Chapter XXX.—Another Passage in the Sacred History of the Creation, Released from the Mishandling of Hermogenes.

The following words will in like manner apparently corroborate the conjecture of Hermogenes, “And darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water;”298    Gen. i. 2. as if these blended299    Confusæ. substances, presented us with arguments for his massive pile of Matter.300    Massalis illius molis. Now, so discriminating an enumeration of certain and distinct elements (as we have in this passage), which severally designates “darkness,” “the deep,” “the Spirit of God,” “the waters,” forbids the inference that anything confused or (from such confusion) uncertain is meant. Still more, when He ascribed to them their own places,301    Situs. “darkness on the face of the deep,” “the Spirit upon the face of the waters,” He repudiated all confusion in the substances; and by demonstrating their separate position,302    Dispositionem. He demonstrated also their distinction.  Most absurd, indeed, would it be that Matter, which is introduced to our view as “without form,” should have its “formless” condition maintained by so many words indicative of form,303    Tot formarum vocabulis. without any intimation of what that confused body304    Corpus confusionis. is, which must of course be supposed to be unique,305    Unicum. since it is without form.306    Informe. For that which is without form is uniform; but even307    Autem. that which is without form, when it is blended together308    Confusum. from various component parts,309    Ex varietate. must necessarily have one outward appearance;310    Unam speciem. and it has not any appearance, until it has the one appearance (which comes) from many parts combined.311    Unam ex multis speciem. Now Matter either had those specific parts312    Istas species. within itself, from the words indicative of which it had to be understood—I mean “darkness,” and “the deep,” and “the Spirit,” and “the waters”—or it had them not. If it had them, how is it introduced as being “without form?”313    Non habens formas. If it had them not, how does it become known?314    Agnoscitur.

CAPUT XXX.

Sic et sequentia conjecturam Hermogenis instruere videbuntur: Et tenebrae super abyssum, et spiritus Dei super aquas ferebatur (Gen. I, 2); quasi et hae confusae substantiae, massalis illius molis argumenta portendant. Atquin singillatim definiens tenebras, abyssum, spiritum Dei, aquas, nihil confusum, nec in confusione incertum aestimari facit tam divisa relatio 0224C certorum et distinctorum elementorum. Hoc quidem amplius, cum situs proprios eis adscribit, tenebras super abyssum, spiritum super aquas, negavit confusionem substantiarum, quarum demonstrando dispositionem, demonstravit etiam distinctionem. Vanissimum denique , ut materia quae informis 0225A inducitur, de tot formarum vocabulis informis adseveretur, non edito quid sit illud corpus confusionis, quod unicum utique credendum est, si informe est: uniforme etenim quod informe est. Informe autem, quod ex varietate confusum est, unam habeat necesse est speciem; quod non habet speciem, dum ex multis unam habet speciem. Caeterum, aut habebat in se species istas materia, de quarum vocabulis intelligenda esset , tenebras dico, et abyssum, et spiritum, et aquas, aut non habebat. Si enim habebat, quomodo inducitur non habens formas? Si non habebat quomodo agnoscitur .