The earth is one of the four elements, dry, cold, heavy, motionless, brought into being by God, out of nothing on the first day. For in the beginning, he said, God created the heaven and the earth Gen. i. 1.: but the seat and foundation of the earth no man has been able to declare. Some, indeed, hold that its seat is the waters: thus the divine David says, To Him Who established the earth on the waters Ps. cxxxvi. 6.. Others place it in the air. Again some other says, He Who hangeth the earth on nothing Job xxvi. 7.. And, again, David, the singer of God, says, as though the representative of God, I bear up the pillars of it Ps. lxxv. 3., meaning by “pillars” the force that sustains it. Further, the expression, He hath founded it upon the seas Ibid. xxiv. 2., shews clearly that the earth is on all hands surrounded with water. But whether we grant that it is established on itself, or on air or on water, or on nothing, we must not turn aside from reverent thought, but must admit that all things are sustained and preserved by the power of the Creator.