f all
good gifts, are signified by the word heaven, and, in fact, are so
signified, according to Augustine (De Serm. Dom. in Monte), in the
words, "Your reward is very great in heaven" (Matt. 5:12).
Again, three kinds of supernatural visions, bodily, imaginative, and
intellectual, are called sometimes so many heavens, in reference to
which Augustine (Gen. ad lit. xii) expounds Paul's rapture "to the
third heaven."
Reply Obj. 1: The earth stands in relation to the heaven as the
centre of a circle to its circumference. But as one center may have
many circumferences, so, though there is but one earth, there may be
many heavens.
Reply Obj. 2: The argument holds good as to the heaven, in so far as
it denotes the entire sum of corporeal creation, for in that sense it
is one.
Reply Obj. 3: All the heavens have in common sublimity and some
degree of luminosity, as appears from what has been said.
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QUESTION 69
ON THE WORK OF THE THIRD DAY
(In Two Articles)
We next consider the work of the third day. Under this head there are
two points of inquiry:
(1) About the gathering together of the waters.
(2) About the production of plants.
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FIRST ARTICLE [I, Q. 69, Art. 1]
Whether It Was Fitting That the Gathering Together of the Waters
Should Take Place, As Recorded, on the Third Day?
Objection 1: It would seem that it was not fitting that the gathering
together of the waters should take place on the third day. For what
was made on the first and second days is expressly said to have been
"made" in the words, "God said: Be light made," and "Let there be a
firmament made."But the third day is contradistinguished from the
first and the second days. Therefore the work of the third day
should have been described as a making not as a gathering together.
Obj. 2: Further, the earth hitherto had been completely covered by
the waters, wherefore it was described as "invisible" [* See Q. 66,
A. 1, Obj. 1]. There was then no place on the earth to which the
waters could be gathered together.
Obj. 3: Further, things which are not in continuous contact cannot
occupy one place. But not all the waters are in continuous contact,
and therefore all were not gathered together into one place.
Obj. 4: Further, a gathering together is a mode of local movement.
But the waters flow naturally, and take their course towards the sea.
In their case, therefore, a Divine precept of this
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