element it is possible to find this admirable workmanship. For it is the nature of fire to tend upwards,1423 and to be always mounting aloft; and although you force and constrain it never so much, it cannot submit to have its course directed downwards. For often, when we are carrying a lighted torch, although we incline its head downwards, we cannot compel 404 the force of the flame to direct itself to the ground; but still it turns upward, and passes from below toward that which is above. But with respect to the sun, God hath made it quite the contrary. For He hath turned his beams toward the earth, and made his light to direct itself downward, all but saying to him by the very shape (of the heavens), “Look downward.—Shine upon men, for thou wert made for them!” The light, indeed, of a candle cannot be made to submit to this; but this star, great and marvellous as it is, bends downward, and looks toward the earth, which is contrary to the nature of fire; owing to the power of Him who hath commanded it. Wouldest thou have me speak of another thing of the like kind? Waters embrace the back of the visible heaven1424 on all parts; and yet they neither flow down, nor are moved out of their place, although the nature of water is not of this kind. For it easily runs together into what is concave; but when the body is of a convex form, it glides away on all sides; and not even a small portion1425 is capable of standing upon such a figure.1426 But, lo! this wonder is found to exist in the heavens; and the prophet, again, to intimate this very circumstance, observes, “Praise the Lord, ye waters that are above the heavens.”1427 Besides, the water hath not quenched the sun; nor hath the sun, which hath gone on his way beneath for so long a time, dried up the water that lies above. 9. Dost thou desire that we should lead thee down again to the earth, and point out the marvel? Seest thou not this sea abounding with waves, and fierce winds; yet this sea, spacious, and large, and furious as it is, is walled in with a feeble sand! Mark also the wisdom of God, He permitted it not to be at rest, nor tranquil, lest thou shouldest suppose its good order to 1423 See in Bacon’s Novum Organum, his Vindemiatio prima de forma calidi, L. II. Aph. 20, Diff. 2, he says, “the motion of heat is at once expansive, and a tendency upwards.” 1424 In accordance with the notions of his age, St. Chrysostom supposed that the firmament was something solid; and it seems to have been entirely a notion of modern times, that the visible heavens are formed of a subtle ether. Thus Homer terms them χ€λκεον οὐρανὸν, and χαλκοβατῆ δώματα; and sometimes σιδήρειον οὐρανόν. The notion of St. Chrysostom seems to have been similar. He supposes a solid spherical arch, which he terms the visible heaven, which divided the waters above from those below it. See Gen. i. 7. A similar idea seems to have prevailed among those who translated the Bible into English, from the use of the word firmament, which was however a mere copying of the Vulgate, and the Greek στερεωμα. It is remarkable that this idea is defended by Drusius in his Loca Difficiliora Pentateuchi, and in Sylvester’s translation of Du Bartas’s Weeks and Days. 1425 Sav. and M., of it. 1426 σχήματος. 1427 Ps. cxlviii. 4. 581 Homily IX