Basil Search This Resource     in this Authorin this Sectionin all Sections   Navigator (Page 1 of 2) Previous Next   Page2   Homily III.-On the Firmament. 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."(1) 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."(2) 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 religionto 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.(3) 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.(4) 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,(5) 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.(6) 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.(7) And does not the Psalmist in saying "heaven of heavens"(8) 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.(9) 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."(10) 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 I the order to hold the middle place between thewaters. Scripture constantly makes use of the word firmament to express extraordinary strength. "The Lord in firmament and refuge"(11) "I have strengthened the pillars of it"(12) "Praise him in the firmament of his power."(13) The heathen writers thus call a strong body one which is compact and full,(14) 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.(15) 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.(16) 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,(17) or the transparent stone(18) which forms in mines.(19) 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."(20) 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.(21) "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."(22) 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.(23) 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(24) if the most powerful and the most vital of its elements were lacking.(25) 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,(26) 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 dispersedin 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,(27) the Choaspes,(28) and the Araxes,(29) from which the Tanais(30) detaches itself to fall into the Palus-Maeotis.(31) Add to these the Phasis(32) 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(33) and the Ister,(34) 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(35) pour forth in the heart of Scythia, the Rhone,(36) 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(37) the Nyses, the Chremetes,(38) 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."(39) Reject then the foolish wisdom of this world,(40) 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?(41) 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.(42) 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. FOOTNOTES: Ps cxix. 103. Gen. I. 6. Origen, c. Cels. vi. says to\n me\n prosexei=j dhmiourgo\n ei\nai to\n uio\n tou= Qeou= lo/gon, kai\ w 9spepei\ au'tourgo\n tou= ko/smou, to\n de\ pate/ra tou= lo/gou, tw= prostetaxe/nai tw= ui'w eautou= lo/gw= poih=sai to\n ko/smon, ei\nai prw/twj dmuiourgo/n. cf. Athan., c. gentes § 48. sq. Solon is credited with the saying, du/skola ta\ kala\. cf. the German proverb, Gut ding wil weile haben, and Virgil in Georg. i. 121:"Pater ipse colendiHaud facilem esse viam voluit." Plato said one. po/teron o'u\n o'rqwj e!na ourano\u proeirh/kamen; h! pollou\j h$ a 9pei/rouj le/gein h\n o'rqo/teron ; eiper kata to paradeigma dedhmionpghm enov eotai to yar periecon panta o posa nohta zwa meq e teron deuteron ouk an pot eih eiv ode monogenhv ouranov gegonwv esti te kai estai. Plat., Tim. § 11. On the other hand, was the Epicurean doctrine of the apeiria kosmwn, referred to in Luc. i. 73:Ergo vivida vis animi pervicit, et extraProcessit longe flammantia moenia mundi. So Anaximander (Diog. Laert. ii. 1,2) and Damocritus (Diog. Laert. ix. 44).But, As Fialon points out, the Greek philosophers used ko/smoj and ou'RANO'j as convertible terms: Basil uses oouranov of the firmament or sky. cf. II Cor. xii. 2. Ps. cxlvii. 4. "You must conceive it" (the whirlh) "to be of such a kind as this: as if in some great hollow whirl, carved throughout, there was such another, but lesser, within it, adapted to it, like casks fitted one within another; and in the same manner a third, and a fourth, and four others, for that the whirls were eight in all, as circles one within another. . . and hat in each of its circles there was seated a siren on the upper side, carried round, and uttering one voice variegated by diverse modulations; but that the whole of them, being eight, composed one harmony." (Plat., Rep. x. 14, Davies' Trans.) Plato describes the Fates "singing to the harmony of the Sirens." Id. On the Pythagorean Music of the Spheres, cf. also Cic., De Divin. I. 3, and Macrobius In Somn: Scip.cf. Shaksp., M. of Ven.. v. 1:"There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'stBut in his motion like an angel sings,Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim."And Milton, Arcades:"Then listen ITo the celestial Sirens' harmony,That sit upon the nine infolded spheres,And sing to those that hold the vital sheres,And turn the adamantine spindle roundOn which the fate of gods and men is wound. Gen. i. 6, 7. Ps. xviii. 2, LXX. Ps. lxxv. 3, LXX. Ps. cl. 1. LXX. nasto/j (fr. na/ssw, press or knead) = close, firm. Democritus used it as opposed to kenon, void. Arist. fr. 202. Amos iv. 13. LXX. Pliny (Hist. Nat. ii. 43) writes: "Si in nube luctetur flatus aut vapor, tonitrua edi: si erumpat ardens, fulmina; si longiore tractu nitatur, fulgetra. His fiindi nubew, illis perrumpi. Etesse tonitrua impactorum ignium plagas." cf. Sen., Quoest. Nat.. ii. 12. Empedoklh\j stere/mnion ei\nai to\n ou'rano\n e'c a'e/roj sumpage/ntoj u 9no\ puro\j krustalloeidw=j, to\ purw=dej kai\ a'erw=dej e'n ekate/rw tw=n h 9misfairi/wn perie/xonta. (Plutarch peri\ tw=n o'resko/ntw=n toi=j filoso/foij, ii. 11) Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxvii. 9) says that crystal is made "gelu (vide Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, ii. 1) vehementiore concreto. . . glaciem que esso certum est; unde et nomen graeci dedere." So Seneca, Quaest. Nat. iii 25. Diodorus Siculus, however, asserts it "coalescere non a frigore sed divini ignis potentia." (Bibl. ii. 134.) i.e. the "Lapis Specularis." or mica, which was used for glazing windows. cf. Plin., Ep. ii. 17. and Juv., Sat. iv. 21. Mica is found in large plates in Siberia, Peru, and Mexico, as well as in Sweden and Norway. Gen. i. 7. With Christian associations it is startling to read tha the end of the Timaeus that the Cosmos is the ei'kw\n tou= Qeou= , or, according to another reading, itself Qeo/j, . . . monogenh=j w$n. Gen. i. 6. According to Plutarch (peri\ tw=n a're/sk: etc. iii. 10) Thales and the Stoics affirmed the earth to be spherical, Thales (id. 11) placing it "in the middle." Pliny, Hist. Nat. ii. 4, says that the earth "universi cardine stare pendentem librantem per quae pendeat; ita solam immobilem circa eam volubili universitate, eandem ex omnibus necti, eidemque omnia inniti." On kolobo/j, docked, curtailed, cf. Matt. xxiv. 22. The supremacy of fire was the idea of Heraclitus. To\ pu=r Qeo\n u'peilh/fasin !Ippasoj. . . kai= 0Hra/kleitoj. Clem. Alex., LProtrep. v. 55. Plutarch has an essay on the comparative use fulness of fire and water. Job xxxvi. 27, LXX.