Chapter III.—Water Chosen as a Vehicle of Divine Operation and Wherefore. Its Prominence First of All in Creation.

Mindful of this declaration as of a conclusive prescript, we nevertheless proceed to treat the question, “How foolish and impossible it is to be formed anew by water. In what respect, pray, has this material substance merited an office of so high dignity?” The authority, I suppose, of the liquid element has to be examined.10    Compare the Jews’ question, Matt. xxi. 23. This11    Its authority. however, is found in abundance, and that from the very beginning. For water is one of those things which, before all the furnishing of the world, were quiescent with God in a yet unshapen12    Impolita. state. “In the first beginning,” saith Scripture, “God made the heaven and the earth. But the earth was invisible, and unorganized,13    Incomposita. and darkness was over the abyss; and the Spirit of the Lord was hovering14    Ferebatur. over the waters.”15    Gen. i. 1, 2, and comp. the LXX. The first thing, O man, which you have to venerate, is the age of the waters in that their substance is ancient; the second, their dignity, in that they were the seat of the Divine Spirit, more pleasing to Him, no doubt, than all the other then existing elements. For the darkness was total thus far, shapeless, without the ornament of stars; and the abyss gloomy; and the earth unfurnished; and the heaven unwrought: water16    Liquor. alone—always a perfect, gladsome, simple material substance, pure in itself—supplied a worthy vehicle to God.  What of the fact that waters were in some way the regulating powers by which the disposition of the world thenceforward was constituted by God?  For the suspension of the celestial firmament in the midst He caused by “dividing the waters;”17    Gen. i. 6, 7, 8. the suspension of “the dry land” He accomplished by “separating the waters.” After the world had been hereupon set in order through its elements, when inhabitants were given it, “the waters” were the first to receive the precept “to bring forth living creatures.”18    Animas. Water was the first to produce that which had life, that it might be no wonder in baptism if waters know how to give life.19    Animare. For was not the work of fashioning man himself also achieved with the aid of waters?  Suitable material is found in the earth, yet not apt for the purpose unless it be moist and juicy; which (earth) “the waters,” separated the fourth day before into their own place, temper with their remaining moisture to a clayey consistency. If, from that time onward, I go forward in recounting universally, or at more length, the evidences of the “authority” of this element which I can adduce to show how great is its power or its grace; how many ingenious devices, how many functions, how useful an instrumentality, it affords the world, I fear I may seem to have collected rather the praises of water than the reasons of baptism; although I should thereby teach all the more fully, that it is not to be doubted that God has made the material substance which He has disposed throughout all His products20    Rebus. and works, obey Him also in His own peculiar sacraments; that the material substance which governs terrestrial life acts as agent likewise in the celestial.

CAPUT 3. Huius memores pronuntiationis tanquam praescriptionis, nihilo minus quam stultum et impossibile sit aqua reformari tractamus. quod utique ista materia tantae dignationis meruit officium, ut opinor auctoritas liquidi elementi exigenda est. atquin plurima suppetit, et quidem a primordio. nam unum ex his est quae ante omnem mundi suggestum impolita adhuc specie penes deum quiescebant in principio. In primordio, inquit, fecit deus caelum et terram: terra autem erat invisibilis et incomposita, et tenebrae erant super abyssum, et spiritus dei ferebatur super aquas. habes, homo, imprimis aetatem venerari aquarum, quod antiqua substantia; dehinc dignationem, quod divini spiritus sedes, gratior scilicet ceteris tunc elementis. nam et tenebrae totae adhuc sine cultu siderum informes, et tristis abyssus et terra imparata et caelum rude : solus liquor, semper materia perfecta laeta simplex de suo pura, dignum vectaculum deo subiciebat. quid quod exinde dispositio mundi modulatricibus quodammodo aquis deo constitit? nam ut firmamentum caeleste suspenderet in medietate, distinctis aquis fecit; ut terram aridam expanderet, segregaris aquis expediit. ordinato dehinc per elementa mundo cum incolae darentur, primis aquis praeceptum est animas producere : primus liquor quod viveret edidit, ne mirum sit in baptismo si aquae animare noverunt. non enim ipsius quoque hominis figulandi opus sociantibus aquis absolutum est? adsumpta est de terra materia [convenit], non tamen habilis nisi humecta et sucida, quam scilicet ante quartum diem segregatae aquae in stationem suam superstite humore limo temperarant. si exinde universa vel plura prosequar quae de elementi istius auctoritate commemorem, quanta vis eius aut gratia, quot ingenia quot officia quantum instrumenti mundo ferat, vereor ne laudes aquae potius quam baptismi rationes videar congregasse: licet eo plenius docerem non esse dubitandum si materiam quam in omnibus rebus et operibus suis deus disposuit, etiam in sacramentis propriis parere fecit, si quae vitam terrenam gubernat etiam caelestia procura.