But, whilst I am conversing with you about the first evening of the world, evening takes me by surprise, and puts an end to my discourse. May the Father of the true light, Who has adorned day with celestial light, Who has made the fire to shine which illuminates us during the night, Who reserves for us in the peace of a future age a spiritual and everlasting light, enlighten your hearts in the knowledge of truth, keep you from stumbling, and grant that "you may walk honestly as in the day." [1457] Thus shall you shine as the sun in the midst of the glory of the saints, and I shall glory in you in the day of Christ, to Whom belong all glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
[1412] Gen. i. 2, LXX.
[1413] cf. Hom., Il. xviii. 485, en de ta teirea panta ta t' ouranos estephanotai, and Tennyson's "When young night divine crowned dying day with stars." (Palace of Art.)
[1414] On prime matter and its being asomatos and amorphos vide Cudworth, Int. Syst. v. ii. § 27, and Mosheim's note. "Ingens vero quondam summorum et inclytorum virorum numerus ab eorum semper stetit partibus, quibus ex qua dixi ratione, materiam placuit decernere asomaton esse, sive corpore carere Cicero omnes post Platonem philosophos hoc dogma perhibet tenuisse, Acad. Quast. i. 7, sed subjectam putant omnibus sine ulla specie, atque carentem omni illa qualitate materiam quandam ex qua omnia expressa atque effecta sint.' Sed jam din ante Platonem Pythagoraeorum multi ei addicti fuerunt, quod ex Timæi Locri, nobilis hujus scholæ et perantiqui philosophi, De Anima Mundi libello (Cap. i. p. 544, Ed. Galei) intelligitur: tan hulan amorphon de kath' autan kai achrematiston dechomenon de pasan morphan."
[1415] cf. Arist., Met. vi. 7, panta de ta gignomena hupo te tinos gignetai, kai ek tinos, kai ti...to de ex hou gignetai, hen legomen hulen...to de huph' hou, ton phusei ti onton...eidos de lego to ti en einai hekaston, kai ten proten ousian.
[1416] cf. Cudworth, Int. Syst. iv. 6, and remarks there on Cic., Acad Quæst. i. 6. Arist. (Metaph. i. 2) says Theos gar dokei to aition pasin einai kai arche tis, but does this refer only to form?
[1417] Gen. ii. 5, "every herb of the field before it grew." There seems here an indication of the actual creation, poiesis, being in the mind of God.
[1418] Fialon quotes Bossuet: "Je ne trouve point que Dieu, qui a créé toutes choses, ait eu besoin, comme un ouvrier vulgaire, de trouver une matiére préparée sur laquelle il travaillât, et de laquelle il dît son ouvrage. Mais, n'ayant besoin pour agir que de lui-même et de sa propre puissance il a fait tout son ouvrage. Il n'est point un simple faiseur de formes et de figures dans une matière préexistante; il a fait et la matière et la forme, c'est-à-dire son ouvrage dans son tout: autrement son ouvrage ne lui doit pas tout, et dans son fond il est indépendamment de son ouvrier.... "O Dieu quelle a été l'ignorance des sages du monde, qu'on a appelés philosophes d'avoir cru que vous, parfait architecte et absolu formateur de tout ce qui est, vous aviez trouvé sous vos mains une matière qui vous ótait co-éternelle, informe néamoins, et qui attendait de vous sa perfection! Aveugles, qui n'entendaient pas que d'être capable de forme, c'est deja quelque forme; c'est quelque perfection, que d'être capable de perfection; et si la matière avail d'elle-même ce commencement de perfection et de forme, elle en pouvait aussitôt avoir d'ellemême l'entier accomplissement. "Aveugles, conducteurs d'aveugles, qui tombez dans le prêcipice, et y jetez ceux qui vous suivent (St. Matthieu xv. 14), dites-mois qui a assujeti à Dieu ce qu'il n'a pas fait, ce qui est de soi aussi bien que Dieu, ce qui est indépendamment de Dieu même? Par où a-t-il trouvé prise sur ce qui lui est étranger et independant et sa puissance; et par quel art ou quel pouvoir se l'est-il soumis?...Mais qu'est-ce après tout que cette matière si parfait, qu'elle ait elle-même ce fond de son être; et si imparfaite, qu'elle attende sa perfection d'un autre? Dieu aura fait l'accident et n'aura pas fait la substance? (Bossuet, Elévations sur les mystères, 3e semaine, 2e elevat.)
[1419] Gen. i. 2.
[1420] Acts xx. 29.
[1421] Marcion and Valentinus are roughly lumped together as types of gnostic dualism. On the distinction between their systems see Dr. Salmon in D.C.B. iii. 820. Marcion, said to have been the son of a bishop of Sinope, is the most Christian of the gnostics, and "tries to fit in his dualism with the Christian creed and with the scriptures." But he expressly "asserted the existence of two Gods." The Valentinian ideas and emanations travelled farther afield.
[1422] On Manicheism, videBeausobre's Critical History of Manicheism, and Walch, Hist. Ketz. i. 770. With its theory of two principles it spread widely over the empire in the 4th c., was vigorous in Armenia in the 9th, and is said to have appeared in France in the 12th. (cf. Bayle, Dict. s.v.) On the view taken of the heresy in Basil's time cf. Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius i. § 35.
[1423] i.e. by those who would identify the abussos (Tehôm) of Gen. i. 2 with that of Luke i. 31, and understand it to mean the abode in prison of evil spirits. The Hebrew word occurs in Job xxviii. 14 and Deut. xxxiii. 13 for the depth of waters.
[1424] With this view Plutarch charges the Stoics. Autoi ton kakon archen agathon onta ton Theon poiousi. (c. Stoicos, 1976.) But it is his deduction from their statements--not their own statements. cf. Mosheim's note on Cudworth iv. § 13. Origen (c. Celsum vi.) distinguishes between ten kakian kai tas ap' autes praxeis, and kakon as punitive and remedial; if the latter can rightly be called evil in any sense, God is the author of it. cf. Amos iii. 6. Vide, also, Basil's treatment of this question in his Treatise hoti ouk estin aitios ton kakon ho theos. cf. Schroeck. Kirchengeschichte xiii. 194.
[1425] Fialon points out the correspondence with Plat. Phæd. § 119, kai tis eipe ton paronton akousas...pros Then, ouk en tois prosthen hemin logois auto to enantion ton nuni legomenon homologeito, ek tou elattonos to meizon gignesthai, kai ek tou meizonos to elatton, kai atechnos haute einai he genesis tois enantiois ek ton enantion ; nun de moi dokei legesthai hoti touto ouk an pote genoito. Kai ho Sokrates ...ephe...ouk ennoeis to diapheron tou ti nun legomenou kai tou tote; tote; men gar elegeto ek tou enantiou pragmatos to enantion pragma gignesthai, nun de hoti auto to enantion heauto enantion ouk an pote genoito, oute to en hemin oute to en phusei; tote men gar peri ton echonton ton enantion elegomen, eponomazontes auta te ekeinon eponumi& 139;, nun de peri ekeinon auton hon enonton, echei ten eponumian ta onomazomena, auta d' ekeina ouk an pote phamen ethegesai genesin allelon dexasthai.
[1426] "Cette phrase est prise textuellement dans Denys l'Aréopagite, ou du moins dans l'ouvrage qui lui est attribué. (De Div. Nom. iv. 18. Laur. Lyd. de mensib. ed. Roeth. 186, 28.)." Fialon. In the Treatise referred to, peri Theion 'Onomaton, "evil" is said to be "nothing real and positive, but a defect, a negation only. Steresis ara esti to kakon, kai elleipsis, kai astheneia, kai asummetria." D.C.B. i. 846. cf. "Evil is null, is nought, is silence implying sound." Browning. Abt. Vogler.
[1427] cf. Epictetus, Ench. i. eph' hemin men hupolepsis, horme, orexis, ekklisis, kai heni logo hosa hemetera erga.
[1428] cf. M. Aurelius II. xi. ho gar cheiro me poiei anthropon, pos de touto bion anthropou cheiro poieseien;...thanatos de ge kai zoe doxa kai adoxia, ponos kai hedone, ploutos kai penia, panta tauta epises sumbainei anthropon tois te agathois kai tois kakois, oute kala onta oute aischra; out' ar' agatha oute kaka esti. Also Greg. Nyss. Orat. Cat. and Aug., De Civ. Dei. i. 8. Ista vero temporalia bona et mala utrisque voluit esse communia, ut nec bona cupidius appetantur, quæ mali quoque habere cernuntur, nec mala turpiter evitentur, quibus et boni plerumque afficiuntur.
[1429] cf. Heb. i. 14.
[1430] cf. Theod. (Quæst. in Gen. vi.) who is ready to accept the creation of angels before the creation of the world. Origen, Hom. i. in Gen. Hom. iv. in Is. taught the existence of angels "before the æons." Greg. Naz., Orat. xxxviii. The lxx. Trans. of Job xxxviii. 7, enesan me pantes angeloi mou may have aided in the formation of the general opinion of the Greek Fathers. The systematization of the hierarchies is due to the pseudo, Dionysius, and was transmitted to the west through John Erigena. cf. Milman, Lat. Christ. ix. 59.
[1431] Prov. xiii. 9, lxx.
[1432] Col. i. 12.
[1433] cf. Matt. xxii. 13.
[1434] Gen. i. 2, lxxx.
[1435] Tillemont understands Eusebius of Samosata. The Ben. note prefers Ephrem Syrus, and compares Jerome, Quæst. Heb. Col. 508.
[1436] Gen. i. 2. Vide R.V. margin. The word rachaph, "brood," is not used of wind, and itself appears to fix the meaning of the Spirit in the place. An old interpretation of the Orphic Poem Argonautica would identify the brooding Spirit of Genesis with the All Wise Love of the Greek poet: prota men archaiou chaeos megalephaton humnon, hos epameipse phuseis, hos t' ouranos es peras elthen, ges t' eurusternou genesin, puthmenas te thalasses , presbutaton te kai autotele pol metin Erota, hossa t' ephusen hapanta, ta d' e?oithen allou ap' allo. Orph., Argon. 423-427. On the translation of rachaph by "brooding," cf. Milton, P. Lost, vii.: "darkness profound Covered the abyss; but on the watery calm His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread, And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth, Throughout the fluid mass."
[1437] zoogonia. cf. De Sp. S.§ 56, and Bp. Pearson, on the Creed, Art. V.
[1438] Gen. i. 3.
[1439] Light is said to travel straight at the rate of about 195,000 English miles a second; a velocity estimated by observations on the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites. The modern undulatory theory of light, of which Huyghens ( 1695) is generally regarded as the author, describes light as propagated by the vibrations of the imponderable matter termed Ether or Æther.
[1440] The simile seems hardly worthy of the topic. The practice is referred to by Plutarch, Symp. Quæst. i. 9, and by Pliny, Hist. Nat. ii. 106. "Omne oleo tranquillari; et ob id urinantes ore spargere, quoniam mitiget naturam asperam lucemque deportet." "gerere" says the Delph. note, "tum credas oleum vicem conspiciliorum.
[1441] A statement not unlike the "Vibrations of the elastic medium," to which sound might now be referred. "Sed vocem Stoici corpus esse contendunt: eamque esse dicunt ictum aera: Plato autem non esse vocem corpus esse putat. Non enim percussus, inquit, aer, sed plaga ipsa atque percussio, vox est: ouk haplos plege aeros estin he phone; plettei gar ton aera kai daktulos paragomenos, kai oudepo poiei phonen; all' he pose plege, kai sphodra, kai tose de hoste akousten genesthai." Aul. Gell., N.A. v. 15. So Diog. Laert. in Vita Zenonis; esti phone aer peplegmenos.
[1442] Fialon quotes Bossuet 4me élév. 3me sem.: "Le roi dit Qu'on marche; et l'armée marche; qu'on fasse telle évolution, et elle se fait; toute une armée se remue au seul commandement d'un prince, c'est à dire, à un seul petit mouvment de ces livres, c'est, parmi les choses humaines, l'image la plus excellente de la puissance de Dieu; mais au fond que c'est image est dèfectueuse! Dieu n'a point de lèvres à remuer; Dieu ne frappe point l'air pour en tirer quelque son; Dieu n'a qu'à vouloir en lui même; et tout ce qu'il veut éternellement s'accomplit comme il l'a voulu, et au temps qu'il a marqué.
[1443] Gen. i. 4.
[1444] St. Basil dwells rather on the sense of "beautiful" in the lxx. kalon. The Vulgate has pulchra.
[1445] cf. Bion. xvi. 1: Espere, kuaneas hieron, phile, nuktos agalma, Tosson aphauroteros menas hoson exochos astron, and Milton, P.L. iv. 605: "Hesperus, that led The starry host, rode brightest."
[1446] Gen. i. 4.
[1447] Gen. i. 5.
[1448] Gen. i. 5.
[1449] lxx. The Heb.=literally "And evening happened and morning happened, one day." On the unique reckoning of the day from evening to morning, see the late Dr. McCaul in Replies to Essays and Reviews.
[1450] Ps. xc. 10.
[1451] Gen. xlvii. 9.
[1452] Ps. xxiii. 6, LXX.
[1453] Gen. i. 5, LXX. and Heb.
[1454] Joel ii. 11.
[1455] Amos v. 18.
[1456] The argument here is due to a misapprehension of the meaning of the term eighth in Psalm vi. and xi. title. cf. n. on De Sp. S. § 66.
[1457] Rom. xiii. 13.