Water also is one of the four elements, the most beautiful of God’s creations. It is both wet and cold, heavy, and with a tendency to descend, and flows with great readiness. It is this the Holy Scripture has in view when it says, And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Gen. i. 2.. For the deep is nothing else than a huge quantity of water whose limit man cannot comprehend. In the beginning, indeed, the water lay all over the surface of the earth. And first God created the firmament to divide the water above the firmament from the water below the firmament. For in the midst of the sea of waters the firmament was established at the Master’s decree. And out of it God bade the firmament arise, and it arose. Now for what reason was it that God placed water above the firmament? It was because of the intense burning heat of the sun and ether See Basil, Hexaëm., Hom. 3.. For immediately under the firmament is spread out the ether Text, ὑφήπλωται. Variant, ἐφήπλωται., and the sun and moon and stars are in the firmament, and so if water had not been put above it the firmament would have been consumed by the heat Basil, Hom. 2 in Hexaëm.; Sever. Gabal., Orat. de opific. mundi..