391 what hath been already said is sufficient for those who give heed; but to those who are pusillanimous it will be no gain, even though we were to add to what we have said. It is now time to direct our teaching to the exposition of the Scriptures. For as, if we had said nothing in reference to the present calamity, one might have condemned us for cruelty, and a want of humanity; so, were we always discoursing of this, we might justly be condemned for pusillanimity. Commending then your hearts to God, who is able to speak1338 into your minds, and to expel all grief from within, let us now take up our accustomed manner of in- struction; and that especially since every exposition of Scripture is matter of comfort and relief. So that, although we may seem to be desisting from the topic of consolation, we shall again light upon the same subject by means of Scriptural exposition. For that all Scripture furnishes consolation to those who give attention to it, I will make manifest to you from its own evidence.1339 For I shall not go about among the Scripture narratives to search out certain arguments consolatory; but in order that I may make the proof of the matter which I have undertaken plainer, we will take in hand the book which has to day been read to us; and bringing forward, if you will, the introduction and commencement of it, which may especially seem to present no trace of consolation, but to be altogether foreign to topics of comfort, I will make that which I affirm evident. 3. What then is this introduction? “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth, and the earth was invisible, and unformed,1340 and darkness was upon the face of the abyss.”1341 Do these words seem to some of you incapable of affording consolation under distress? Is it not an historical narrative, and an instruction about the creation? Would you then that I show the consolation that is hidden in this saying? Arouse yourselves then, and attend with earnestness to the things which are about to be spoken. For when thou hearest that God made the heaven, the earth, the sea, the air, the waters, the multitude of stars, the two great lights, the plants, the quadrupeds, the swimming and the flying animals, and all things without exception which thou seest, for thee, and for thy safety and honour; dost thou not straightway take comfort and receive this as the strongest proof of the love of God, when thou thinkest that He produced such a world as this, so fair, so vast and wonderful, for such a puny being as thyself! When therefore thou hearest that, “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth,” run not hastily over the declaration; 1338 See Isa. xl. 2, Heb. and LXX. 1339 αὐτόθεν. 1340 Or, unfurnished, E.V., without form, and void. This rendering came in with the Genevan Bible. All the previous translations had void, and empty. Perhaps by the term void, was meant just the same as the Septuagint ‡κατασκεύαστος. The word Bohu, which occurs Deut. xxxii. 10, and Ps. cvii. 40, is in both cases rendered a waste, or wilderness. See Dr. Buckland’s Bridgewater Treatise, c. 2, and notes. 1341 Gen. i. 12, LXX. 558 Homily VII