The Contest of Wisdom with Folly

you have heard the sacred letters speaking for me. But let us proceed to the rest of his refutation. And let us see whether he does not immerse himself more deeply into the Sewer of ignorance (to use his own word) while he attempts to falsely accuse others.

Col. 712

By the name of earth I would have it understood as the whole mass of earth and water, over which darkness was borne, that is, privation.

Certainly here he errs greatly, for primary darkness cannot in any way be called privation, since before it there was no position or informed thing, but truly privation properly so-called is the removal of some preceding form.

Col. 714

If, however, anyone asks whether it can be affirmed without prejudice to the faith that God produced all bodies at once in some mass, which we call chaos, especially all the Elements, or even all the Stars, which were afterwards excited by the power of heat, separated and reduced to their own place, and whether the Sun produced herbs, plants, animals, and fishes by the power instilled in it by God? I answer that this indeed does not involve a contradiction, nor does it fight against the faith in such a way that it cannot be reduced to harmony, for it seems sufficient if the words of Holy Scripture retain their truth safe and sound. For God is rightly said to have produced all things on individual days, even if light and heat concurred to produce them, not only because He instilled into the light, heat, and the Sun all the power they have, but also because He preserves them, or produces them continuously, and concurs with them in every operation, and the supreme artificer uses them as instruments, not by necessity but by will.

It is most certain that this can be affirmed without prejudice to the faith, since (as was said before) the sacred letters testify that the hand of the omnipotent created the world from formless matter: if the world, then why not also its parts, such as are the elements and stars, and then afterwards, those things which are compounded from them, of the kind which are animals and plants; all of which are distinguished by the power, not of an uncreated Sun, but of the eternal Wisdom (as has been declared before) placing its throne in that created Sun, and divided from one another by an ineffable harmony.

Similarly, it is certain that the external and visible Sun produced plants, herbs, animals, and fishes by the power instilled in it by God, by the power (I say) instilled in it, that is, by means of His Word or the holy Spirit of Wisdom, which placed His tabernacle in the Sun. Is not this same thing indicated in the place cited above from the Prophet? God said these things, creating the heavens, extending them, establishing the earth, and the things that germinate from it, giving breath to the people, and Spirit to them that walk upon it. Whence it is clear that by His Spirit He made not only the heavens and what is in them, but also the earth and all things that move and live in it, both animals and vegetables.

Job 4

Job 33:4
Job 33:6

But where Marinus speaks of heat, Light, and the Sun, he could have added (if he were sufficiently versed in the mysteries of God and nature) the Sun central in the Sun, which is clothed with light as if with a garment. By a similar respect we do not say that the visible and external man acts wisely or prudently, since he is nothing else than a house of clay, but rather He who inhabits that clay house, in whose center remains the mind or divine Light. Whence Job says: Man inhabits a house of clay: And concerning this internal man he speaks thus elsewhere. There is a Spirit in man, but the inspiration of the omnipotent makes him understand. Thence arguing that the created human spirit is ruled and governed by the divine Spirit instilled into it, which indeed is to be understood as much of his vital as of his rational endowment. Whence elsewhere. The Spirit of God, strong, has made me, and the breath of the omnipotent has given me life: This also and the same is to be said concerning the visible Sun, namely that that visible thing in the Sun is not...