reward for worthy
deeds is laid up in the light beyond this world, where the just shall
obtain the abode of rest." But they differ in the reasons on which
they base their statement. Strabus and Bede teach that there is an
empyrean heaven, because the firmament, which they take to mean the
sidereal heaven, is said to have been made, not in the beginning, but
on the second day: whereas the reason given by Basil is that otherwise
God would seem to have made darkness His first work, as the
Manicheans falsely assert, when they call the God of the Old
Testament the God of darkness. These reasons, however, are not
very cogent. For the question of the firmament, said to have been
made on the second day, is solved in one way by Augustine, and in
another by other holy writers. But the question of the darkness is
explained according to Augustine [Gen. ad lit. i; vii.], by
supposing that formlessness, signified by darkness, preceded form not
by duration, but by origin. According to others, however, since
darkness is no creature, but a privation of light, it is a proof of
Divine wisdom, that the things it created from nothing it produced
first of all in an imperfect state, and afterwards brought them to
perfection. But a better reason can be drawn from the state of glory
itself. For in the reward to come a two-fold glory is looked for,
spiritual and corporeal, not only in the human body to be glorified,
but in the whole world which is to be made new. Now the spiritual
glory began with the beginning of the world, in the blessedness of the
angels, equality with whom is promised to the saints. It was
fitting, then, that even from the beginning, there should be made
some beginning of bodily glory in something corporeal, free at the very
outset from the servitude of corruption and change, and wholly
luminous, even as the whole bodily creation, after the Resurrection,
is expected to be. So, then, that heaven is called the empyrean,
i.e. fiery, not from its heat, but from its brightness. It is to
be noticed, however, that Augustine (De Civ. Dei x, 9,27)
says that Porphyry sets the demons apart from the angels by supposing
that the former inhabit the air, the latter the ether, or empyrean.
But Porphyry, as a Platonist, held the heaven, known as sidereal,
to be fiery, and therefore called it empyrean or ethereal, taking
ethereal to denote the burning of flame, and not as Aristotle
understands it, swiftness of movement (De Coel. i, text. 22).
This much has been said to prevent anyone from supposing that
Augustine maintained an empyrean heaven in the sense understood by
modern writers.
Reply to Objection 1: Sensible corporeal things are movable in the
present state of the world, for by the movement of corporeal creatures
is secured by the multiplication of the elements. But when glory is
finally consummated, the movement of bodies will cease. And such must
have been from the beginning the condition of the empyrean.
Reply to Objection 2: It is sufficiently probable, as some
assert, that the empyrean heaven, having the state of glory for its
ordained end, does not influence inferior bodies of another
order---those, namely, that are directed only to natural ends.
Yet it seems still more probable that it does influence bodies that are
moved, though itself motionless, just as angels of the highest rank,
who assist [Question 112, Article 3], influence those of lower
degree who act as messengers, though they themselves are not sent, as
Dionysius teaches (Coel. Hier. xii). For this reason it may be
said that the influence of the empyrean upon that which is called the
first heaven, and is moved, produces therein not something that comes
and goes as a result of movement, but something of a fixed and stable
nature, as the power of conservation or causation, or something of the
kind pertaining to dignity.
Reply to Objection 3: Corporeal place is assigned to
contemplation, not as necessary, but as congruous, that the splendor
without may correspond to that which is within. Hence Basil (Hom.
ii in Hexaem.) says: "The ministering spirit could not live in
darkness, but made his habitual dwelling in light and joy."
Reply to Objection 4: As Basil says (Hom. ii in Hexaem.):
"It is certain that the heaven was created spherical in shape, of
dense body, and sufficiently strong to separate what is outside it from
what it encloses. On this account it darkens the region external to
it, the light by which itself is lit up being shut out from that
region. "But since the body of the firmament, though solid, is
transparent, for that it does not exclude light (as is clear from the
fact that we can see the stars through the intervening heavens), we
may also say that the empyrean has light, not condensed so as to emit
rays, as the sun does, but of a more subtle nature. Or it may have
the brightness of glory which differs from mere natural brightness.
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