{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030498.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030498.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030498.htm","text":"Chapter XXIX.\u2014The Gradual Development of Cosmical Order Out of Chaos in the Creation, Beautifully Stated.\nGod, indeed, consummated all His works in a due order; at first He paled them out, 6399 as it were, in their unformed elements, and then He arranged them 6400 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\u2019s assuaging ray. 6401 The heaven He did not all at once bedeck 6402 with constellations and stars, nor did He at once fill the seas with their teeming monsters. 6403 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. 6404 For thus says Isaiah: \u201cHe created it not in vain; He formed it to be inhabited.\u201d 6405 Therefore after it was made, and while awaiting its perfect state, 6406 it was \u201cwithout form, and void:\u201d \u201cvoid\u201d 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); 6407 and \u201cwithout form,\u201d because it was still covered with waters, as if with the rampart of its fecundating moisture, 6408 by which is produced our flesh, in a form allied with its own. For to this purport does David say: 6409 \u201cThe earth is the Lord\u2019s, 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He hath founded it upon the seas, and on the streams hath He established it.\u201d 6410 It was when the waters were withdrawn into their hollow abysses that the dry land became conspicuous, 6411 which was hitherto covered with its watery envelope. Then it forthwith becomes \u201cvisible,\u201d 6412 God saying, \u201cLet the water be gathered together into one mass, 6413 and let the dry land appear.\u201d 6414 \u201cAppear,\u201d says He, not \u201cbe made.\u201d It had been already made, only in its invisible condition it was then waiting 6415 to appear. \u201cDry,\u201d because it was about to become such by its severance from the moisture, but yet \u201cland.\u201d \u201cAnd God called the dry land Earth,\u201d 6416 not Matter. And so, when it afterwards attains its perfection, it ceases to be accounted void, when God declares, \u201cLet 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.\u201d 6417 Again: \u201cLet the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, after their kind.\u201d 6418 Thus the divine Scripture accomplished its full order. For to that, which it had at first described as \u201cwithout form (invisible) and void,\u201d it gave both visibility and completion. Now no other Matter was \u201cwithout form (invisible) and void.\u201d p. 494 Henceforth, then, Matter will have to be visible and complete. So that I must 6419 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, 6420 but the Earth is here, confessed to my view. I see it, I enjoy it, ever since it ceased to be \u201cwithout form (invisible), and void.\u201d Concerning it most certainly did Isaiah speak when he said, \u201cThus saith the Lord that created the heavens, He was the God that formed the earth, and made it.\u201d 6421 The same earth for certain did He form, which He also made. Now how did He form 6422 it? Of course by saying, \u201cLet the dry land appear.\u201d 6423 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 formed 6424 by God, and that none other was \u201cWithout form, and void,\u201d than that which had been created and formed. It therefore follows that the sentence, \u201cNow the earth was without form, and void,\u201d applies to that same earth which God mentioned separately along with the heaven. 6425\nSolatio lun\u00e6: a beautiful expression!\n493:6402 493:6403 493:6404 493:6405 493:6406 493:6407 493:6408 493:6409\nCanit: \u201csing,\u201d as the Psalmist.\n493:6410 493:6411 493:6412\n\u201cVisibilis\u201d is here the opposite of the term \u201cinvisibilis,\u201d which Tertullian uses for the Scripture phrase \u201cwithout form.\u201d\n493:6413 493:6414 493:6415\nSustinebat: i.e. expectabat (Oehler).\n493:6416 493:6417 493:6418 494:6419 494:6420\nHe means, of course, the theoretic \u201cMatter\u201d of Hermogenes.\n494:6421 494:6422\nDemonstravit: \u201cmake it visible.\u201d Tertullian here all along makes form and visibility synonymous.\n494:6423 494:6424\nOstensam: \u201cmanifested\u201d (see note 10, p. 96.)\n494:6425\nCum c\u00e6lo separavit: Gen. i. 1.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part II: The Gr...","type":"page"}