Three things are, indeed, needed to form a shadow: light, a body, a dark
place. The shadow of heaven forms the darkness of the world. Understand,
I pray you, what I mean, by a simple example--by raising for yourself at
midday a tent of some compact and impenetrable material, you shut
yourself up in sudden darkness. Suppose that original darkness was like
this, not subsisting directly by itself, but resulting from some
external causes. If it is said that it rested upon the deep, it is
because the extremity of air naturally touches the surface of bodies;
and as at that time the water covered everything, we are obliged to say
that darkness was upon the face of the deep.
"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters?" Does this
Spirit mean the diffusion of air? The sacred writer wishes to enumerate
to you the elements of the world, to tell you that God created the
heavens, the earth, water and air, and that the last was now diffused
and in motion; or rather, that which is truer and confirmed by the
authority of the ancients, by the Spirit of God he means the Holy
Spirit. It is, as has been remarked, the special name, the name above
all others that Scripture delights to give to the Holy Spirit, and by
the Spirit of God the Holy Spirit is meant, the Spirit, namely, which
completes the divine and blessed Trinity.
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