Chapter 066 - The Order of Variety in Creation

The first matter was not created without form, or under one general form, but under distinct forms. For such being would have no actuality; so that matter without form would be equivalent to actual being without actuality.

If the opinion of the ancients is to be followed, the first matter was a body - perhaps fire or air - in which case to make would only mean to alter, and the actuality of being would not depend upon form only; for supervening upon form there are accidents. Therefore Augustine says that matter precedes form by the order of nature, not by time; in the same manner as the potential is before the actual, or a part before the whole.

Other saints understand the words "without form," not as excluding all form, but only that finished beauty which bodies now present. Thus because light was wanting to diaphanous bodies they are described as "darkness on the face of the abyss," and the earth covered with water was called "void," because it could not be seen; "empty and unformed," because the ornament of plants and herbs was wanting.

Nor is one formless matter common to all bodies; for the matter of corruptible and incorruptible things is different. The matter of the celestial bodies, considered in itself, is in potentia to that form only which it has, and which so fully corresponds to the capacity of its nature as to leave it subject to no change except that of place. The contrary happens with regard to things composed out of the elements; hence they can only be compared by analogy, according to the conception of potentiality.

If the Empyreal Heavens were created along with corporeal matter a suitable reason may be deduced from the future State of Glory. For in the future reward a double glory is expected - one spiritual, the other corporeal; and the latter, not in the glorified human body only, but in a renovation of the whole world. Since, therefore, spiritual glory began from the commencement of the world in the Beatitude of the angels, equality with whom is promised to the saints, it was suitable that the principle of corporeal glory also should be inchoate in certain bodies, which should be from the beginning exempt from the servitude of corruption and change, and wholly luminous. This, it is expected, will be the condition of all corporeal bodies after the Resurrection; hence the Heavens are called Empyreal on account of splendour, not of heat.

It is generally held that the first four creations were, the Angels, the Empyreal Heavens, corporeal Matter, and Time; for Augustine holds that the angelic nature and corporeal matter had precedence according to the order of nature only, not by duration. If, however, formless matter preceded formation, it must also have preceded motion and time; so time could not be reckoned among the first creations.