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- confessions
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- world; so as afterwards by the enumeration of the several days, to
arrange in detail, and, as it were, piece by piece, all those things,
which it pleased the Holy Ghost thus to enounce. For such were that
rude and carnal people to which he spake, that he thought them fit to be
entrusted with the knowledge of such works of God only as were visible."
They agree, however, that under the words earth invisible and without
form, and that darksome deep (out of which it is subsequently shown,
that all these visible things which we all know, were made and arranged
during those "days") may, not incongruously, be understood of this
formless first matter.
What now if another should say that "this same formlessness and
confusedness of matter, was for this reason first conveyed under the
name of heaven and earth, because out of it was this visible world with
all those natures which most manifestly appear in it, which is ofttimes
called by the name of heaven and earth, created and perfected?" What
again if another say that "invisible and visible nature is not indeed
inappropriately called heaven and earth; and so, that the universal
creation, which God made in His Wisdom, that is, in the Beginning, was
comprehended under those two words? Notwithstanding, since all things be
made not of the substance of God, but out of nothing (because they are
not the same that God is, and there is a mutable nature in them all,
whether they abide, as doth the eternal house of God, or be changed, as
the soul and body of man are): therefore the common matter of all things
visible and invisible (as yet unformed though capable of form), out of
which was to be created both heaven and earth (i.e., the invisible and
visible creature when formed), was entitled by the same names given to
the earth invisible and without form and the darkness upon the deep, but
with this distinction, that by the earth invisible and without form is
understood corporeal matter, antecedent to its being qualified by any
form; and by the darkness upon the deep, spiritual matter, before it
underwent any restraint of its unlimited fluidness, or received any
light from Wisdom?"
It yet remains for a man to say, if he will, that "the already perfected
and formed natures, visible and invisible, are not signified under the
name of heaven and earth, when we read, In the beginning God made heaven
and earth, but that the yet unformed commencement of things, the stuff
apt to receive form and making, was called by these names, because
therein were confusedly contained, not as yet distinguished by their
qualities and forms, all those things which being now digested into
order, are called Heaven and Earth, the one being the spiritual, the
other the corporeal, creation."
All which things being heard and well considered, I will not strive
about words: for that is profitable to nothing, but the subversion of
the hearers. But the law is good to edify, if a man use it lawfully: for
that the end of it is charity, out of a pure heart and good conscience,
and faith unfeigned. And well did our Master know, upon which two
commandments He hung all the Law and the Prophets. And what doth it
prejudice me, O my God, Thou light of my eyes in secret, zealously
confessing these things, since divers things may be understood under
these words which yet are all true,--what, I say, doth it prejudice me,
if I think otherwise than another thinketh the writer thought? All we
readers verily strive to trace out and to understand his meaning whom we
read; and seeing we believe him to speak truly, we dare not imagine
him to have said any thing, which ourselves either know or think to
be false. While every man endeavours then to understand in the Holy
Scriptures, the same as the writer understood, what hurt is it, if a man
understand what Thou, the light of all true-speaking minds, dost show
him to be true, although he whom he reads, understood not this, seeing
he also understood a Truth, though not this truth?
For true it is, O Lord, that Thou madest heaven and earth; and it is
true too, that the Beginning is Thy Wisdom, in Which Thou createst all:
and true again, that this visible world hath for its greater part
the heaven and the earth, which briefly comprise all made and created
natures. And true too, that whatsoever is mutable, gives us to
understand a certain want of form, whereby it receiveth a form, or is
changed, or turned. It is true, that that is subject to no times, which
so cleaveth to the unchangeable Form, as though subject to change,
never to be changed. It is true, that that formlessness which is almost
nothing, cannot be subject to the alteration of times. It is true, that
that whereof a thing is made, may by a certain mode of speech, be called
by the name of the thing made of it; whence that formlessness, whereof
heaven and earth were made, might be called heaven and earth. It is
true, that of things having form, there is not any nearer to having
no form, than the earth and the deep. It is true, that not only every
created and formed thing, but whatsoever is capable of being created and
formed, Thou madest, of Whom are all things. It is true, that whatsoever
is formed out of that which had no form, was unformed before it was
formed.
Out of these truths, of which they doubt not whose inward eye Thou hast
enabled to see such things, and who unshakenly believe Thy servant Moses
to have spoken in the Spirit of truth;--of all these then, he taketh
one, who saith, In the Beginning God made the heaven and the earth; that
is, "in His Word coeternal with Himself, God made the intelligible and
the sensible, or the spiritual and the corporeal creature." He another,
that saith, In the Beginning God made heaven and earth; that is, "in
His Word coeternal with Himself, did God make the universal bulk of this
corporeal world, together with all those apparent and known creatures,
which it containeth." He another, that saith, In the Beginning God made
heaven and earth; that is, "in His Word coeternal with Himself, did
God make the formless matter of creatures spiritual and corporeal." He
another, that saith, In the Beginning God created heaven and earth; that
is, "in His Word coeternal with Himself, did God create the formless
matter of the creature corporeal, wherein heaven and earth lay as yet
confused, which, being now distinguished and formed, we at this day see
in the bulk of this world." He another, who saith, In the Beginning God
made heaven and earth; that is, "in the very beginning of creating and
working, did God make that formless matter, confusedly containing in
itself both heaven and earth; out of which, being formed, do they now
stand out, and are apparent, with all that is in them."
And with regard to the understanding of the words following, out of all
those truths, he chooses one to himself, who saith, But the earth was
invisible, and without form, and darkness was upon the deep; that is,
"that corporeal thing that God made, was as yet a formless matter of
corporeal things, without order, without light." Another he who says,
The earth was invisible and without form, and darkness was upon the
deep; that is, "this all, which is called heaven and earth, was still
a formless and darksome matter, of which the corporeal heaven and the
corporeal earth were to be made, with all things in them, which are
known to our corporeal senses." Another he who says, The earth was
invisible and without form, and darkness was upon the deep; that is,
"this all, which is called heaven and earth, was still a formless and
a darksome matter; out of which was to be made, both that intelligible
heaven, otherwhere called the Heaven of heavens, and the earth, that is,
the whole corporeal nature, under which name is comprised this corporeal
heaven also; in a word, out of which every visible and invisible
creature was to be created." Another