NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

On the Firmament.our opponents. They only seek to persuade by forced reasoning. With us truth presentsitself naked and without artifice. But why torment ourselves to refute the errors of philosophers,when it is sufficient to produce their mutually contradictory books, and, as quietspectators, to watch the war? 1511 For those thinkers are not less numerous, nor less celebrated,nor more sober in speech in fighting their adversaries, who say that the universe isbeing consumed by fire, and that from the seeds which remain in the ashes of the burntworld all is being brought to life again. Hence in the world there is destruction and palingenesisto infinity. 1512 All, equally far from the truth, find each on their side by-ways whichlead them to error.9. But as far as concerns the separation of the waters I am obliged to contest the opinionof certain writers in the Church 1513 who, under the shadow of high and sublime conceptions,have launched out into metaphor, and have only seen in the waters a figure to denote spiritualand incorporeal powers. In the higher regions, above the firmament, dwell the better;in the lower regions, earth and matter are the dwelling place of the malignant. So, say they,God is praised by the waters that are above the heaven, that is to say, by the good powers,the purity of whose soul makes them worthy to sing the praises of God. And the waterswhich are under the heaven represent the wicked spirits, who from their natural height havefallen into the abyss of evil. Turbulent, seditious, agitated by the tumultuous waves of passion,they have received the name of sea, because of the instability and the inconstancy of theirmovements. 1514 Let us reject these theories as dreams and old women’s tales. Let us understandthat by water water is meant; for the dividing of the waters by the firmament let usaccept the reason which has been given us. Although, however, waters above the heavenare invited to give glory to the Lord of the Universe, do not let us think of them as intelligentbeings; the heavens are not alive because they “declare the glory of God,” nor the firmamenta sensible being because it “sheweth His handiwork.” 1515 And if they tell you that theheavens mean contemplative powers, and the firmament active powers which produce good,we admire the theory as ingenious without being able to acknowledge the truth of it. For711511 The well known “Per campos instructa, tua sine parte pericli suave etiam belli certamina magna tueri”(Lucr. ii. 5) may be an echo of some Greek lines in the preacher’s mind, just as the preceding “suave mari magno”is of Menander.1512 These Stoical atheists did also agree with the generality of the other Stoical theists in supposing a successiveinfinity of worlds generated and corrupted” (ἀπειρία κόσμων) “by reason of intervening periodicalconflagrations.” Cudworth, I. iii. 23.1513 i.e. Origen.1514 cf. Jerome to Pammachius against John of Jerusalem, § 7 (in this edition vol. vi. p. 428) and Origen’sHomily on Genesis, preserved in the Translation of Rufinus.1515 Ps. xviii. 1.288