attribute was not given to the earth while it was confused, nor to the heavens before they had motion and adornment. God saw that it was good; that is, made perfect for perfection is that to which nothing is wanting. Et perfecti Dei perfecta sunt opera; "The works of the per"fect God are perfect." From this lump of imperfect matter had the ancient poets their invention of Demogorgon; Hesiodus and Anaxagoras the knowledge of that chaos. Of which 8 Ovid; Ante mare, et terras, et (quod tegit omnia) cœlum, Unus erat toto naturæ vultus in orbe, Quem dixere chaos, rudis indigestaque moles. Before the sea and land was made, and heaven, that all In all the world one only face of nature did abide: SECT. VI. How it is to be understood, that the Spirit of God moved upon the waters; and that this is not to be searched curiously. AFTER the creation of heaven and earth, then void and without form, the Spirit of God moved upon the waters. The Seventy Interpreters used the word superferebatur, moved upon or over: incubabat or fovebat, saith Hierome, out of h Basil; and Basil out of a Syrian doctor; Equidem non meam tibi, sed viri cujusdam Syri sententiam recensebo, saith Basil: which words incubare or fovere, importing warmth, hatching, or quickening, have a special likeness. i Verbum translatum est ab avibus pullitiei suæ incubantibus, quamvis spirituali, et plane inenarrabili, non autem corporali modo; “The word is taken of birds hatching their young, not corporally, but in a spiritual and unexpressible "manner." 66 Some of the Hebrews convert it to this effect, Spiritus Dei volitabat; "The Spirit of God did flutter:" the Chaldean Ovid. Met. lib. 1. h Basil. Hexam. Junius. 66 paraphrast in this sense, Ventus a conspectu Dei sufflabat : or, as others understand the Chaldean, flabat, pellebat, removebat: "The wind from the face of God did blow under, "drive, or remove, or did blow upon;" according to the k 147th Psalm, He caused his wind to blow, and the waters increase: but there was yet no wind nor exhalation. 1Arias Montanus, in these words, Et Spiritus Elohim Merachefet, id est, efficaciter motitans, confovens, ac agitans super facies gemini liquoris; "The Spirit of God effectually and often "moving, keeping warm, and cherishing, quickening and stirring upon the face of this double liquor." For he maketh four originals, whereof three are agents, and the last passive and material; to wit, causa, which is the divine goodness; m Jehi, which is, fiat, sive erit, "let it be, or it shall be." Quæ vox verbo Dei prima prolata fuit: “ which voice,” saith he,“ was the first that was uttered by the word of God." The third, Spiritus Elohim," the Spirit of God," id est, vis quædam divina, agilis ac præsens, per omnia pertingens, omnia complens; that is, " A certain divine power, or strength, 66 every where, active and extending, and stretching through “all, filling and finishing all things." The fourth he calleth maim, id est, materies ad omnem rem conficiendam habilis; "matter apt to become every thing." For myself, I am resolved, (cum Deus sit superrationale omni ratione; “seeing "God is in all reason above reason,") that although the effects which follow his wonderful ways of working may in a measure be perceived by man's understanding, yet the manner and first operation of his divine power cannot be conceived by any mind, or spirit, compassed with a mortal body. Animalis homo quæ Dei sunt non percipit: For my thoughts, saith the Lord in n Esay, are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. And as the world hath not known God himself, so are his ways, according to St. Paul, past finding out. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, saith Christ. And therefore, whether that * Psal. cxlvii. 18. Ar. Mont. ut sup. Eugub. in Cos. fol. 13. m Ar. Mont. de Natura, pag. 149. n Esay lv. 8. 66 motion, vitality, and operation, were by incubation or how else, the manner is only known to God. • Quomodo in omnibus sit rebus, vel per essentiam, vel per potentiam, intellectus noster non capit; "For how God," saith St. Augustine, speaking of his ubiquity, "is in all things, either by essence, presence, or power, our understanding cannot comprehend." P Nihil inter Deum hominemque distaret, si consilia, et dispositiones illius majestatis æternæ, cogitatio assequeretur humana; "There would be no difference between God and "man, if man's understanding could conceive the counsels "and disposing of that eternal majesty:" and therefore to be over-curious in searching how the all-powerful word of God wrought in the creation of the world, or his all-piercing and operative Spirit distinguishing, gave form to the matter of the universal, is a labour and search like unto his, who, not contented with a known and safe ford, will presume to pass over the greatest river in all parts, where he is ignorant of their depths: for so doth the one lose his life, and the other his understanding. We behold the sun, and enjoy his light, as long as we look towards it but tenderly and circumspectly; we warm ourselves safely, while we stand near the fire but if we seek to outface the one, or enter into the other, we forthwith become blind or burnt. But to eschew curiosity; this is true, that the English word moved is most proper and significant: for of motion proceedeth all production, and all whatsoever is effected. And this omnipotent Spirit of God, which may indeed be truly called, principium motus, and with Mirandula, vis causæ efficientis, "the force of the efficient cause," St. Augustine sometimes taketh for the Holy Ghost; sometimes for a wind or breath, sub nomine spiritus, "under the "name of a spirit," which is sometimes so taken; or for virtualis creatura, "for a created virtuality." Tertullian and Theodoret call it also a breath, or wind: Mercurius nameth it, spiritum tenuem intelligibilem," a pure or thin intelligible spirit:" Anaxagoras, mentem: Tostatus, vo 66 Aug. Tract. 20. in Johan. xvii. 25. P Lact. in Præfat. luntatem et mentem Dei," the will and mind of God;" which mens, Plato in Timæo maketh animam mundi, "the "soul of the world:" and in his sixth book, De Republica, he calleth it," the law of heaven;" in his Epistles," the "leader of things to come, and the presence of things past." But as Cyprian wrote of the incarnation of Christ our Saviour, Mens deficit, vox silet, et non mea tantum, sed etiam angelorum; "My mind faileth, my voice is silent, and not mine "only, but even the voice of angels:" so may all men else say in the understanding and utterance of the ways and works of the creation; for to him, saith 9 Nazianzenus, there is not one substance by which he is, and another by which he can, sed consubstantiale illi est, quicquid ejus est, et quicquid est; "whatsoever attribute of him there is, " and whatsoever he is, it is the very same substance that "himself is." But the Spirit of God which moved upon the waters cannot be taken for a breath, or wind, nor for any other creature, separate from the infinite active power of God, which then formed and distinguished, and which now sustaineth and giveth continuance to the universal. For the Spirit of the Lord filleth all the world; and the same is it which maintaineth all things, saith 'Salomon. If thou send forth thy Spirit, saith David, they are created: and Gregory, Deus suo præsentiali esse, dat omnibus rebus esse, ita quod si se rebus subtraheret, sicut de nihilo facta sunt omnia, sic in nihilum defluerent universa: "God giveth being “to all things, by being present with all things; so as if he "should withdraw himself from them, then as of nothing "the world was made, it would again fall away and vanish "into nothing." And this working of God's Spirit in all things s Virgil hath expressed excellently : Principio cœlum ac terras, camposque liquentes, ↑ Nazianz. lib. 2. Theol. r Wisd. i. 7. s Virg. Æneid. lib. 6. 724. The heaven, the earth, and all the liquid main, And this was the same Spirit which moved in the universal, and thereby both distinguished and adorned it. * His Spirit hath garnished the heavens, saith Job. So then the Spirit of God moved upon the waters, and created in them their spirituality and natural motion; motion brought forth heat; and heat rarefaction, and subtilty of parts. By this Spirit (which gave heat and motion, and thereby operation to every nature, while it moved upon the waters, which were in one indigested lump and u chaos, disposed to all forms alike) was begotten air; an element superior, as lighter than the waters; through whose vast, open, subtile, diaphanic, or transparent body, the light, afterwards created, might easily transpierce: light for the excellency thereof being the first creature which God called good, whose creation immediately followed. This Spirit Chrysostom calleth a vital operation, aquis a Deo insitam, ex qua aquæ non solum motionem, sed et vim procreandi animalia habuerint. He calleth it," a vital operation given "by God unto the waters, whereby the waters had not only motion, but also power to procreate or bring forth "living creatures." 66 SECT. VII. Of the light created, as the material substance of the sun, and of the nature of it, and difficulty of knowledge of it; and of the excellency and use of it: and of motion, and heat annexed unto it. THESE waters were afterwards congregated, and called the sea and this light afterwards (in the fourth day) gathered and united, and called the sun, the organ and in |