Chapter XXIX.—The Gradual Development of Cosmical Order Out of Chaos in the Creation, Beautifully Stated.

God, indeed, consummated all His works in a due order; at first He paled them out,271    Depalans. as it were, in their unformed elements, and then He arranged them272    Dedicans: “disposed” them. in their finished beauty. For He did not all at once inundate light with the splendour of the sun, nor all at once temper darkness with the moon’s assuaging ray.273    Solatio lunæ: a beautiful expression! The heaven He did not all at once bedeck274    Significavit. with constellations and stars, nor did He at once fill the seas with their teeming monsters.275    Belluis. The earth itself He did not endow with its varied fruitfulness all at once; but at first He bestowed upon it being, and then He filled it, that it might not be made in vain.276    In vacuum: void. For thus says Isaiah: “He created it not in vain; He formed it to be inhabited.”277    Isa. xlv. 18. Therefore after it was made, and while awaiting its perfect state,278    Futura etiam perfecta. it was “without form, and void:” “void” indeed, from the very fact that it was without form (as being not yet perfect to the sight, and at the same time unfurnished as yet with its other qualities);279    De reliquo nondum instructa. and “without form,” because it was still covered with waters, as if with the rampart of its fecundating moisture,280    Genitalis humoris. by which is produced our flesh, in a form allied with its own. For to this purport does David say:281    Canit: “sing,” as the Psalmist. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and all that dwell therein:  He hath founded it upon the seas, and on the streams hath He established it.”282    Ps. xxiv. 1. It was when the waters were withdrawn into their hollow abysses that the dry land became conspicuous,283    Emicantior. which was hitherto covered with its watery envelope. Then it forthwith becomes “visible,”284    “Visibilis” is here the opposite of the term “invisibilis,” which Tertullian uses for the Scripture phrase “without form.” God saying, “Let the water be gathered together into one mass,285    In congregatione una. and let the dry land appear.”286    Gen. i. 9. “Appear,” says He, not “be made.” It had been already made, only in its invisible condition it was then waiting287    Sustinebat: i.e. expectabat (Oehler). to appear. “Dry,” because it was about to become such by its severance from the moisture, but yet “land.” “And God called the dry land Earth,”288    Gen. i. 10. not Matter. And so, when it afterwards attains its perfection, it ceases to be accounted void, when God declares, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed after its kind, and according to its likeness, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit, whose seed is in itself, after its kind.”289    Ver. 11. Again:  “Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, after their kind.”290    Ver. 24. Thus the divine Scripture accomplished its full order. For to that, which it had at first described as “without form (invisible) and void,” it gave both visibility and completion. Now no other Matter was “without form (invisible) and void.” Henceforth, then, Matter will have to be visible and complete. So that I must291    Volo. see Matter, since it has become visible.  I must likewise recognize it as a completed thing, so as to be able to gather from it the herb bearing seed, and the tree yielding fruit, and that living creatures, made out of it, may minister to my need. Matter, however, is nowhere,292    He means, of course, the theoretic “Matter” of Hermogenes. but the Earth is here, confessed to my view.  I see it, I enjoy it, ever since it ceased to be “without form (invisible), and void.” Concerning it most certainly did Isaiah speak when he said, “Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, He was the God that formed the earth, and made it.”293    Isa. xlv. 18. The same earth for certain did He form, which He also made. Now how did He form294    Demonstravit: “make it visible.” Tertullian here all along makes form and visibility synonymous. it? Of course by saying, “Let the dry land appear.”295    Gen. i. 9. Why does He command it to appear, if it were not previously invisible? His purpose was also, that He might thus prevent His having made it in vain, by rendering it visible, and so fit for use. And thus, throughout, proofs arise to us that this earth which we inhabit is the very same which was both created and formed296    Ostensam: “manifested” (see note 10, p. 96.) by God, and that none other was “Without form, and void,” than that which had been created and formed. It therefore follows that the sentence, “Now the earth was without form, and void,” applies to that same earth which God mentioned separately along with the heaven.297    Cum cælo separavit: Gen. i. 1.

CAPUT XXIX.

Si quidem omnia opera sua Deus ordine consummavit, incultis primo elementis , depalans 0223A quodammodo mundum; dehinc exornatis velut dedicans. Nam et lumen non statim splendore solis implevit, et tenebras non statim solatio lunae temperavit, et coelum non statim sideribus stellisque signavit, et maria non statim belluis frequentavit, et ipsam terram non statim varia foecunditate dotavit: sed primo esse ei contulit; dehinc non in vacuum esse supplevit. Sic enim et Isaias: Non in vacuum, ait, fecit illam, sed inhabitari (Is. XLV, 18). Postea ergo quam facta est, futura etiam perfecta, interim erat invisibilis et rudis. Rudis quidem, hoc quoque ipso quod invisibilis, ut nec visui perfecta, simul et ut de reliquo nondum instructa. Invisibilis vero, ut adhuc aquis, tamquam munimento genitalis humoris, obducta: qua forma, 0223B etiam adfinis ejus caro nostra producitur. Nam et David ita canit: Domini est terra et plenitudo ejus, orbis terrae , et omnes qui habitant in illa. Ipse super maria fundavit eam, et super flumina praeparavit eam (Ps. XXIII, 1, 2). Segregatis enim aquis in cavationem sinuum, emicantior facta est arida, quae antehac aquis tegebatur. Exinde itaque et visibilis efficitur, dicente Deo: Congregetur aqua in congregationem unam, et videatur arida. Videatur inquit, non, fiat. Jam enim facta erat, sed invisibilis usque tunc videri sustinebat. Arida autem, quod erat futura ex divortio humoris, tamen terra. Et vocavit Deus aridam terram, non materiam. Sic et perfectionem postea consecuta, desinit rudis haberi, cum pronuntiat Deus: Fruticet terra herbam foeni 0223C seminantem semen secundum genus, et secundum similitudinem, et lignum fructuosum faciens fructum, cujus semen in ipso in similitudinem. Item: Producat terra animam vivam secundum genus, et quadrupedia, et repentia, et bestias terrae secundum genus. Implevit igitur ordinem suum Scriptura divina. Quam enim 0224A praedixit invisibilem et rudem, ei et visionem reddidit et perfectionem. Non alia autem materia erat invisibilis et rudis. Ergo materia erit postea visibilis et perfecta. Volo itaque videre materiam; visibilis enim facta est. Volo et perfectam eam recognoscere, ut ex illa etiam foeni herbam, et ex illa decerpam lignum fructuosum ; et ex illa animalia usui meo famulentur. Sed materia quidem nusquam: terra vero, haec , id est coram. Hanc video, hac perfruor, ex quo invisibilis et rudis esse desiit, de qua manifestissime Isaias: Haec dicit Dominus qui fecit coelum (Is. XLV, 18). Iste Deus qui demonstravit terram, et fecit illam. Certe eamdem demonstravit. quam et fecit. Quomodo demonstravit? Utique dicendo: Videatur arida. Quare videri jubet, nisi quia 0224B retro non videbatur? ut si quoque eam non in vacuum fecisset faciendo visibilem, et ita habilem . Et sic per omnia probatur nobis hanc quam incolimus, eamdem et factam esse a Deo et ostensam, nec aliam fuisse rudem et invisibilem, quam quae et facta et ostensa est; atque ita, terra autem erat invisibilis et rudis, ad eam pertinet quam Deus cum coelo separavit.